Project 6

Imagine embarking on a new project, a blank canvas just waiting to be filled. The very first step we take is akin to a quest for understanding – who is our user? What struggles do they face? What are their needs and desires? These are not just questions; they are guiding stars, forming the constellation of our project design and development pathway.

Now, let’s delve into a central pillar of our design ethos – accessibility. Imagine a kaleidoscope, each color representing a different form of disability: visual, hearing, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological. Each color, unique and vital, paints a fuller picture of the diverse user experiences we need to consider.

To ensure that our digital canvas is inclusive to all these colors, we turn to a painter’s guide – the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It defines 78 criteria to ensure digital inclusivity across devices, be it computers, smartphones, or even television sets.

WCAG is a creation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a globally recognized authority dedicated to creating standards for a more inclusive internet. This guide is also versatile, providing testable success criteria, which are useful for compliance testing in design specifications, procurement, regulations, and contractual agreements. It even accounts for varying requirements by offering three levels of compliance: A (lowest), AA, and AAA (highest).

To better illustrate this, let’s look at some real-world cases. Imagine a user with cognitive impairment – without a visible clock on the screen, they might lose track of time and become disoriented. Or consider those with epilepsy or autism, who could experience seizures due to certain on-screen color combinations. A small screen can be a struggle for users with visual impairments, while a call-only option could exclude those with hearing impairments. These are just some of the myriad scenarios we bear in mind when crafting user experiences.

Fortunately, the market provides several tools to aid in our quest for digital inclusivity. Contrast-Ratio, for example, assesses color contrast for screen readability. Color Contrast Check tests whether a chosen foreground and background color offer enough contrast for users with color vision deficiency or for viewing on a black and white screen. Funkify (https://www.funkify.org/) offers a suite of simulators to mimic cognition, dyslexia, motor, and vision impairments, helping us to step into the shoes of our diverse user base.

Ultimately, our goal is to create digital products that everyone can enjoy and use with ease. By placing empathy at the heart of our design philosophy, we can make the digital world a more inclusive and accessible place for all.

The first step is aimed at understanding the context of the product and fostering empathy. To achieve this, it was necessary to analyze the available data on the internet, devise the appropriate research strategy, and create preliminary personas of the target user. During this phase, we first considered the basic accessibility rules for mobile applications:
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– Reflect on how the application could be used by someone with special needs. Take into consideration aspects such as absence of sound or color, the application being used with a high contrast mode activated, or with the screen maximized or zoomed-in. Think about usage with a screen-reader (a software application that converts text into synthesized speech, enabling the user to listen to rather than read the internet content), voice controls only, or a combination of the various conditions mentioned above.
– Ensure clickable areas are at least 48×48 pixels.
– Keep the application readable even with large text.
– Use a sufficient contrast ratio between the background color and the text color.
– Avoid relying solely on color to convey information.- Implement standard interface controls.
– Always pair audio notifications with visual cues.
– Allow the application’s appearance to be changed by system accessibility settings.