Accessibility in ‘User Experience’ is the measure of a user’s ability to use a product/service and the extent and the ease with which it serves its purpose. Accessibility design is commonly misunderstood as exclusively needed for users with disabilities. On the contrary, an inclusive design is meant to maximize the user pool and include everyone.
Need for accessibility design
The world is inclusive now, and with everyone wanting to be included and a place for themselves, it is of immense importance that your digital users also feel welcome and appreciated. Accessibility design makes sure both the user and the creator feel good, and important. Additionally,
- Designing with accessibility in mind enables people with various abilities and disabilities to perceive, understand, navigate, interact, and contribute to your product, thereby also contributing to enhancements to your user experience by creating a good and useful design.
- By maximizing the ease of use for all ability levels, you can create products for a universal audience. Universal designs widen your user base and make your brand more empathetic.
- Accessible products are SEO friendly, appear better in search results, have faster download times, encourage good coding practices, and have better overall usability. These factors contribute to gaining a wider audience base.
- Accessibility drives innovation. New technologies like AI and natural language processing are being used to process sights, sounds, and intonations particularly beneficial to the visual and hearing-impaired, making products more human and empathetic.
Becoming an accessible brand involves the following steps:
- Test your current accessibility
- Gain knowledge on accessibility guidelines and mandates
- Design and develop your products and solutions accordingly
- During the testing phase, include people with varying abilities and use accessibility-testing tools like WAVE and Color Oracle to test your design
Read More: Design and Development Trends
Conclusion
Inclusivity and accessibility have become an important part of creating a lasting user experience. How we create our products and who we decide to include will determine our success in the long run. Making a universally accessible design for your products and solutions requires expertise in design and development. iOPEX will help you tell your brand’s story by designing an immersive user experience that creates the right first impressions, resolves customer queries, and delivers measurable financial performance.
