As a developer, you want to create more inclusive and accessible digital experiences for your users. Great! It’s possible, however, that you might be feeling a bit confused or overwhelmed by the element attributes that can affect the usability for users of assistive technology. ARIA (or WAI-ARIA, Web Accessibility Initiative-Accessible Rich Internet Applications) defines some… Continue reading Distinguishing between ARIA and native HTML attributes
Tag: used
The Art of Engineering AI Prompts
AI By Louise North 3 days ago In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, the ability to communicate effectively with AI tools has become an indispensable skill. Whether you’re generating content, solving complex data problems, or creating stunning digital art, the quality of the outcomes you receive is directly influenced by the prompts you… Continue reading The Art of Engineering AI Prompts
Crafting an effective design system strategy
How to build a strategy, not a roadmap A design system is a product. A product that solves concrete tasks: ensuring consistency reducing development time and much more Most often, the main reason to create a new product is that you want it to be different from the existing ones on the market. After all, why waste time… Continue reading Crafting an effective design system strategy
3 Common Color Accessibility Issues One Can Easily Avoid
Color is often used to evoke emotions and emphasis. That’s one of the reasons why designers see color as an important element in their work. Colors communicate messages on both psychological and visual level. The importance of color is undeniable, but is basing the message solely on color the right thing to do? This post… Continue reading 3 Common Color Accessibility Issues One Can Easily Avoid
The extended designer, and the design machine
The Extended Designer spends less time making products, and more time making progress. The Extended Designer spends less time making products, and more time making progress. 2023 has been Generative AI’s breakout year, but that has been greeted by some fairly mixed responses, particularly from Designers. As the terrain we all live on reconfigures around… Continue reading The extended designer, and the design machine
Housing, It’s a Human Right (Part 2)
A 3-Part Series on the digital accessibility of the housing process experienced by people with disabilities. In this 3-part series, we will look at the challenges and rewards of the entire experience surrounding the process of acquiring housing for people who live with a disability. We will look at: Buying an existing home Leasing an… Continue reading Housing, It’s a Human Right (Part 2)
Designing a colour system
Building multi-brand colour systems that support light and dark modes with minimum effort. It is all about organizing, naming and choosing the right colour values for the system to work. I would like to share my view on the issue and tell about the methods I choose to make the system. Made with design tokens Design tokens are… Continue reading Designing a colour system
Why Unique ID Attributes Matter
Ambiguous IDs can cause both your developers and your users a lot of frustration, and may ultimately damage customer relations. A Little Background It’s one of the most common WCAG 4.1.1 violations reported by automated accessibility testing tools such as aXe, and it can cause a fair share of problems for your users. It happens… Continue reading Why Unique ID Attributes Matter
15 Best New Fonts, October 2023
Fonts By Ben Moss Yesterday We’re entering the final quarter of 2023, and even in the pre-holiday lull, there are still plenty of fonts to get excited about. In this month’s edition of our roundup of the best new fonts for designers, there are lots of revivals, some excellent options for logo designers, and some… Continue reading 15 Best New Fonts, October 2023
Ensuring negative numbers are available for everyone
This post is co-authored by Michael Fairchild and Jeremy Katherman. That little minus sign before a number is very important. It can mean the difference between having money in your bank account or paying overdraft fees. It can be the difference between a deposit or a withdrawal. Negative numbers can be indicated in several ways,… Continue reading Ensuring negative numbers are available for everyone
We need to have “The Talk”
Generative AI raises legal and ethical issues for all of us A couple of months ago I posted my concerns about the ethics of Generative Art and AI/ChatGPT. In that piece, I suggested that there need to be some Ethics and Standards guidelines in place to guide UX and Graphics professionals in the use of these… Continue reading We need to have “The Talk”
How to create a color ramp used in design systems
Whether you’re a brand designer putting the finishing touches on a color palette or a product designer laying the foundational work for a design system, I will walk you through how to create color ramps utilized in design systems. If you’re new to creating color palettes for digital spaces, check out my previous article, Color for… Continue reading How to create a color ramp used in design systems
How to AI
Three approaches to deploying generative AI for brands and corporations. 11 out 12 are generated by AI. One is real. Which one? | Source: Imagenavi & Jimmy Fermin History rhymes This isn’t a trick question: 11 out of 12 in the image above are generated by AI. Which one is the real person? I posed this quiz… Continue reading How to AI
15 Best New Fonts, September 2023
Fonts By Ben Moss 4 days ago Nothing upgrades your designs like selecting the right font. It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of using the same typeface over and over, so every month, we publish this roundup to freshen up your font menu. In this month’s edition, you’ll find plenty of sans-serifs… Continue reading 15 Best New Fonts, September 2023
Our desire for certainty can make us terrible planners
Memory, Image Theory, and the empty pursuit of certainty Midjourney Sometimes it feels like all we do is plan — and then plan for more planning. But what are the cognitive mechanisms we use to ‘plan’? and are they optimized for getting things ‘right’? If we were optimized to be right, we probably wouldn’t be so quick to… Continue reading Our desire for certainty can make us terrible planners
How to ‘un-stuck’ your design work
Three lifelines to call on when you’re feeling stuck creatively I’ve been a professional designer for over twenty years, working across a wide range of media: UX/UI, motion, branding, web design, mobile apps, and creative coding. Most lately, I’ve been developing my font design practice. Design is a long journey of exploration and growth. You… Continue reading How to ‘un-stuck’ your design work
Accessibility of the Button: Should We Fix It or the Root Cause Problem?
