Great discussion!
I think that great user experience incorporates the 3 circles of design,
accessibility and usability. There was a big push 10-15 years ago for sites
to jump through all the hoops and get accredited but even at the time I
found that to get accredited for AA or AAA could mean compromising an
aspect of the site.
I've experienced first hand our clients websites passing all the online
checkers, but then the client insisting in certain type of functionality -
whether thats connecting to a 3rd party application or back office system,
which, on the whole improves the overall user experience (which is
important), but the javascript that we've had to put in order for it to
work, essentially breaks the site in terms of accessibility.
As we move away from websites being the only digital connection to an
organisation, accessibility does seem to have taken the backseat.
The buzz works seems to be UX, but people seem to confuse this with
accessibility. I've seen beautiful accessible sites, powered by the worst
CMS user interface - not great for admin's accessibility! We very much like
to make everything from the admin dashboard to the website accessible and
usable - its the whole thing that needs to be accessible, not just what is
presented to the end user.
Also as we move away from the desktop website and onto smart mobile
devices, how accessible are these devices? Has anyone here actually turned
on and used the accessibility function on their iPhone and then tested
their website or app?
Currently we've developed a platform to work with ibeacons and one of the
things we are looking at is how this can be used to improve accessibility -
examples include being able to add addition audio descriptions for visually
impaired users for exhibitions, or placing ibeacons near such facilities as
access ramps or toilets.
Tech is great but has to be inclusive of everyone and I do hope that
accessibility comes back to the forefront - maybe we should start labelling
accessibility 'AX' to make it sound cool, like people start calling user
experience or usability UX...
Richard
On 30 January 2015 at 10:43, Tony Crockford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > On 30 Jan 2015, at 10:32, Mia <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > That's interesting, because more often than not the 'techies' I hear
> from say apps have been foisted upon them by their marketing departments.
> Who *is* asking for apps then?
>
> I think it’s this:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abilene_paradox
>
> IMHO there’s a lot of “doing something novel with new technology” as 'we
> can get funding' for it, as opposed to “doing the right thing” (like
> curating and interpreting objects in depth) which isn’t as fundable.
>
> Content First….
>
> :o)
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