Digital Accessibilty
Accessibility is a very important subject within the world of digital design but as it is relatively new, there is a lack of knowledge and awareness within certain groups.
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An important group is digital design students as they are the new generation of designers in the making. It is important to spread awareness and knowledge early on.
How can we make digital design students aware of the importance of digital accessibility?
Design principles
Design principles are established to ensure that the goal of the design are always kept in mind.
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The design must transfer knowledge and techniques for digital accessibility to digital design students in a low-treshold manner.
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The design must raise awareness for the importance of digital accessibility.
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The design must provide students with insight into the different groups with disabilities in order to stimulate empathy.
Process
To create a final product that fulfills the design goal and answers the design question, I went through all the fases of design.
Research
After conducting interviews with the target group I found that what they valued the most was to have one place with all the knowledge and tools for creating accessible designs.
They want the information to be delivered in a way that is easy to understand and not overwhelming; low-threshold.
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Another really important need of the target group is the option to have insight into what all the different disabilities are and what those people experience everyday. ​
Another important part of my research was about how to stimulate awareness, specifically about social subjects. After interviewing an expert I found:
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​It has to connect to the emotions of the person in order to make a lasting impression.
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If the subject is something close to the person (relatable) it has more impact. ​
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This means using examples with different demographic characteristics, so more people can relate.
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And showing the (emotional) impact of the subject.
“It has to tap into the emotions of your target group. You can find those emotions when something happens that affects their interests.”
Ideation
To generate a diverse amount of ideas and concepts based on the research, I organised a creative session.
This resulted in three concepts to test with the target group to see what elements of these concepts fits their needs the best.
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After conducting the concept test I found that the target groups values elements of all three concepts so I decided to combine them to make sure the final product would fit all their needs and the guide lines that were established.
I chose to use the creative technique "Brainwriting" where everyone writes an idea and passes it to the next person. This way you can generate a lot of unique ideas.
Then I formulated all the concepts and put them in an overview.
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To conclude which concepts were feasible and also original I used the COCD-box technique.
Prototyping
I always start out by sketching out wireframes on paper first. Then with these sketches I start making prototypes in Figma.
Lo-Fid Prototype 2.0
Lo-Fid Prototype
Mid-Fid Prototype
Hi-Fid Prototype
OPEN ACCESS
OPEN ACCESS is an app where digital design students can increase their knowledge and awareness of digital accessibility in one app.
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The app gives an overview of do's and don'ts to make designs accessible for a specific disability. This knowledge is derived from the WCAG guide lines and put in a way that is easy to understand for students.
The app also provides insight into the different type of disabilities and what these groups experience on a daily basis. This is shown in the form of videos of people with disabilities who share their experience as well as the option to "experience" examples of what these disabilities may be like.
In this way, the app stimulates awareness, creates more empathy towards these groups and increases knowledge.