Empathy and design. How Google helps people with disabilities
Makradar Technologies / / December 19, 2019
At a recent conference Google I / O special correspondent magazine Fast Company interviewed with experts on UX, and that's how, in their opinion, the designers can get an extra one billion users.
according to According to the World Health Organization, one in seven people have a disability in the world. Astrid Weber and Jan Devins - Google design experts - believe that this bell for designers that they do not allow such people to use their products. That's what they're missing.
The color range of applications
Color blindness, or color blindness - one of the most common disabilities. Approximately one in twelve men and one two-hundredth woman - colorblind. These statistics confirm the fact that the designers have to be very carefully think through colors applications.
Color - a good way to convey information, but it should not be the only way.
Jen Devins cites Google Maps. If the plug on the front road, it is highlighted in red. For millions of people do not distinguish between red and green, the color marker is useless.
Proper positioning of elements
Blind people use the voice assistant to interact with the smartphone. However, few developers have this in mind.
Voice assistants recite the menu names from top to bottom, left to right, and nothing else.
In many applications, the most important elements of the interface at the bottom. For example, New Photo button on Instagram or navigation buttons on Twitter. This is useful for sighted but blind people have to make up to 50 swipe across the screen to the voice assistant came to this item.
The solution is obvious: to move up the key elements of the interface. Along this route, moving Google.
Labels of interface elements
It is not enough to mark the close button labeled "Close":
Close what? We must remember the context. For example, "Close the new message window" or "Close player."
While the average user, this problem seems far-fetched, users with disabilities, it complicates the work from the device.
Designers do not put themselves in the place of the user
Empathy will enable the user to understand, but many designers do not think about. You need imagination, or feedback from all users to make user-friendly application.
Astrid WeberWe would like to see designers to develop applications like travel. Put yourself in the place of the user. Think of it as a blind or deaf person will use your app, and pay attention to UX.
It is necessary to know the needs of users with disabilities
"You can not replace the experience of observing the user that uses your application," - said Weber. Expert offers designers pay more attention to work with users and collect feedback. Here's how in Google tested «Google Calendar":
There were a lot of different reactions. Some developers have been depressed due to the fact that their application causes users to feel some discomfort. Others, on the contrary, rejoiced, seeing that users are using their designs can do what they could not do before.
Weber and Devins believes that designers initially have to make an application with the idea that they will be used by people with disabilities. Otherwise, in the future it will have to redo from scratch.