The whole world is protesting for equality. This is not only for basic human needs but for every aspect of life. And when you build a tech product, you should keep this in mind.
Your product should be accessible to anyone regardless of any kind of physical or mental disability. This is where the concept of accessible UI/UX design comes in.
By following and incorporating some design best practices in your product, you can achieve this.
So, today, I’ll talk about those.
What Is Accessible UI UX Design?
An accessible UI/UX design makes a product accessible to a broader range of users, including those with disabilities. This means the design must be inclusive.
If anyone wants to use your product, the design must assist them if they have any physical issues like:
- Visual impairments (blindness, low vision, colour blindness)
- Hearing impairments (deafness, hard of hearing)
- Motor impairments (limited dexterity)
- Cognitive impairments (learning disabilities, memory problems)
To make your design accessible and universal, you must have in-depth skills and knowledge of it. Otherwise, you will need the help of a UI UX design service to do it perfectly.
5 Best Practices of Accessible UI UX Design For Tech Products!
There are many UI UX design practices that can be used to make a tech product accessible. Here are the five most effective ones.
Give alt text for everything
Users with colour blindness and vision impairments often don’t see many visual elements, making navigation harder. Adding alternative text can help these kinds of people use your product effectively.
Remember, your alternative text must be intuitive and guiding for them. The fonts must also be bold and clear so that they can read and understand them easily.
Incorporate High Contrast Colors
You must incorporate high contrast into your design to help the colour blinds use your product and give them a better user experience. It can help them have a better vision and understand the elements used throughout the product.
Here are a few colour combinations that fit them:
- Blue and orange
- Yellow and blue
- Purple and green (depending on the specific type of red-green CVD)
Add keyboard navigation
Users with motor impairments (limited hand reach) can’t use Muse. To help them use your product, you must add keyboard navigation. It’s also important to consider the key shortcuts that reduce users’ efforts with physical dysfunction.
People with temporary disabilities and vision impairments can also benefit from this. You can empower them with auto-suggestions and corrections for a better user experience.
Emphasise non-colour reliance
Don’t rely on colour for interaction. Use intuitive and alternative visual cues. Different shapes and icons can help you to give your users a better navigation clue. As a result, people with colour blindness will be able to use and navigate your product easily.
Test real users and iterate
After adding high color contrast or adding bold and clear fonts, you must test it with real users. Before launching your product, you must know if your design or strategy is effective or not for them.
Give them different situations and see if they can use it comfortably. Note their inconvenience and friction points for accessibility.
After taking all those notes, your next step is to fix those issues. You must continue this process until you get to your desired state.
Remember, even if your product looks good or is successful, it can’t be great without being accessible to everyone. So, never ignore the factors of UI UX design best practices for universal accessibility.
Conclusion
With the evaluation of digital products, user experience has been buzzing. However, when designing the interface and experience, designers often focus on physically fit users. This is extremely against the accessibility. So, when you design UI UX for tech products, you design with users of all levels in mind.
