I recently saw an app that lets children who cannot speak communicate. The BBC showed video footage of a girl with autism being able to “speak” and communicate through an app which was demonstrated on a special user interface. She could communicate some of the things she wanted, as well as simple sentences through the app. I know that this kind of app might take a long time to develop and require a lot of usability testing, but I think online wireframe tools could help make the designing and optimization phase faster.
What are online wireframe tools?
Online wireframe tools are basically software which enable you to design wireframes (also called mockups) for websites or applications. These wireframes are visualizations of what the website or app will look like after development. The nice thing about the online wireframe tools is that they usually allow you to simulate your wireframe and even click through it (“clickable-wireframes”). Some online wireframe tools also allow you to conduct usability testing on the wireframes created with the online wireframe tool. This would be very helpful when designing apps for children with special needs. You could theoretically place a computer with a clickable-wireframe loaded on the screen in front of a child who meets your pre-defined target group, and then see how he or she interacts with it. This is bound to give you some ideas and you can then revise the wireframe design with the online wireframe tool.
Use online wireframe tools to your advantage
Although there may be a lot of time invested in designing an app for special needs kids, online wireframing tools may help reduce this time and make it easier for designers to get their ideas to the programming team sooner. The online wireframe tool could even perhaps be used to help optimize the user interface design through simulation and usability testing.
