How can you make visual design more inclusive for people with mood disorders?

1 Understand the challenges

To make visual design more inclusive for people with mood disorders, it's important to understand the challenges they may face when engaging with visual content. For instance, sensitivity to brightness, contrast, and color can be affected by mood state and preferences can vary greatly. Additionally, difficulty with focus, memory, and comprehension can be exacerbated by complex or cluttered designs. Moreover, people with mood disorders may be vulnerable to emotional triggers from visual stimuli that evoke positive or negative emotions. For example, some may feel anxious when seeing images of violence or conflict while others may feel happy when seeing images of nature or joy. It is essential to take these potential challenges into account when creating visual designs that are accessible for all.

2 Apply accessibility guidelines

The second step to make visual design more inclusive for people with mood disorders is to apply accessibility guidelines that can help you create more usable and user-friendly content. To ensure accessibility, you should use sufficient color contrast that meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards and use online tools, such as WebAIM's Contrast Checker, to test and adjust your color contrast. Additionally, use clear and legible typography that follows the best practices of web design, such as using fonts that are easy to read, font sizes that are large enough, font weights and styles that are appropriate for the context, adequate line spacing, alignment, and margins. Furthermore, use simple and consistent navigation that follows the principles of user interface design, such as using clear and descriptive labels for your navigation elements; recognizable and intuitive icons or symbols; logical and predictable structures and sequences; visible and accessible cues; and responsive and adaptive design techniques. By following these guidelines, you can ensure your design is accessible for people with mood disorders.

3 Incorporate emotional design

The third step to make visual design more inclusive for people with mood disorders is to incorporate emotional design, which is the practice of designing with the intention of evoking or influencing the emotions of your users. To achieve this, you should use positive and relevant imagery that can elicit or enhance the emotions of your users, such as happiness, curiosity, or inspiration. It is also important to consider the diversity and inclusivity of your imagery, and ensure that it represents and respects the identities and experiences of your users. Additionally, you should use appropriate and consistent color schemes that can convey or complement the tone and mood of your content. You should also use expressive and friendly typography that can reflect or reinforce the personality and voice of your content. It is essential to consider the emotional impact and meaning of your typography, and ensure that it is clear and appropriate for your message and purpose. Emotional design can help create more engaging visual content that can support the well-being and goals of your users.

4 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?