We’ve all seen it happen — the jerk who snags an accessible parking space in front of a business, even though he or she isn’t disabled. Whether it’s laziness or ignorance, it’s just plain obnoxious.

Okay, maybe it’s a bit heavy-handed to liken that to designers who put their own personal preferences and styles above all else. In the first case, the majority of culprits know what they are doing is wrong but just don’t care. In the second case, the intentions aren’t nearly as bad.

But there’s a kernel of similarity. In both cases, the end result is potentially inconveniencing those with disabilities and putting your own desires and preferences first.

Of course designers have unique styles that they imbue into whatever they create. There is nothing wrong with that. The answer isn’t to create sterile, one-size-fits-all designs and layouts devoid of personality or vibrancy.

Just be sure when you’re creating your masterpiece to think about users as well. Like I mentioned last week in Taking Criticism in Web Design, be mindful that certain color contrasts will cause problems for users with color blindness or limited vision. Working within that guideline won’t stymie your creativity. It may technically be a “limitation” to work around, but really, text that is easily readable benefits everybody.

Creating a Flash sequence for images or advertisements can be a fully accessible option – just make sure you take the time to do it right, and follow guidelines such as Flash Techniques for WCAG 2.0 or Adobe’s own Adobe Flash Professional CS5 accessibility.

Similarly, video can really enhance a web experience when appropriate. It may seem like extra work and be a drag, but if you don’t provide captioning or transcripts, somebody with a hearing disability won’t be able to follow what’s been said or somebody with a visual disability won’t have a means of listening to a synopsis of what the video is about.

There is plenty of room within accessibility and web standards to be creative and achieve something with a distinct design brand. You may have to park a row or two back from the destination, but you still can get there and be happy with the end result.

Tags: flash, user experience, ux, video captions, web design

Pushing for more accessible user experiences can be an uphill battle depending on the business holders with whom you’re dealing. While some may flat out not care, more often they are reluctant to take the additional time, effort and cost to bake accessibility into an overall project.

Whether armed with lots of money and time or not, you have your voice — never be afraid to speak up when there are opportunities to make an experience more accessible. It can be on the micro level (“that font against that background is going to be really difficult for people with sight limitations to make out”). It can be on the macro level (“all those videos on the site? we really need to add captioning”).

You may lose. You may get a pat on the head and told to go play somewhere else. Keep trying!

Some approaches may work better than others. Stressing the moral and social obligations of creating accessible experiences is a valid, noble route — but businesses won’t always respond to that, even if their intentions are good. Spending money is spending money…and sometimes accessibility can be costly, such as the prospect of retrofitting a completed web site.

There are some great references like Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization to help.

I’ve been super jazzed about accessibility for the past couple years, but I know how easy it can be to feel you’re fighting a losing battle. There were times in my past job that I lost the energy when up against an overwhelming ambivalence towards accessibility (or even web standards in general). But then were were times like when I was able to enact color contrast improvements to an internal booking interface, to make it easier for someone with severe color blindness to better do her job.

Sometimes you have to pick your battles and alter your strategies, but don’t give up and let the fires of inaccessibility spread. Even small changes start to add up.

Tags: accessibility, ux, web standards

I was a web designer for the majority of my professional career. I’ve been around web designers for over twelve years. One of the hardest lessons for them to learn is not taking critiques and criticism personally.

When you pour your creativity, heart and soul into something, it’s perfectly reasonable to have an intense pride of ownership. It’s natural — and a good thing — to care deeply about your work.

But when a designer is commissioned to create a web site or application, it’s imperative to separate the art from the artist. The designer isn’t making something for himself or herself – it’s for a client, and ultimately, for an end user. What the designer thinks is cool or cutting edge is -a- factor, but not the only factor.

Design is more than just pretty pictures — it has to be effective, clear, functional and accessible. Light gray text on dark gray backgrounds might be an “in thing” these days, but is the content even readable (for those with or without vision disabilities)? The glitzy masthead with in your face colors and constant motion may seem daring and impactful, but is it ultimately more of a distraction? Cool icons in place of traditional words for the main site navigation may seem a fresh approach…or does it leave users guessing where they are able to go?

