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FOCUS HERE





The Challenge

Almost 50% of marriages in the United States end in divorce. Factoring an ADHD diagnosis into the equation, the likelihood of divorce doubles.

The Solution

Focus Here is a guide to the complex dynamics of adult, ADHD-impacted relationships. Designed to retain the attention of those with wandering minds, spreads address the ADHD partner, the neurotypical partner, or both partners. The book provides readers with insight into their partner’s perspective while simultaneously teaching them techniques to navigate the complexities that ADHD brings to a relationship.





Research Methodology

This project followed a four stage research process.

Stage 1: Discover

User Survey
Stakeholder Interviews
Expert Interview
Reading Comprehension Studies
Stage 2: Explore

Design Criteria
Personas
Customer Journey Map
Prototyping
Stage 3: Test

User Testing
Prototyping
Stage 4: Listen

Final Product
Takeaways




Project Goals
Goal 1:

Build empathy between ADHD adults and their neurotypical partners.
Goal 2:

Keep ADHD readers engaged with the content.




STAGE 1

Discover








User Survey 

A survey of 18 neurotypical partners of ADHD individuals was conducted, asking the user to identify traits or behaviors they see in their ADHD partner frequently. A list of 31 behaviors associated with ADHD were provided to the user.

Survey Objectives

  • How do neurotypical partners of ADHD adults define ADHD?
  • How do neurotypical partners of ADHD adults see ADHD manifest in their partners?
  • How do neurotypical partners of ADHD adults see their partner’s ADHD affecting their relationships? 




User Interviews

To gain more insight into the audience, 3 couples were interviewed. Individuals were interviewed separately.

Expert Interview

To gain more insight into the audience, Dr. Karacostas M.D., Ph.D. was interviewed about adults with ADHD. Insights were drawn from both expert and user interviews.

Interview Objectives 

  • Have the ADHD read literature about ADHD and relationships before?
  • Where is the lack of understanding between ADHD and neurotypical partners?





Reading Comprehension Study 1

Audience members with ADHD were given a passage and asked to mark the spot where their attention began to stray.

Reading Comprehension Study 2

Next, users were shown different amounts of text per page and asked if it overwhelmed them/deterred them from reading the provided content.






STAGE 2

Explore







Design Criteria

Based on insights from stage 2, three design criteria were decided upon.
Criteria 1


This project must build empathy between ADHD adults and their neurotypical partners.

Criteria 2

This project must be formatted in a way that captures and retains the attention of ADHD individuals. 
Criteria 3

This project must demonstrate the skills and design acquired during the 5-year design program. 




Personas

Personas are designed to reflect couples interviewed as well as the results of the initial survey. 




User Journey Map

Follow a day in the life of a target user.




Prototyping

Initial layout explorations.






STAGE 3

Test







A/B Testing

ADHD users are given five layouts with different methods of differentiating paragraphs, and then asked which they would be most interested in reading.




Layout Iterations

Layout iterations that reflect the results of A/B testing.




Layout Iterations

Further layout iterations.  






STAGE 4

Listen








Final Design













Introduction

Book introduction spreads.






Chapter 1

Full Chapter 1 spreads.





Chapter 2

Full Chapter 2 spreads.




Chapter 3

Full Chapter 3 spreads.





Chapter 4

Full Chapter 4 spreads.





Reflection

Upon completing this project and receiving feedback from users, I reflect on my process and what I would do differently.
 

Given the time constraints of this project, I would focus more of my time on Phase 3 (user testing) and less time on Phase 2 (personas and the customer journey map). I would also implement A/B testing more frequently while designing iterations.