What Can We Learn from Autistic People About Cognitive Abilities Essential to Design? An Exploratory Study

This paper proposes to contribute to our understanding of the fundamental cognitive processes essential to design by exploring the experiences of people who have different information processing behaviors to those found in most people. In particular, we focus on people with autism spectrum conditions (ASC), because they are known to have information processing behaviors that are both maladaptive and exceptional. Central to our exploratory study is the question: what can we learn from people with ASC about cognitive processes essential to design? The scholarship on cognitive behaviors associated with the autism spectrum and narratives on the experiences with design of individuals with ASC are discussed in relation cognitive processes associated with design. We conclude that the weak central coherence theory of autism provides a useful prediction of the cognitive processes necessary for expertise in design practice.