Accessibility must be a default feature of product design. As the world becomes more inclusive of everyone, regardless of race, gender and disability, so does the digital world. Many web developers and product designers now place a premium on the usability of their products for a variety of users, including people with disabilities.
So, how do you ensure that people with unique needs can easily access your website? Hiring a product designer is a foolproof way to ensure universal accessibility. Limeup is a qualified web developer who can help your business website rank better. Limeup's product designers can tailor product designs to best suit your brand, requirements and preferences.
What is accessible product design?
Having an accessible product design means allowing all users to navigate the software easily and effortlessly. Your website must be easily accessible to anyone, regardless of disability, age, and condition. It must be user-friendly, especially for people with temporary or permanent impairments such as visual, hearing, cognitive, physical and speech impairments.
Website accessibility means that vulnerable people can scroll and navigate your website without any difficulty. For example, to be accessible to the visually impaired, your website needs to contain good color contrast and readable text. You can also provide text-to-speech functionality for those who have difficulty seeing and reading.
Another example of temporary disability is a parent visiting your website with an infant in one arm. The user must be able to easily read content, view graphics, and navigate web pages using only the user's operable arms.
Why is accessibility important?
Accessibility is not just an issue in the tech or digital world. More importantly, this is a human rights issue that must be addressed in all aspects of life, both offline and online. We’ve listed the reasons why accessibility is important for your product design.
Better user experience (UX)
The accessibility of a website depends on the user's experience. Since accessible product design means ease of access, use, and navigation, users are likely to enjoy their time and experience on your website. Accessibility features not only benefit users with disabilities, but also people with disabilities. Those who don't will also enjoy a seamless user experience.
Comply with website accessibility laws
Countries like the United States have rules and regulations regarding inclusivity on websites and apps. Under website accessibility laws, software and digital technologies must be inclusive of all people with disabilities, regardless of their level of disability. Therefore, if you fail to ensure universal accessibility of your product design, you may face legal charges.
Higher lead generation and conversion rates
Since a highly accessible website provides a better experience to users, more people are likely to visit your website. Improved traffic also means a greater likelihood of lead generation and conversion. Users (including people with disabilities) are potential customers, and you can convince them to buy your product or interact with your brand by improving accessibility and user experience.
Inclusive and non-discriminatory branding
Brand image and reputation reflect a lot about a business or company. What do you think people would say about your brand if you treated people with disabilities differently? To avoid being labeled discriminatory, you must develop an accessible product design that prioritizes the needs of vulnerable users.
How to ensure the accessibility of product design?
A basic understanding of product design accessibility is not enough to guarantee accessibility. Even product designers may overlook the accessibility features of their digital content, thereby failing to achieve universally accessible product designs. You need an experienced team of product designers with the technical expertise to ensure easy access for people with unique needs.
Use the right colors and themes
Your website's theme and color combination are important accessibility elements. They are key to the readability and clarity of web content. Therefore, you must use appropriate color contrast for your website’s text and background. This way, users, especially those with visual impairments, will not have a hard time reading and understanding your website.
think about your words
A large part of your website consists of text and paragraphs that are indispensable for people with dyslexia and visual impairment. You must do research to ensure that your text is easy to read for people with visual problems. For example, you must know the correct font style, size, effect, and character spacing to help people read and decode the information on your website.
Consider touch targets for mobile users
Essentially, a touch target or touch area in a phone is the part of the screen that can be easily reached by the human thumb. Touch targets are usually at the bottom of the screen because one-handed users can easily reach that part with their thumb. You can consider this information when designing your product to ensure mobile users can easily navigate your website or app.
Perform user testing
One of the best practices for professional web developers and product designers is to conduct user testing. If you want to ensure the universal accessibility of your application or website, you must perform these tests on a variety of users, including those with special needs and disabilities. This will enable developers and designers to identify design elements and features that must be edited to meet the needs of different users.
Why is accessibility testing needed?
Accessibility testing is a necessary step to ensure you have an all-encompassing digital product. Sometimes, no matter how meticulous you are when designing your product, you still can't see the gaps and accessibility issues in your web design. Therefore, performing accessibility testing will help identify these shortcomings so that you can modify your website to be a more inclusive offering.
Accessibility in product design is key to inclusivity. Web developers and designers now realize the importance of universal access to generate traffic and better lead conversion. With accessible product design, you will be able to effectively penetrate your market so that more users, with or without disabilities, can access your website.