Stop Designing For Only 85% Of Users: Nailing Accessibility In Design

As designers, we like to think we are solution-based. But whereas we wouldn’t hesitate to call out a museum made inaccessible by a lack of wheelchair ramps, many of us still remain somewhat oblivious to flaws in our user interfaces.

Poor visual design, in particular, can be a barrier to a good user experience. Whereas disability advocacy has long focused on ways to help the user adapt to the situation, we have reached a point where users expect products to be optimized for a broad range of needs.
The post Stop Designing For Only 85% Of Users: Nailing Accessibility In Design appeared first on Smashing Magazine.
Combining Graphical And Voice Interfaces For A Better User Experience

With the appearance of voice user interfaces, AI and chatbots, what is the future of graphical user interfaces (GUIs)? Don’t worry: Despite some dark predictions, GUIs will stay around for many years to come. Let me share my personal, humble predictions and introduce multi-modal interfaces as a more human way of communication between user and machine.

The old wisdom that a picture is worth a thousand words is still true today. Our brain is an incredible image-processing machine. We can understand complex information faster when we see it visually. According to studies, even when we talk with someone else, nonverbal communication represents two thirds of the conversation. According to other studies, we absorb most information from our sight (83% sight, 11% hearing, 3% smell, 2% touch and 1% taste). In short, our eyes are our primary sensors.
The post Combining Graphical And Voice Interfaces For A Better User Experience appeared first on Smashing Magazine.