Sometimes a client asks me a question and I'm a little stunned by their mental model of the world. A few weeks ago, we were discussing the need for better cybersecurity in their architecture. We spoke about several aspects of security, then they asked an outstanding question. "What should I buy to be secure?" It […]
Sometimes a client asks me a question and I'm a little stunned by their mental model of the world.
A few weeks ago, we were discussing the need for better cybersecurity in their architecture. We spoke about several aspects of security, then they asked an outstanding question.
"What should I buy to be secure?"
It took a few moments to tease out exactly what they thought they were asking. In their mental model they could just buy a box which did what they needed. Want to print from any workstation? Buy a big HP network printer. Want to get WiFi in the office? Buy a bunch of access points. Want a website? Buy a WordPress. Want security? Buy a [fill in the blank]?
Their notion is that most things are products. This is a common belief. I've had clients ask "What do I buy to make this accessible?" or "What can I buy to improve usability?"
In all these cases there are unscrupulous people who will sell you a magic cure-all - but the real answer is that these things are a process; not a product.
Yes, you can buy tools which will help improve your security / accessibility / usability etc. But unless you put processes in place to get people to use them effectively, the tools are useless.
People need to understand why something is important. They need processes which support best practices. The business needs a holistic understanding of how these processes improve the business. And that is all underpinned by tools which make it possible.
There's no magic box which can both protect you from your CEO accidentally CCing confidential data to a competitor and stop DDoS attacks. An accessibility overlay won't help you if your staff refuse to incorporate alt text into their workflow. Automated code testing can't stop you building things without testing them with users.
Security is a verb - it is a doing word.
Accessibility is a verb - it is a doing word.
Usability is a verb - it is a doing word.
Okay, accessibility hive mind. I have a weird one and I could use your input.
Hypothetically, say there's a client with confusing link text; think "Request subscription" rather than "Today's newspaper." This example falls apart a little because you have to assume the link goes to today's newspaper for customers with a subscription and cannot and should not redirect to an order page for customers without one.
The client pushes back on changing the link text because they think it will be "legally ambiguous." In their mind, the text "Request subscription" means "Request [your] subscription" and "Today's newspaper" implies something the customer doesn't have (or need) a subscription for. (Obviously, it's higher stakes than newspapers.)
Have you ever had this kind of pushback? How did you handle it?
"If you don't consider time a crucial usability factor, you're missing a fundamental aspect of the user experience." This insightful post from @tammy covers topics like:
⚡ How fast we need pages to be
⚡ How delays hurt productivity
⚡ Measuring "web stress"
⚡ How slowness affects your brand
It's 2024. If you're still designing websites or email like you would design an 8.5x11" promotional hand-out on a sheet of paper, you really haven't been paying attention to how people use the internet over the past decade.
When I got in this elevator alone I pressed the 3. There was no depression so I realized it wasn’t the button. The button is the silver circle adjacent to it.
I laughed at myself. Then, when I got in with my wife to go back down, she pressed the 1. Looked at it for a moment, then realized she made a mistake. Same as me.
The first thing I do to evaluate the quality of your #usability or #accessibility article is see if the links are underlined. If not, I shake my head, then check the contrast with the surrounding text. If that fails, I then decide if I simply close the tab or warn people away from the site in general.
I kinda wish I had warnings I could nail to web pages.
(And before anyone asks, yeah, I tried it through GNOME/the graphical settings app. This is the only thing that worked, using a legacy driver that I had to scroll though a list of thousands of entries to find in a – thank fuck it exists – legacy web interface from what looks like circa 1993, which I’m informed is not going to exist for much longer.)
Google Wallet on Wear OS added support for passes and loyalty cards last month, and I finally got a chance to try it out on my Pixel Watch 2!
It was nice being able to scan my boarding pass at the airport/security/gate without having to pull out my phone.
All the relevant boarding pass info (TSA PreCheck mark, gate number, seat number, etc.) is also accessible on the watch, just by tapping the pass then scrolling down when the QR code appears.
I'm so grateful because it enables me to give something back to all the study participants who gave their free time without any compensation due to the limited financial possibilities. 🙏🏻
The thesis investigates the impact of #AccessibilityOverlays on #UX and #usability for individuals with visual impairments. Findings will be published in 2024.
[Yes the image is photoshopped. No I’m not good at it]
@alxlg@fallenhitokiri@kiwa@elisse
Element is a usability, and accesibility nightmare for even tech-savvy people. Just this year alone I've been part of 6 different migrations where startups have moved from Slack to Element for its security features. Every single one moved to either Microsoft Teams or Mattermost within a month. 2 of them had a revolt and the engineers reverted to email for realtime collaboration. #Element has lost the #usability battle when Microsoft seems a better option.