Comments on: Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Design

By: Greg (@berryaccess)

Greg (@berryaccess) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 23:01:50 +0000

Great article as not enough knowledge is in the public domain. Would you be interested in creating an effective Persona for a Dyslexia and/ Dyscalculia so web developers, and product developers in general, have more information than what is available currently? Would be much appreciated.

By: GirlFromM4rs

GirlFromM4rs — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:47:36 +0000

I’m pretty bad in remembering numbers, but other than that they are my friends and I never had problems with them. ;) However, I totally agree that long telephone numbers are way easier to read when they are split into smaller groups of figures. It also grates on my eyes when there are several phone numbers listed on a website and their formatting is absolutely inconsistent.
The login system of you bank is really confusing. For my bank it looks like this: http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/1970/ingdiba.png
I think it’s a bit user-friendlier. What do you think about it? I’m not sure about whether it helps that you have enter the PIN by clicking on the numbers on the screen which are arranged like those on a ATM. But the way it is presented which numbers you have to enter is quite useful, isn’t it?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:02:23 +0000

Oh wow, that was an interesting read. Especially after I had read the three bullet points at the top. It was then that I realised that those apply to me as well (to a certain extent).

I also do sometimes confuse left and right and even though I was for some part pretty good at maths back in school, I was always bad at mental arithmetic.
By the way as a native German speaker I often notice the 56/65 thing when I switch between German and English. Because in German we speak those numbers exactly the other way around, so 56 is “Sechsundfünfzig” which translates to “six and fifty”…

I could probably come up with a more examples of this kind but now I just want to say thanks so much for this post…

Greetings from Austria, Thomas

By: Adrian Roselli (aardvark)

Adrian Roselli (aardvark) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:58:47 +0000

This is a great post, one that I’ve already linked to off my blog. Hearing the perspective of someone who actually experiences these conditions *and* is a web developer is insightful. I’m hoping you post more about this.

By: Roseanne

Roseanne — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:55:09 +0000

Hey Sabrina,

As always a humourous take on a serious topic. A good approach for life in general I think.

But this dyscalculia is a new one on me. I always put my v. mild difficulties with left and right and analogue clock reading down to being taught them in Irish but not having it repeated at home. Mind you I can’t tell the time or give directions in any language ;)

I also have to think of the code number for each number in my PIN!

By: Katherine

Katherine — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:49:10 +0000

I have a wonderful Smeg oven/hob which brings me daily joy – there are 9 different options for the grill/oven, so the perfect one is always available. Normally a Smeg oven would be way out of my price range, but this was marked down below half price because the dials were printed incorrectly.

So, to turn on the oven, you put the dial to “grill with fan”. To grill with fan you turn to “warming oven. And so on. Nobody can work it except me. It was a steep learning curve.

On the Aer Lingus website – I’m sorry for your trouble, but …. YEAH, PRAGUE!!

By: Sabrina Dent

Sabrina Dent — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:32:17 +0000

@Matt and @Paul: I think your points about where interfaces like these spring from are right on the money.

@Martina: Interesting about the hob (a stove top, for anyone reading from the US.) I actually consider my gas hob to be WAY safer than the electric one we had previously because I struggle with lighting the correct one as well. The visiual cue of, you know, the fire at least means I’m not melting empty pots or turning on exposed rings with a pot holder resting on them anymore. But I have never understood why the knobs are 1 2 3 4 instead of 2 x 2 which surely makes more sense for *everyone.*

By: Martina

Martina — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:20:38 +0000

I agree with the Aer Lingus calendar. I took issue with it last time I was trying to book a daytrip to London. We just wanted the cheapest offer, so looked at multiple dates. I kept having to doublecheck that I wasn’t booking us a 5 day trip.

I wonder what percentage of the population would claim to have a mild dyslexic leaning. I myself don’t do left and right, as the many people who have been directed down to the local river rather than village could testify to. I also have great difficulty in lighting the correct gas hob on my cooker, and always have to study the pictures on the dials before lighting. I have the hob 5 yrs!

By: Paul Houlihan

Paul Houlihan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:19:14 +0000

AerLingus online booking on a whole is a bad experience. I went to Prague at the start of year and had to pay in the airport for my baggage. Because when it asked on the website if I wanted to check in EXTRA baggage, I assumed it ment on top of the normal 1 bag. But oh no, it meant Extra on top of no bags. I dont know how I made the mistake ;) These problems happen, when a site is built from the systems perspective rather than the Users perspectives. I bet when they are testing they only use one Persona > Dave is a System Architecture who would like to book a flight ….

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:05:30 +0000

I can understand your frustration. Whilst I don’t suffer from dyslexia (aside from the very mild dyslexia many people have), the majority of bank logins and calendar booking systems are most definately poorly designed.

Quite often, the well-meaning reason is to reduce click throughs. Unfortunately, this becomes a rule applied to everything and in many cases actually destroys usability, as opposed to enhancing it.

You end up with a terribly complicated page, as opposed to two or three pages which are easy to digest.