One of the aspects of designing a tool for neurodivergent humans and their brains is, well, understanding the need to be critical of defaults and “best practices.” In my current context, I’m working through an onboarding process of a software-as-a-service—SaaS—productivity tool.

There’s a plethora of ways that can take shape.

Specifically, discussions have been around how to balance opposing approaches to processing information across a diverse set of neurotypes.

Thinking, fast and slow

I read this book by Daniel Kahneman back in 2016, before discovering that I think differently than the “normal majority.” It was a time I was unconsciously searching for better understanding of how people think.

Briefly, the book Thinking, Fast and Slow explores the two systems that drive the way we think:

System 1: Thinking Fast

• Characteristics: intuitive, automatic, effortless, associative

• Examples: recognizing familiar faces, completing simple math, reacting to sudden sounds

• Role: handles most everyday tasks and decisions, often relying on intuition and biases

System 2: Thinking Slow

• Characteristics: Deliberate, effortful, controlled, logical

• Examples: solving complex math problems, making strategic decisions, learning new skills.

• Role: takes over when System 1 is overwhelmed or encounters unfamiliar situations.

Thinking, top-down and bottom-up

Differently wired brains think differently, who knew!? </sarcasm>

There are significant differences in how information is processed, across the spectrum—autistic, adhd, dyslexic, dyscalculic, dysgraphic, dyspraxic, etc. One of those impactful divergences is how someone processes information.

Erika Sanborne, founder of Autistic PhD, wrote about her own experiences of this processing difference in much greater and better detail than I in hter post What is bottom-up thinking in autism?

In it she oversimplifies—her words—the differentiation:

Top-down thinking

• “I create the big picture first, and then fill in the detail as I go.”

• Linear thought process

• Deductive approach

Bottom-up thinking

• “I collect information and detail I believe to be related, and then later sort it into a meaningful big picture;”

• Associative thought process

• Inductive approach

Thinking, prepositionally

These prepositionally defined thinking models do share some interesting commonalities from very different paths to get there.

Top-down is thinking fast, common for allistics and predominately how onboarding processes tend to be designed and created: here’s the gist, now go with it.

Bottom-up is thinking slow, common for neurodivergents and a perspective that general tools for the general public typically don’t account for.

Onboarding orchestration

These are the questions I’ve asked myself and have discussed with the team quite a bit:

• How do we accelerate time-to-value, TTV, while creating an onboarding flow that’s inclusive of these very different ends of the processing spectrum?

• Onboarding flows are assumptively linear, but how should it adapt for non-linear thinkers?

• What could we build that is inclusive of this prepositional thinking?

Fun questions.

Fun project.

Fun work.