Designing for diversity: How to create inclusive mobile experiences

So everyone’s got smartphones these day yes? But not everyone who has a smartphone can see, hear, move or handle cognitive loads without impairment. So how can we include everyone in our mobile design? This talk shares some top tips on how to create an inclusive mobile design and reveals some things you may not know people with disabilities can definitely do on a mobile device.

Presented at Designing for Mobility 2013

Transcript

1. Designing for Diversity How to create inclusive mobile experiences Katja Forbes | @inclusiveUX 1 March 2013
2.  People using mobile devices are as diverse as the devices themselves  There are easy things you can do to make a mobile experience inclusive 2 things in 10 minutes @inclusiveUX
3. There is nothing that you can do on the iPhone or iPad that I can’t do “ ”   @inclusiveUX
4. Mr Stevie Wonder @inclusiveUX
5. Mobile, by definition, is disabling. Poor light, small keyboards, glare, touch, etc. – Henny Swan, Senior Accessibility Specialist, BBC “ ”   @inclusiveUX
6. A smart phone or tablet is basically pictures under glass – Bret Victor, Former Apple Engineer “ ”   @inclusiveUX
7. Ommmmm….. …from bradfrostweb.com @inclusiveUX
8. Focus on inclusion and people  If we try to design for all these different operating systems then we just end up designing for mobile diversity, not for inclusion.  Design for the human capabilities, not the device @inclusiveUX
9. There is no Mobile Web. There is only The Web, which we view in different ways. There is also no Desktop Web. Or Tablet Web. Thank you. – Stephen Hay “ ”   @inclusiveUX
10.  A well-executed responsive design should solve a lot of our challenges.  If a website is already inclusive via the desktop then it’s most likely to be mobile friendly as well. Responsive design is #1 @inclusiveUX
11.  An app or mobile site is not a book  People listen to enough to orientate themselves and then move on.  There are different modes  Text to speech doesn’t just read  Not just for visually impaired. People with dyslexia also use text to speech to read digital written content. Lets talk about text to speech @inclusiveUX
12.  There are a lot of buttons in apps and sites helping to navigate around.  The language used in labelling is really important.  Don’t be bossy.  Don’t double up. Labelling with text to speech in mind @inclusiveUX
13.  Inform events in multiple ways.  Don’t just have one way of achieving a task There’s more than one way to do things @inclusiveUX
14.  There is a lot of video available on mobile and its one of the most consumed types of content.  People who are deaf or have hearing loss want to access all this content accessibly, which is tough on mobile devices. Mobile video? Make sure its captioned @inclusiveUX
15.  Make sure the touch targets are big enough for people with dexterity challenges.  Window 8 ‘metro’ design language has something to offer here with its ‘big tile’ user interface.  Choose smart defaults  Use alternate methods to input information & exploit device capabilities Supporting dexterity challenges @inclusiveUX
16.  If you have a smart phone, you have a screen reader. Test your designs. There is no excuse.  Test with real people who have real impairments  Iterate and test again!  Learn from your mistakes and make your next try better. Test, test, test @inclusiveUX
17.  The mobile landscape is extremely diverse and complex to navigate  We have to stay focussed on inclusion, not mobile diversity  Our guiding design principles must be technology agnostic  Let’s use what we already have and adapt as we learn more So, to sum up… @inclusiveUX
18. Thank you katja@inclusiveux.com.au @inclusiveUX