Accessible UX by design
How brands are designing for accessible experiences
Shoutout to Alexa & Google quietly bringing AI into our homes.
Over the past few years, digitalisation through design has influenced nearly every existing and emerging market possible. Alexa & Google Home have shifted notions of how we see AI in the home. But most notably the advancements in AI are astonishing — the iPhone X was arguably the flagship product of these advancements last year, with its facial recognition.
Computers are getting smarter and how they capture us is getting even smarter than that. Computers have been able to comprehend text and speech for a long time but as sharper eyes and smarter brains are making computers more and more human-like, we are even starting to see them comprehend images, emotions and different scenarios.
The opportunities for organisations and designers born out of this technology are massive. They will be able to benefit from engaging with this powerful new source of data to create new digital services that add value and are truly compelling for their users.
Eyes and smarter brains are making computers more and more human-like.
But one question still lingers. How can we make this technology more accessible to the extremes? Here are a few examples of how brands are designing accessibility into their experiences.
1) Microsoft
A more heroic use of AI, if you ask me, can be seen through Microsofts ongoing Seeing AI research project. Designed for the blind and low vision community, Seeing AI aims to harness the power of AI technology to open up the visual world to the visually impaired.
As an example this project is striking but I’m not suggesting we all go out and try projects as ambitious as this. There are already well-established methods for the visually impaired to interpret physical design but when it comes to digital we should move with caution.
I feel as if many will want to simply change their UI to be bigger and more ‘user-friendly’ but AI technology could be so much more than that. Microsoft has shown that by using digital as an enabler for a sensory experience.
2) Uber
In order to design services to be accessible, organisations need to start imagining a new generation of services that create more and more information that can be captured visually.
Uber is doing just that.
They have considered the degree in which their hard of hearing users may need the Uber service to respond to their device. Many deaf drivers were finding it hard to communicate with their riders, focus on spoken directions from a guide or even accept phone calls.
Uber worked around this by providing written cues for drivers, flash prompts and notifications. These were all through AI technology.
“Building Bridges in Communication”
These are all simple changes that Uber have made to make their service more accessible but have a very strong impact on how users are able to interact with it. In this case for the hard of hearing, it’s a positive outcome.
3) Twitter (shoutout)
I haven’t come across many social media attempts to design accessibility into their service so Twitter deserves a shoutout for this. By enabling pictures to be described by the service many blind users are able to make the most of their feeds and engage with posts more.
Designing for accessibility
I’m sure there are many other examples of designing for accessible experiences but I believe these three examples provide a broad range of how organisations are utilising the use of AI technology to design for better and more accessible experiences.
This post was inspired by Fjord’s 2018 trends on AI.
