In this lesson we looked at accessible design. Accessible design is a key element to the aware of when designing for users. Some may have impairments, disabilities, limitations or restrictions. These can be physical, mental or even seen.
Something that was shown in class was Garrett’s 5 Elements of User Experience. It shows an iceberg that has the overall element that everyone assumes UX includes which is visual design, however it has a multiple elements of UX below the surface level that are forgotten about.
Ensuring accessibility for everyone is crucial and a legal requirement, insuring inclusivity in design terms will improve your project and overall user experience. It is important to ensure you know the different types of accessibility issues your user will have. These include physical, mental or even unseen disabilities. They can be visual, auditory, motor, cognitive and learning etc. Things to consider when making a digital products include the different platforms users will be using such as smartphone, laptop, pc, ipad etc.
Similar to physical things like beeping sounds when the green man comes up for blind people when crossing the road, our jobs as designers are to ensure our products buttons are accessible, thinking about there size and colour.
Accessibly design is a more of meeting a standard where Universal design is a broader concept in which it aims to create environments that are accessible by everyone. It aims to reduce accessibility problems therefore everyone can use them.
https://www.washington.edu/doit/universal-design-process-principles-and-applications#:~:text=What is the scope of,%2C IT%2C or physical spaces.
Universal Design focuses on creating things that are usable for everyone, regardless of ability, age, background etc. This approach goes beyond meeting accessibility standards by ensuring this inclusivity of everyone is adapted into the design from the start.
“Colour is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.”
Something I found really interesting was the idea that colour is a form of communication as well as a visually aesthetic element. For example, green text could indicate good or positive information like if information inputted is incorrect in a form. Although if colour is the only indication the user has to determine whether the information id good or not, this represents failure of WCAG 2.0 Criterion 1.4.1 requirements. This requirement means that colour should not be the only indication to meaning of text. I was kind of confused in how you would show this, however to resolve this would be to include a table with different columns clearly indicating good and bad data.
It is also important your text is visible for everyone, considering users with visual impairments. To ensure the information and content passes the contrast requirements you can put it through a colour contrast checker.
