AuDHD
AuDHD is the term for neurodivergent folk who have the dual blessing of having ADHD and autism. That does not however, mean that one size fits all and we are all the same. It’s not even a single spectrum. It’s more of a 3D planetary model with black holes and swirling vortexes. But I digress (that’ll be the ADHD.) Each condition has various traits, but the mixture varies from person to person.
ADHD has 3 subtypes, inattentive, hyperactive-impulsive and combined. One of the more well-known traits is that people with ADHD love spontaneity and variety. Personally, I thrive on chaos. I can think on my feet and pivot at a minute’s notice; but the autistic part of me hates moving goalposts, shifting sands and ambiguity. So, how does that even work?
For me, I need to structure my work and have clear goals, but have the flexibility to work around the needs of my ADHD brain. Some people have described ADHD as a superpower, which I do struggle with. Yes, I can hyperfocus and get things done very quickly sometimes, but I don’t get to choose when those times are. I’m not a Power Ranger. I also get distracted easily. I can be mid-flow but if something takes my attention away from what I’m doing, I totally forget what it was. I’ve actually been known to forget what I was saying as I was saying it. I know, it’s impressive.
It’s the autistic part of me that needs clarity and structure. If you don’t tell me something, I don’t know. I will help anyone who asks, to the best of my abilities, but I won’t read between lines or make assumptions about things that are ambiguous. I can’t answer a question if it’s badly worded or missing context; whereas some people seem to understand what’s being inferred, but not explicitly stated.
I find the prospect of being misunderstood or misconstrued quite upsetting, because I blame myself if someone doesn’t understand me. I mustn’t be explaining myself very well. So I have practiced and practiced making complex things simple to understand. That’s where Content Design comes in.
Content Design
Ultimately, I want to help people. Some of the things I’m most proud of have happened because I wanted to make life easier for other people.
I have a customer service background. I did it for a long time and I was actually really good at it. Sometimes people assume that if you’re autistic you have no awareness of other people’s feelings, but a lot of people who are on the spectrum are hyper-aware of the emotions of others. Autism is often misdiagnosed as anxiety, especially in women. Being aware of other people and how they might behave is a survival instinct.
Content Design is about getting the right information to the right people, in the right place, at the right time in the right format. We also have a responsibility to make sure that content is accessible to approximately 20% of the population who have disabilities and access needs.
The basic principles are:
design content for the user, not the service
use plain language
use evidence to make decisions
base your content on user needs
do less, simplify
Hopefully you can see how that would appeal to someone who values clarity, simplicity and structure. The curse of content designers is that sometimes we make things so simple that people think we’re doing nothing.
Feedback
Content Design is a team sport. We draft our work, then offer it to our peers to critique. Learning to value feedback was one of the biggest challenges for me, but now I welcome it. Constructive feedback makes your content better for the people who really matter, the users. For example, I’d drafted an article that I thought covered the topic I was writing about, but feedback from my peers added to it. Other designers were working on something I couldn’t have known about, but sharing my work with them helped to link it to other places, which improved the overall user experience.
I have also learnt to value feedback on how others experience working with me. As someone who is neurodivergent, I never know how I’m coming across to other people, so now I ask.
The impact of my behaviour on others
Sometimes I say that I only learn things the hard way. I’m a kinaesthetic learner. I learn by doing, rather than being told what will happen if I do things.
I pretty much always have good intentions. As I said before, I feel the need to help people, because I know what it’s like to struggle. Protecting others from confusion, stress or anxiety is a powerful motivator for me.
I try to come across as professional and friendly, but sometimes that hasn’t been the case, which has absolutely mortified me. Mainly because nobody told me at the time. It turns out that not everyone values honesty as much as I do. Sometimes you’re just supposed to listen and keep your opinions to yourself. Unfortunately, that’s really hard to do with ADHD. If you have something to say, you need to say it when you think about it or you’ll probably forget. So now I write everything down when I can, but sometimes I still forget what I was going to write before I can find a pen.
I am a passionate advocate for Content Design, but what I’ve had to realise is that just because I know it’s the right thing to do, it doesn’t mean that everyone wants to hear it. So these days I try to think more about the way I phrase things. People don’t like being questioned, so I’ll very often say “Just to clarify my own understanding…” or “Have I understood that correctly?” Which certainly comes across better than “What on earth are you talking about?”
The best advice I got on how to advocate for Content Design was ‘tell them why they need you.’ So here it is, as simply as I can: Content Design helps the user to do what the business needs them to do.
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