Project Overview
Most of our classrooms are designed in a generic and not user-centered way. This results in cognitive constraints when it comes to absorbing and processing content during lectures. It has both physical and mental implications in the classroom environment that puts a roadblock on their learning experience.
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Our team was tasked with finding a design solution that’d accommodate students with ADHD, and that extends to students with culturally diverse backgrounds who’ve lived with undetected ADHD symptoms. The design should demonstrate a seamless experience without any direct reference to the disability.
Discover
Cultural Dimensions
During the research stage I learned that international students from India may experience some degree of dissonance with the level of attention and awareness ADHD receives in the Western culture, because in India, although ADHD is recognized, the school system tends to have much lower levels of awareness of this trend due to poor access to accurate diagnostics.
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Classmates' Feedback
During the desk research, we received some valuable insight from our classmates about further enhancing classroom accessibility by considering visual and hearing constraints that might accompany students' ADHD condition. Based on the feedback from outside peers, we've started thinking further about enhancing the classroom design.
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Sound Effects
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Online research and some personal exposure to binaural beats showed how the correct vibration in the background can positively impact cognitive abilities and improve learning performance.
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Define
The obstacles that students must face and overcome on all three levels: physical, visual, and audio, take the energy and effort away from the learning experience.
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Our team needs to determine the following:
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In which way the classroom dimensions could be redesigned to enhance the learning capacity?
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What elements and assistive tools could be added to the classroom to complement this design?​
Develop
When working on the early design drawings, I took into consideration:
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the distance between students and the instruction area,
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the passing pathways,
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clarity of view that must be free of obstruction,
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and the acoustics of the room.
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Deliver
Personal Contributions to the Final Design Version:
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Proposed to change the direction of students’ desks to face the narrower side of the rectangular classroom, where the instruction board will be positioned.
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This way there won’t be physical constraints for students who sit on the left and right sides of the classroom, when they, otherwise, must turn their heads almost 90 degrees towards the instruction board, causing muscle strain in their necks.
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It’d also prevent a visual strain because they will look at the board right in front of them, rather than somewhere on the far left or right.
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to change the classroom direction to a narrower side facing, to mitigate neck and eye constraints when seated on the rightmost or leftmost sides of a classroom.
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to accommodate 1-person and 2-person desk options, their positioning, and distance from three different paths to create spatial safety and autonomy.
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to position the lecturer’s power spots in three classroom locations to ensure eye contact and efficient interaction with the audience that prevents excessive movements or volume interferences.
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to design a gentle descent of a classroom floor to ensure visual accessibility to the lecture area.
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to install a simple audio system that could play binaural beats in the background to stimulate Alpha brainwaves
Key Takeaways
All the tools and design elements discussed strengthen the power of concentration and improve the overall learning experience in a classroom. Because these decisions were based on different human aspects, such as interaction with physical space, as well as the cognitive perception of events and information that is processed in that physical space, the benefit of it is shared with other students who aren’t necessarily included on the ADHD spectrum, or who are included, but due to cultural stigma are not comfortable recognizing or admitting it openly.
The value of these design decisions lies in a simple principle of inclusivity: if someone on the ADHD spectrum could benefit from it, then sure enough, the others will enjoy and reap the benefits of it as well.
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In this collaborative project, I discovered and recognized how efficiently one physical space could be used, if designed with accessibility in mind, backed with user insights and cross-cultural research.