Best advice for a dyslexic designer

Today, I want to write about the best advice I've ever received as a dyslexic designer. It's a piece of wisdom that has helped me navigate tech landscape over the last decade. My secret weapon: creating templates for just about every design or research-related task I encounter.

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Let's rewind a bit. I've always been passionate about design, but my dyslexia presented some unique challenges. Processing text was often a struggle, I spend time reading a piece of documentation 4 times before it registers. And staring at a blank screen to break things out takes a hell of a lot of processing time! But as they say, "necessity is the mother of invention," and a fellow dyslexic designer who witnessed my struggles as a junior showed me the benefits of templating.

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Instead of starting each project from scratch, I began to develop templates for various design and research-related tasks. From conducting user research, presenting to the wider team, running sprints, strategy documents or even XDR reviews, having a blueprint in place made everything more manageable. These templates serve as the scaffolding for my work, providing a clear structure and guidelines to follow - of course chopping and changing based on whats needed but skeleton is there to support. This not only speeds up the design process but also ensures consistency across my work.

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But perhaps the most significant benefit of using templates as a dyslexic designer is the reduction of cognitive load. Instead of wrestling with the details of formatting or structuring a project, I can focus.

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Being a neurodivergent or not, creating your own toolbox of blueprints that can streamline your work and boost your creative output. Happy designing!

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