Apple and ADHD: When Simplicity Becomes Appealing

Claim

Apple, even sometimes without wanting to, ends up being a reliable option for customers with ADHD. Thus, the ecosystem inadvertently acts as an external exceutive fuctioning aid.

Argument

As a recently diagnosed ADHD and future researcher/data scientist/analys/historian, I have been exploring the world with different eyes ever since. That includes the tech world, and thus, the tools and devices I use and work with every day. I switched to a MacBook Pro and an iPhone this year, after having an iPad for seven years. Something I have noticed

Apple’s approach to ADHD customers involves several key factors I will stduy in this article.

The first factor is the presence of fewer options. ADHD patients often struggle making decisions, especially in cases where such a decision is relevant for their daily life (e.g, school, work) or there are many choices, a phenomenon called decision paralysis (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000). Unlike having a huge selection that can end up being actually demotivating for the user, Apple opts for a limited product lineaup in which options are more limited, yet cleary differentiated and oriented to different profiles.

In other platforms, this is not usually the case. In the market, Windows Laptops are abundant, and so are the options. There are hundreds of choices, especially regarding brands, graphic cards (integrated or dedicated), processors, ports… For a person with executive dysfunction and cognitive load during problem solving and decision making, it is often overwhelming to choose, as the process of exploring decisions is exhaustive, time-consuming, leading to the aforementioned decision overload.

While brands commercializing Windows devices , Apple just limits the user’s choice to a handful of variables, usually just unified memory (RAM),oo storage, and color.

Another point to keep in mind is customer service and support. Apple is often praised for the AppleCare+ program, while other brands except perhaps Samsung do not usually offer such a program.

1) Define what you mean by “… (claim)”.
2) Explain the mechanism.
3) Give one concrete illustration .

Sources