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

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

I haven’t blogged in over a month, which is not a good thing. However, the main reason that I haven’t is a very good one.

A week from today, I am starting a new job — and it’s directly in User Experience.

When I wrote The Evolution of a Designer, I talked about how time, experience and passion naturally progressed my career towards user experience. I no longer saw myself as strictly a designer or coder, but instead someone striving to build, from concept level through completion and beyond, experiences that users, whether they are disabled or not, can easily understand and navigate through towards whatever their end destination.

What I didn’t realize on that day in March is that, mere months later, I’d get the opportunity to join a User Experience team being formed from the ground up.

I’ve been at the same organization (The Mark Travel Corporation) for over twelve years. I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to forge a rewarding career in the Web industry, from an entry-level HTML coder to seasoned web designer to manager of a large team of designers and producers.

Throughout that journey, I’ve learned a lot of things. One, I’ve realized that the most beautiful designs in the world are just pretty pictures if they don’t get the user exactly where they need to go. I’ve realized that whatever the experience — a web site, an application, etc. — content that is poorly-crafted or with no clear strategy will destroy it. And I’ve certainly realized how incredibly easy it is to overlook disabled users in creating these experiences.

Now, I’m delving into a role in which I can truly, day in and day out, focus on getting all of that right, and making a difference along the way. When a large company firmly establishes that user experience needs to be in front of everything they build, that’s a tremendous, exciting opportunity.

I’m beyond thrilled.

As I travel down this path, I’m sure I’ll have plenty to share along the way.

Tags: accessibility, content strategy, user experience, ux, web design

Just this afternoon, Michael Seidel and I did a brief presentation to a group of web designers, outlining a process to better fuse user experience with design and development. The intent of this process is to raise awareness in the value of user experience every step of the way, from the initial wireframing through web site/page creation, and continually even after it is launched.

One key point we made – user experience isn’t one step in the process, to be executed once and checked off. It’s pervasive.

Web accessibility goes hand in hand with user experience. After all, what is accessibility but building experiences that are usable for everybody?

That also means that web accessibility isn’t a checkbox on your to-do list. It isn’t a singular task that you “do” and move on. It’s constant.

It’s something you think about when:

• you are card-sorting the key elements of a web site.
• you build wireframes of the information you’re presenting.
• you consider color contrasts, typography and layout while designing the page.
• you enter every single line of CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Flash, etcetera
• you ask users — disabled and non-disabled — to test out your new web experience and share what works and what doesn’t.

User experience and accessibility aren’t individual tasks at one specific point in time. They are ways of thinking that carry through every aspect necessary to build a web site or page.

Don’t marginalize either by ignoring them or relegating them to one tiny line item in your project.

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

As I progress in my advocacy of web accessibility, I’m noticing a sea change in what I consider myself professionally.

For the majority of my career, I’ve considered myself a “web designer”. While I’ve never felt my designs to be the most eye-popping, stunning masterpieces, I inherently put together visuals that are straightforward, clean and effective. Still, web design was my wheelhouse, and the subject of my strongest advocacy. Beautiful designs equalled great web sites.

Though it’s been out there for a few years now, I recently heard the quote from web design and standards luminary Jeffrey Zeldman:
“Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it’s decoration.”

That sentiment is really sticking with me. Decoration.

I’ve been in the web/e-commerce industry for twelve years now. Now more than ever, I’m seeing that design is but a piece to the puzzle of an effective web site. A finished jigsaw puzzle reveals the whole picture; one solitary piece doesn’t.

Content is a key piece.
User experience is a key piece.
Accessibility (or more broadly, well-constructed, semantic markup) is a key piece.

I’ve too often watched content writing, user experience and accessibility get kicked to the curb. This isn’t always intentional — sometimes they get skipped to meet rushed deadlines. Sometimes it’s just ignorance to their value. “Make it beautiful and people will come!”

And so, I’ve seen designs that look absolutely phenomenal…but do not effectively tell me what the site is about. I’ve seen designs with brilliant visuals and sizzle…that are hard to navigate. I’ve listened to marketing folks harp that their site needs to be beautiful and “sexy” (a nauseating word to describe web sites)…but don’t take a single moment to actually listen to their users.

If a site has the greatest aesthetics in the world, but it doesn’t take into account its users, it’s a failure. At the end of the day, people — whether they are disabled or not — want to get where they need to go.

Design will always be part of who I am. But I’m no longer swayed simply by shiny objects and pretty pictures. Something beautiful constructed in Photoshop is great….but it better clearly show what the site is about, have clear-cut navigation, and elements that are important and logical to visitors. And it sure better not throw up obstacles to those with disabilities simply trying to get what they need.

Over the past year, I’ve found myself cutting down on the web design RSS feeds and replacing them with user experience ones. I’m not interested in the latest PhotoShop tips and tutorials. I’ll leave those for others — the most important thing to me now is advocating the union of design, user experience, content and accessibility, not focusing on simply decoration.

Tags: accessibility, content, jeffrey zeldman, user experience, ux, web design