The Stimpunks Pattern Atlas maps the recurring structures of neurodivergent life and shows how they connect to one another.
Patterns do not stand alone. They form clusters. Some patterns describe how attention works. Others describe regulation, participation, and environmental fit. Together they form a design language for understanding neurodivergent life and redesigning environments.
These patterns appear across people, environments, and institutions. They describe how attention, sensory systems, energy, social interaction, and environments interact to shape lived experience.
Together they form a pattern language — a shared vocabulary for understanding neurodivergent experience and redesigning environments so people can thrive.
Patterns are not diagnoses.
They are structures that repeat across situations.
Once patterns become visible, environments can be designed differently.
Atlas Overview
ATTENTION How minds focus and process REGULATION How environments affect energy and overload PARTICIPATION How social systems affect access and belonging ENVIRONMENT How spaces shape behavior SYSTEMS How institutions create barriers or support thriving
Attention Patterns
- Pattern 01 — Monotropism
- Pattern 02 — Spiky Profiles
- Pattern 04 — Processing Time
- Pattern 05 — Deep Attention
- Pattern 13 — Context Switching Cost
- Pattern 55 — Task Initiation
These patterns describe how attention flows, deepens, fragments, and resets.
Regulation Patterns
- Pattern 03 — Sensory Load
- Pattern 07 — Regulation First
- Pattern 10 — Energy Accounting
- Pattern 11 — Burnout Threshold
- Pattern 18 — Sensory Thresholds
- Pattern 20 — Sensory Filtering
- Pattern 24 — Recovery Cycles
These patterns explain overload, capacity, rest, and recovery.
Participation Patterns
- Pattern 06 — Social Energy
- Pattern 08 — Masking Pressure
- Pattern 09 — Environment Fit
- Pattern 27 — Interaction Access
- Pattern 30 — Communication Bandwidth
- Pattern 34 — Collaboration Gradients
- Pattern 56 — Asynchronous Access
These patterns explain the energy and negotiation required to participate in environments designed for different minds.
Environment Patterns
- Pattern 17 — Attention Ecology
- Pattern 21 — Sensory Safe Zones
- Pattern 35 — Predictable Structure
- Pattern 37 — Sensory Gradients
- Pattern 38 — Attention Sanctuaries
These patterns describe how environments can be redesigned to support attention and regulation.
The Stimpunks Pattern Language
The Stimpunks pattern language maps recurring structures in neurodivergent life. Each pattern explains a situation, the forces shaping it, and how environments can be redesigned in response.
SYSTEM PATTERNS (institutions & power) ↑ ENVIRONMENT PATTERNS (spaces & structures) ↑ INTERACTION PATTERNS (communication & participation) ↑ ENERGY PATTERNS (burnout & recovery) ↑ REGULATION PATTERNS (nervous system & sensory) ↑ ATTENTION PATTERNS (cognitive architecture)
Together these patterns form a design language for understanding neurodivergent experiences and building environments that support them.
Pattern Routes
Sensory Overload ↓ Sensory Load ↓ Regulation First ↓ Preventing Autistic Burnout ↓ Neurodivergent Workplaces
Deep Attention ↓ Monotropism ↓ Processing Time ↓ Designing a Neurodivergent Classroom ↓ Neurodivergent Classrooms
Social Exhaustion ↓ Social Energy ↓ Interaction Access ↓ Designing Inclusive Meetings ↓ Inclusive Meetings
Pattern routes show how experiences, patterns, recipes, and environments connect.
The Core Pattern Map
These twelve patterns form the current backbone of the Stimpunks pattern language. They show how attention, sensory life, environment, social demand, burnout, and recovery connect.
Attention
- Pattern 01 — Monotropism
- Pattern 02 — Spiky Profiles
- Pattern 04 — Processing Time
- Pattern 05 — Deep Attention
These patterns describe how neurodivergent cognition organizes focus, depth, and time.
Sensory & Regulation
These patterns describe how environments affect nervous systems and regulation.
Attention + sensory realities shape whether environments fit.
Environment Bridge
Environment Fit connects cognition and regulation to the spaces people inhabit. It is the hinge pattern between internal realities and external design.
When environments do not fit, social and energy demands rise.
Social & Masking
These patterns describe the cost of participation in environments shaped by narrow social expectations.
Energy
Energy Accounting describes how social, sensory, and cognitive demands accumulate over time.
When demands accumulate faster than recovery, burnout becomes likely.
Burnout
Burnout Threshold marks the point where demands exceed sustainable capacity.
Recovery
Energy Recovery describes the conditions needed to restore capacity and support sustainable participation.
Reading the Map
- Attention patterns explain how neurodivergent minds focus and process.
- Sensory and regulation patterns explain how environments affect nervous systems.
- Environment Fit connects internal realities to external spaces.
- Social and energy patterns explain how participation becomes costly.
- Burnout and recovery patterns describe the consequences of sustained friction and the path back from it.
Explore the full system through the Pattern Library, the Pattern Atlas, and the Pattern Graph.
How the Patterns Connect
Patterns rarely appear alone.
They interact.
For example:
Monotropism+Sensory Load+Social Energy=Burnout
Or:
Environment Fit+Regulation First+Processing Time=Sustainable Participation
Understanding these relationships allows people to move from recognizing problems to redesigning environments.
Explore the Pattern System
- A Pattern Language for Neurodivergent Life
- Core Patterns of Neurodivergent Life
- Pattern Library
- The Pattern Graph
- Pattern Recipes
- Designing Neurodivergent Environments
- The Stimpunks Design Method
The Pattern Atlas turns isolated pages into a navigable design language.
A Living Pattern Language
The Pattern Atlas is intentionally unfinished.
New patterns emerge from:
- lived experience
- collaborative design
- community knowledge
- experiments in environments like Cavendish Space.
Over time the atlas becomes a shared map for understanding neurodivergent life and designing environments where different minds can flourish.