“Seen it, enjoyed it, bye!”: Using and interacting on the Instagram platform from the perspective of autistic users

Despite the growing interest for autistic users within the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the research is mostly limited to assistive technology and often neglects autistic users' own perspectives. Exploring autistic users’ experiences of different mainstream technologies that they use may give valuable knowledge. Using Instagram as a case for a qualitative study with 30 autistic adults, this paper contributes with such knowledge and in the process, it challenges preconceptions about autism that are common in HCI-research. Data from interviews and a survey (N=30) is analysed in the context of previous research and design concepts, discussing the implications for design and future research. Findings show that autistic users' needs are often similar to those of users in general, but may be more pronounced, and that if design recommendations are to be useful, researchers need to take the diversity within the autistic population into account more than is currently done