15 AUTISTIC PATIENTS AND DIGITAL ART CREATION: BROCHURE DESIGN AND USABILITY EVALUATION BASED ON MIDJOURNEY
Authors: Mao* Shengyu 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication skills. These patients face significant challenges in emotional expression and creativity, and artistic creation has been shown to help improve their emotional cognition and social skills. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, digital art creation has ushered in innovation. MidJourney, as an intelligent painting technology, is gradually being applied in rehabilitation therapy for special groups. The research aims to explore how to use MidJourney to support autistic patients in designing and creating picture books, and evaluate its effectiveness and feasibility in emotional expression, cognitive development, and creativity stimulation.

Methods
The subjects of the study were 20 individuals with autism aged between 8 and 16 years old, all of whom had received basic art training. During the experiment, the subjects were randomly divided into two groups, including a control group and an experimental group, with 10 patients in each group. The creative tool used by the experimental group is MidJourney. Participants will generate corresponding artworks by describing their emotions or situations, and incorporate them into their personal brochure design. The control group used traditional painting tools for creation, including watercolor and colored lead. Score the creative participation and emotional expression of all participants before and after the experiment. After the experiment, patients rated their satisfaction with their respective brochures.

Results
The data statistics show that the creative participation of the experimental group increased from 2.7 points to 4.6 points, while the control group increased from 2.6 points to 3.4 points. The scores of both groups before and after the experiment showed statistical differences (P&lt;0.05). At the same time, the experimental group showed a significant improvement in emotional expression scores, rising from a baseline of 2.5 points to 4.5 points, while the control group only increased from 2.4 points to 3.2 points. In the inter group comparison, there was a statistically significant difference (P&lt;0.05) in the creative participation and emotional expression scores between the two groups of patients after the experiment. In addition, the creative satisfaction score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group, with a score of 4.7 in the experimental group and 3.6 in the control group, indicating a statistically significant difference between the two groups (P&lt;0.05). From this, it can be concluded that the brochure design scheme based on MidJourney has strong usability.

Discussion
The study explores the effectiveness of MidJourney in designing and creating art albums for individuals with autism, and concludes that MidJourney art creation can significantly improve the participation, emotional expression, and creative satisfaction of individuals with autism in the creative process. MidJourney plays a positive role in promoting emotional cognition, creativity development, and social skills improvement in patients with autism, providing them with a good emotional counseling pathway and expression method, and has strong usability. In the future, we can further explore the intervention effects of MidJourney in other psychological disorders.