January Recap- Practical Advice for Accessible Design

Our February uxWaterloo event Designers designing research: what methods do you choose?  is coming up tomorrow and we hope to see you there! 

If you missed our January event, Ali Ghassemi and Dariusz Grabka of Desire2Learn hosted over 50 uxWaterloo members and shared their insights about accessible design.  They shared their key formula with us, which was:

Accessible Design = Personal knowledge x thoughtful design x good technical implementation +/- magic

Now, getting your hands on some magic may prove to be difficult, but you can remember these key points to improve the accessibility of your designs. 

1) Use different personas for each piece of hardware

Dariusz Grabka

Consider how your design will work for someone without a keyboard, mouse, monitor, or sound.

2) When designing for screen readers

Stay away from the cardinal sin of using “click here” links, as they will not provide any context to someone using a screenreader.  Instead, include the name of the subject in the link (e.g. uxWaterloo February Event) and this will allow those using screenreaders to navigate the page and understand which links are about certain topics.

3) Design standards to consider

Keep your code clean, as page layout is very important for screenreaders.  Remember to use inline headings in your CSS to help users with screenreaders understand what your page is about.  Stay away from using tables as the layout of your page, as they are difficult to interpret on a screenreader.  Ensure that images on your site have alternative text and captions, as captions will help your images appear in a search of the site.  On a web form, you should ensure that your error pages do not require users to re-enter data, as this increases their effort.

Ali Ghassemi

4) Tips for developers

Developing with accessibility in mind can be tricky, so collaborate and quality test with other developers and designers.  You can have alternative designs for users, to give them options.  For example, a drag and drop design can also include checkboxes as an alternative.   Off-screen CSS is also a simple way to provide information for screenreaders only.  For example, when colour or images imply information on your site, you can use off-screen CSS to identify the colour or relay additional information.

5) Accessibility Resources

Derek Featherstone– Check out Derek’s web talks about accessible design.

@webaxe– Podcast & blog about web accessibility. Techniques, theory, news, events, and more!

Thanks again to Ali and Dariusz for hosting such a great event!

Creative Thinking Hacks with Scott Berkun

Wednesday March 2, 2010
12:00 to 1:00 pm
Quarry Integrated Communications
1440 King St North (large building on the riverbank, next to the bridge)
St. Jacobs
[Map and Directions]

March has turned into another bountiful month for uxWaterloo. While we have not yet announced details for our regular meeting in the third week of the month, today we’re excited to announce a special lunch hour event on Wednesday March 2.

Scott Berkun should be no stranger to uxWaterloo attendees, as he gave a talk on The Myths of Innovation at our February 2009 event. Actually, “gave a talk” does him a disservice. Scott’s presentation was entirely based on questions from the audience, and the event was an entertaining dialogue in which Scott shared his thoughts with a thoroughly engaged audience. And the event has a special place in our hearts here at uxWaterloo, as a photo that Scott took of his audience found its way into his 2009 book Confessions of a Public Speaker.

For Scott’s March 2 visit, the theme is creative thinking hacks, and Scott has again suggested that the event be driven by questions from the audience. To that end, if you have any theme-related questions that you’d like Scott to answer, please feel free to add them into a comment on this post or bring them to the event. In fact, bring your lunch to the event too.

We have a couple of organizations to thank for their parts in making this event happen.

First, our friends at Communitech are bringing Scott to town for their Tech Leadership conference on March 2, and we appreciate their help in bringing Scott to this special uxWaterloo event.

Second, our friends at Quarry Integrated Communications generously offered to host the event at their lovely riverside offices in St. Jacobs. There’s plenty of parking there, and the atmosphere in the recently renovated space is quite suitable for the “creativity hacks” theme of the event.

Register today: seating is limited!

We’ve moved to uxwaterloo.org

(February 2011) Designers designing research: what methods do you choose?

Thursday February 24, 2010
5:30 to 7:00 pm
Accelerator Centre
Meeting Room #2
295 Hagey Blvd., Waterloo
[Map]

Event description

How do you know which design research method is the “right one” for your project? This month, sociologist and design researcher Dr. Sam Ladner will discuss how research methodologists go about answering that question. Designers rarely get to study research methodology in design school or on the job, so this session will give you the tools to think through research design options. Sam will also discuss a recent research proposal involving the use of mobile phones and how she came to recommend a particular research direction. Designers who are tired of the “how many people did you talk to” question will love this session!

Video introduction

About the speaker

Sam Ladner, PhD, is founder and principal consultant with Copernicus Consulting Group. She uses a range of social research methods including interviewing, observation, ethnography, and survey research. She consults Fortune 1000 companies on digital product design, organizational change, and the social aspects of technological innovation. She also trains and mentors designers, marketers, and account planners on research methodology. She has consulted companies including Citibank, Dell, GSK, VeriSign and Genentech. She is currently teaching in the graduate program at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She holds a PhD in sociology from York University. Follow Sam on Twitter.

Register today

This event is free, but we ask that you please register so we can predict turnout.