A UX & Accessible Design Primer
Accessibility means how well a design maximises equal access to digital interfaces for everyone in society
Intro
User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services and its products
UX Design
UX design is a human-centred design approach that is entirely built around the journey a person takes from first engagement with the company or product, to the point at which they end engagement.
It involves market research, usability tests and user feedback analysis to try to streamline the user’s journey and make it as seamless and pleasant as possible. UX design is not limited to the digital domain.
8 Golden Rules for UI Design
Strive for consistency
Don’t confuse users. Use identical terminology, consistent colour, layout, capitalisation and fonts.
Seek universal usability
Recognise the needs of diverse users from novice to expert, people with disabilities, and people of any cultural background.
Offer informative feedback
For every user action, there should be an interface feedback. The user should know where they are in a process and what is going on at all times.
Design dialogues to yield closure
Organise sequences of actions into groups with a beginning, middle and end in order to give users a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. More importantly, tell users what their action has led them to.
Prevent errors
Users should not be able to make serious mistakes and any small mistakes should be isolated and fixable.
Permit easy reversal of actions
The user should be able to undo any action that they take.
Keep users in control
Users should be able to rely on the interface to respond to their commands in a predictable way, without any surprises or variations in behaviour.
Reduce short term memory load
Users should not need to remember information as they traverse displays.
Interface
The way a computer program presents information to a user or receives information from a user, in particular the layout of the screen and menus.
User interfaces connect people to technologies, by finding ways to allow users to control complex processes.
Eg. Driving a car
Good interface, bad interface
We’ve all struggled to fill in an online form, such as a visa application or an online accounts system, incorrectly completing a process by clicking on the wrong box. The extent to which these things are difficult for us to do is precisely linked to the ways these systems have been designed - or not - to allow us to use them coherently.
Less accessible interface design leads to more user errors, more frustrated users, and more time required to get things right
Design & Accessibility
Designing for accessibility is every bit as important as designing for aesthetic value.
Accessibility means how well a design maximises equal access to digital interfaces for everyone in society. This includes people who have lifelong disabilities and also people with temporary impairments.
Seven principles of inclusive design by the Paciello Group
These principles are about designing for the needs of people with all types of disability, whether that be permanent, temporary, situational or changing
Provide comparable experience
Your interface should provide a comparable experience for all so people can accomplish tasks in a way that suits their needs without undermining the quality of the content.
Consider situation
People use your interface in different situations. Make sure your interface delivers a valuable experience to people regardless of their circumstances.
Be consistent
Use familiar conventions and use them consistently.
Give control
Ensure people are in control. People should be able to access and interact with content in their preferred way, not one imposed by the interface.
Offer choice
Consider providing different ways for people to complete tasks, especially those that are complex and non standard.
Prioritise content
Help users focus on core tasks, features, and information by prioritising them within the content and layout.
Add value
Consider the value of features and how they improve the experience for different users.
W3C (World wide Web Consortium) — Web Accessibility Principles
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) focuses on bringing all the websites on the internet into line with accessibility standards so that everyone can enjoy the internet without any barriers.
You can read more about it by clicking this link.
What makes an interface inaccessible?
Size & colour of fonts
- Might be an issue for those who are visually impaired
Background colour of website or digital product
- Difficult for dyslexics to read the text presented
Too many Images
- Possibly cause sensory processing issues for those on the autistic spectrum
Use of jargon in the interface
- Difficult for dyslexics to read the text presented
A well-designed interface is intuitive. However, certains groups of people lke those with learning disabilities & austism might need some extra guidance, training materials & guidelines of how to use the interface.
Accessibility: Apple vs Android
Apple
Apple have identified impairments in four categories. These are impairments in:
- vision
- hearing
- physical and motor abilities
- literacy and learning abilities
In order to maximise accessibility in these areas, iOS includes features that the developer can use when they are developing their app.
- For the visually impaired, VoiceOver allows for audio feedback similar to Android’s Talkback. There are visual and haptic notification options for the hearing impaired.
- For those with physical and motor impairments there are built in features like Switch, Siri and Assistive Touch.
- For the literacy and learning impaired there is Speak Screen, typing feedback and Safari Reader.
Apple provide the above features alongside best practice guidelines for implementing them.
These guidelines are:
- Design with accessibility in mind: make information available to everyone, regardless of their capabilities or situation.
- Support personalisation: using standard controls to implement the UI allows the user access to automatic accessibility preferences supported by iOS.
- Audit and test for accessibility: auditing your app gives you a comprehensive list of issues to fix and testing helps you ensure that all users can complete the most important tasks in your app.
Android
- To help visually impaired users, Android includes features such as Talkback that provides audio feedback as the app is used.
In order for the user to hear useful feedback, the app developer must program the app to include this feature. This includes adding descriptions of the content and calling specific functions within the code itself.
- To increase visual accessibility, the developer is also advised to group similar content together and make use of increased font size and magnification. They are also advised to ensure there is sufficient colour contrast and make use of visual cues other than colour for those that are colour blind.
- To increase motor accessibility, Switch and Voice access are available on Android devices
Voice Access
Voice access allows the user to operate the device by speaking into the microphone. The commands are translated to physical functions.
Switch Access
Switch access allows the user to use physical buttons instead of the touchscreen. In order to ensure as much motor accessibility as possible, developers are also advised to use adequately sized touch targets and low density layouts.
Further reading
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/accessibility/
Who am I?
Hi there,
I’m Yash Chheda
I’m a UX Designer based out of Bengaluru, India who can help you improve user experiences by making your products accessible and intuitive.
If you are an Enterprise or SaaS organization dealing with challenging & complex problems at the intersection of users, business & tech, please connect with me to see how I might be able to help.
When not dissecting users, I enjoy hiking, reading, meditating & travelling.
