In recent years, human-computer interaction principles have dramatically expanded in terms of the design and creation of interactive environments for those affected by autism. Due to the state of autistic children, the innovation in technology designed specifically for children with autism, an effort has been made to consider the added importance of this technology in their everyday lives. The user interface plays an important role in terms of visibility, design and accuracy in the representation of the exact amount of content displayed to the intended users. It is thus crucial to develop a good interface design that helps in the learning process, reduces the complexity of the application and increases the user�s satisfaction. This involves investigating the multimedia elements of a good interface, specifically the colour, text and images, in the design of a mobile application interface autistic children. This study aims to analyse the multimedia elements criteria based on the proxy user perspective using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. A total of 38 proxy users who were known as caretakers or parents have been given a questionnaire through an online survey. The questionnaires consist of questions on the multimedia elements used in designing a mobile application for autistic children. It is shown that image and colour were the main requirements for multimedia elements, while image size was the big priority for multimedia elements for the designing user interface of mobile application for children with autism. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.