It’s one of the toughest lessons, but a necessary step in the evolution of really good designers. Realize that when people are pointing out problems or concerns, they aren’t having a go at you personally. They’re looking out for brand needs, marketing needs, and user needs — hopefully all three in harmony.

On my very first design project, I remember pouring everything into the first of three comps. I spent a little less, but still a lot of effort on design two. Design three, I just threw together because they had asked for three, but I had forgotten that detail until the last minute.

Sure enough, they much preferred the third design. It stung a little. I put everything into the other two — what do you mean, you don’t want them?

Little by little, the sting of rejection or criticism lessened, until I finally reached a happy place where I could take any manner of critique, even scathing, and not get upset.

Again, it’s not really “your” design — it’s a vehicle for a business to raise awareness, convey information, sell a product….whatever it is they do. Moreover, it’s a gateway for customers to get what they need, and get it as quickly as possible. Those customers have varying degrees of technical acumen, and may even have disabilities ranging from blindness to motor skill limitations. These are the people using the website, not just the designer.

Tags: design critique, user experience, ux, web design

As I mentioned, I recently started a new job as a User Experience Lead.

I’ve been thinking about a moment in my interviewing for the position, that illustrated a simple, yet important principle of user experience — asking questions first.

One of the people interviewing me explained a scenario in which we needed a console for a piece of equipment. The console required several elements, including:

He then handed me a piece of graph paper, a pencil and an eraser. Amidst my typical interview jitters, I grabbed the pencil and started drawing. I think I asked a couple questions about the equipment, but hastily came up with a simple sketch of the display.

He thought it was a good stab. Then he mentioned that the users would wear big gloves, and the display would need buttons large enough to account for that.

Now, an interview for many reasons is not “real life”. You have a tiny window to encapsulate your qualifications and history. Overall, I felt I portrayed myself very well. Obviously well enough, because I got the job!

But the minute he mentioned the gloves thing, I mentally started kicking myself. I would have known such a detail if I had asked some basic questions about the target users before picking up the pencil.

To successfully create any experience– be it an application, a web site, a console — you need to understand who will be using it and how.

Again, that was just a simple interview question.

In the real world, finding out specifics about users should be the starting point. Interviewing actual users reveals a lot. User testing along the way helps focus your sketches, wireframes, designs, etcetera.

In short, if you take the time to frame up in advance who your target users are, and test what you are creating along the way, you will better ensure that the end product is actually usable and accessible.

Tags: user experience, user profiles, ux, wireframes

I posted awhile back about some great accessibility tools out there, such as the Firefox Accessibility Extension and WebAIM’s WAVE. (Wow, that was a year ago??)

Using automated tools are a tremendous help in figuring out problematic code or color contrasts that just don’t feel like they are sufficient. However, your testing shouldn’t end there!

Similarly, don’t assume that a non-disabled person testing their site or application with assistive technologies is good enough. I’ve been asked by well-intentioned fellow non-disabled web designers, “Well, how can we get our hands on a screen reader to do testing?”

The best way to ensure your experience is as accessible as possible is to reach out to actual disabled users for testing.

This hit home for me when I watched Scott Mayer (Multiple Facets of Accessible Design – Scott Mayer presentation) demonstrate how blind users navigate both good and bad experiences via a screen reader.

For one, the speed at which the automated voice spoke was surprisingly rapid — and he even slowed it down for our benefit! Two, a sighted user trying their hand at a screen reader just isn’t the same as someone who is completely dependent on one and uses it day in and out.

Sure, a web surfer with hearing can plug their ears and watch a video, but afterwards, they can simply unplug them and go about their lives. A deaf user doesn’t have that luxury. You may think a pretend session gives you a glimpse into their world, but it doesn’t really.

Having access to disabled testers may be challenging depending on the resources in your area. There are some alternatives on the web, such as forums like the Accessify Forum, where you can post a site and ask for feedback.

The bottom line is that, whenever possible, you should use multiple avenues of testing for accessibility, the best being actual disabled users who could be part of your audience.

Tags: accessibility tools, assistive technology, screen readers, user testing