July 4, 2023 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #412
This newsletter issue was sent out to 212,321 subscribers on Tuesday, July 4, 2023.
Editorial
Accessibility isn’t about compliance. It’s not about ticking off checkboxes in an accessibility checklist. It’s not about accessibility overlays either. Instead, it’s about designing with a wide range of people in mind. It’s about including and respecting everyone — independent of what skills and preferences they have.
In today’s newsletter, we look at accessibility and inclusive design. We explore how to design with neurodiversity in mind, how to respect and consider dyslexia, ADHD, dyscalculia, and general do’s and don’ts to keep in mind. We hope you’ll find a few useful gems in there.
As a quick reminder, we also have some friendly printed books and eBooks around the web, and while SmashingConf Freiburg is already sold out, we do have a few tickets for our shiny new SmashingConf Antwerp in October this year.
Ah, we have announced some brand new online workshops, too — including Carie Fisher’s Accessible Components From Design To Development. Happy joining in, and we hope to see you there! 🎉🥳
— Vitaly
1. Neurodiversity Design System
How can we support neurodiverse users when creating digital experiences? In his Neurodiversity Design System, Will Soward details a set of standards and principles that combines neurodiversity and user experience design for Learning Management Systems.
Particularly interesting for sites, apps, or services that need to hold a person’s attention for an extended period of time — such as interactive learning media — the design system presents a collection of design principles informed by the needs of neurodiverse users. It covers everything from typography and color to buttons, links, inputs, interface, communication, and animation. Also, part of the design system is a collection of personas characterizing traits and qualities of neurodiverse as well as neurotypical users. Valuable tips that, if put into action, benefit everyone. (cm)
2. Dyslexia Style Guide
The British Dyslexia Association estimates that ten percent of the population is dyslexic. Dyslexia not only affects the ability to read and write, but it can also have an effect on coordination, organization, and memory. To help you ensure your written material considers the difficulties experienced by dyslexic people, the British Dyslexia Association published a dyslexia-friendly style guide.
The style guide covers principles for readable fonts, heading and structure, color, and layout. They are not difficult to implement and will make all written communication easier on the eye for everyone, whether it’s emails, presentations, web pages, or printed material. Small tweaks that make a real difference. (cm)
3. Building For ADHD
We all know those moments when we struggle to focus, and a website bombards us with too many options or asks for too much of our attention, making it hard to concentrate and keep on track. While this might only be a momentary condition for most users, for users with ADHD, an extreme lack of focus is the normal state. So how can we design products to support them?
The post “Building for ADHD will make your product better for everyone” dives deeper into how to get users who struggle with focus to onboard and sustain interest in your product. As the post points out, by designing for ADHD, you can uncover areas of friction for everyone that may otherwise go unobserved. Maybe you were overwhelming users by giving them too many things to handle at once, maybe you asked them to remember too much information or created a false sense of urgency that resulted in anxiety. Again, a wonderful example of how inclusive design benefits everyone. (cm)
4. Designing For Dyscalculia
Dyscalculia makes it hard for someone to read, understand, and work with numbers. They might have difficulties handling money, managing time, understanding percentages, following instructions, or remembering PINs and phone numbers. But it’s not only people with dyscalculia who struggle with numbers. According to National Numeracy, low numeracy affects half of the working-age adults in the UK. So how can we convey numbers in a way that is easy for everyone to understand?
GOV.UK published an accessibility poster with practical design do’s and don’ts to help people make better sense of numbers. And again, it’s the small changes that make a significant difference: don’t use decimals unless it’s money, for example, leave space around numbers, and use sentences to add context about numbers instead of percentages. (cm)
5. Upcoming Workshops and Conferences
That’s right! We run online workshops on frontend and design, be it accessibility, performance, or design patterns. In fact, we have a couple of workshops coming up soon, and we thought that, you know, you might want to join in as well.
As always, here’s a quick overview:
- Data Visualization Masterclass UX
with Amelia Wattenberger. July 4–18 - Figma Workflow Masterclass Design
with Christine Vallaure. July 20–28 - Advanced JavaScript Masterclass Dev
with Christophe Porteneuve. Aug 16–30 - Interface Design Patterns UX Training UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Sep 8–Oct 6 - Accessible Components Dev
with Carie Fisher. Sep 14–22 - Typography Masterclass Design
with Elliot Jay Stocks. Oct 16–30 - Strategizing Products and Customer Experiences UX
with Debbie Levitt. Oct 18–26 - Design KPIs Masterclass UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Oct 31 – Nov 8 - Building Modern HTML Emails Dev
with Rémi Parmentier. Nov 16–24 - Jump to all workshops →
6. Inclusive Design Guidelines
When we talk about inclusive design, we often talk about physical disabilities like vision impairments or motor skill disorders. Psychological disorders or neurodiversity are often forgotten in the discussion. The team at Nomensa wanted to change that and published an introduction to inclusive design as seen from this perspective.
The guide describes some of the most common types of neurodiversity, psychological disorders, and learning difficulties and how to accommodate user experiences and products to them — with easy methods but also guidance on more difficult solutions. The focus of the guide lies on dyslexia, autism, ADHD, dyscalculia, and anxiety disorders. A helpful overview and a good reminder to not lose these conditions out of sight when designing inclusive experiences. (cm)
7. Accessibility Do’s And Don’ts
While using bright contrast helps improve the experience for users with low vision, some users on the autistic spectrum would prefer simple colors. To get you more familiar with the different preferences and needs that different users have, Karwai Pun and the accessibility group at GOV.UK created a set of posters with accessibility dos and don’ts.
Each of the seven posters is dedicated to a different user group and includes five dos and five don’ts you should consider when designing for them. The posters cover the autistic spectrum, low vision, physical and motor disabilities, dyslexia, anxiety, screen reader users, and users who are deaf or hard of hearing. You can download them for free in a variety of languages. (cm)
8. News From The Smashing Library 📚
Promoting best practices and providing you with practical tips to master your daily coding and design challenges has always been at the core of everything we do at Smashing.
In the past few years, we were very lucky to have worked together with some talented, caring people from the web community to publish their wealth of experience as printed books. Have you checked them out already?
- Understanding Privacy by Heather Burns
- Touch Design for Mobile Interfaces by Steven Hoober
- Image Optimization by Addy Osmani
- Check out all books →
That’s All, Folks!
Thank you so much for reading and for your support in helping us keep the web dev and design community strong with our newsletter. See you next time!
This newsletter issue was written and edited by Geoff Graham (gg), Cosima Mielke (cm), Vitaly Friedman (vf), and Iris Lješnjanin (il).
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