Let me tell you a story along the lines of…Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button? Typical “how to” articles are dry laundry lists of tactical “do this/don’t do that” mechanics that do nothing to help you think about WHY you should do things differently. Today, I’m going to share a more strategic accessible design approach… Continue reading Accessibility of the Button: Should We Fix It or the Root Cause Problem?
Almost Ready! WCAG 2.2 is one small step away from being officially done!
A new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is almost ready. WCAG 2.2 should be finalized in August 2023. This is a minor version update. If you are already familiar with WCAG 2.0 and/or 2.1, you probably have a number of questions. And we’ve got up-to-date answers! Why isn’t WCAG 2.2 ready yet?… Continue reading Almost Ready! WCAG 2.2 is one small step away from being officially done!
What’s the difference between design values and principles?
Collectively, design values and principles are the guiding beliefs and priorities that shape the design process for any design team, product or designer. But what should they be, and what’s the difference between them? Photo by Tyler Lastovich on Unsplash We’re all different, and whether we’re aware of it or not we’re all likely to have our… Continue reading What’s the difference between design values and principles?
Designing for AI: beyond the chatbot
Guidelines and strategies for meaningfully leveraging AI in your applications With the recent advancements in AI, we as designers, builders, and creators, face big questions about the future of applications and how people will interact with digital experiences. Generative AI has unleashed huge possibilities with what we can do with AI. People are now using… Continue reading Designing for AI: beyond the chatbot
Setting up performance reviews for Product Designers
Take a few shortcuts with my comprehensive guide on evaluating designers Why is evaluating designers so difficult? Evaluating the performance of a product designer within a startup or agency environment is challenging. It involves a mixture of objective and subjective data that is synthesized in an attempt to gauge if someone is to be rewarded,… Continue reading Setting up performance reviews for Product Designers
Apple Vision Pro: how to turn people into 24/7 surveillance agents for capitalism
From Apple.com In the world of tech, innovation is a double-edged sword. On one side, we have the allure of cutting-edge technology, promising to revolutionize our lives. But what happens when this revolution infringes on our privacy? The latest product from Apple, the Vision Pro AR headset, is a perfect example of this dichotomy. The… Continue reading Apple Vision Pro: how to turn people into 24/7 surveillance agents for capitalism
Are we there yet? WCAG 2.2 is at the Candidate Recommendation v3
If you’re a regular reader of the Deque blog, you may be asking yourself, haven’t I read this already? Well my friend, you may have. In September 2022, WCAG 2.2 reached the Candidate Recommendation (CR) stage for the first time. Then on January 25, 2023, WCAG 2.2 entered a second round of CR. And, you… Continue reading Are we there yet? WCAG 2.2 is at the Candidate Recommendation v3
Software accessibility for users with Dyslexia
It is estimated that 15% of the population has Dyslexia. In absolute numbers this means that 30 million adults in the USA alone are dyslexic and a lot of them don’t even know — because it is often not diagnosed. Dyslexia is a cognitive disability where the brain has difficulties to manipulate the sounds and letters of… Continue reading Software accessibility for users with Dyslexia