2022 (p. 3/4)

Don’t Alienate Your User: A Primer for Internationalisation & Localisation

prototypr.io

This article by Sophie Clifton-Tucker presents a whole range of considerations how to better consider varying cultural norms in design. It illustrates the difference between internationalization (i18n) as a "pre-launch" design phase task, and the "post-launch" localization (l10n), but most importantly provides an even broader perspective in calling for culturally aware design.
#design-for-all
2022

Blind Accessible Comics

spinweaveandcut.com

My interest in the accessibility of information visualisations occasionally leads me into the rather niche topic of accessible comics. **Comics and graphic novels share a lot of the accessibility challenges information visualisations have** (content that is by definition first and foremost visual), hence the approaches to solving the challenge could cross-pollinate.
#design-for-all
2022

Frugal computing

wimvanderbauwhede.github.io

Highlighting how even radical reductions in **emissions in other fields will be nullified if the emissions from computing keep rising at the current pace**, Wim Vanderbauwhede makes the case for "frugal computing".
2022

How many people with disabilities use our site?

hidde.blog

Hidde de Vries’ short and to-the-point article between analytics and accessibility contains three important highlights: It is impossible to reliably measure “disability” through web analytics Even if it were, those numbers would rather be a […]
#design-for-all
2022

Dark Patterns in Personal Data Collection: Definition, Taxonomy and Lawfulness

papers.ssrn.com

In “Dark Patterns in Personal Data Collection: Definition, Taxonomy and Lawfulness” Luiza Jarovsky dissects deceptive design patterns from a legal perspective, pointing to the fact that current privacy legislation does not properly address these […]
#design
2022

Datenschutz-Transparenz für Sehbehinderte

datenschutz-notizen.de

This blog post by the German privacy blog “Datenschutz-Notizen” poses more questions than it provides answers, but I find it noteworthy for bringing together three of my core interests: legal design, accessibility and privacy. The text refers to a […]
#design-for-all
2022

Your Digital Footprint: It's Bigger Than You Realize

cnet.com

This story starts with a story of conscious technology non-use: an average American, so upset by the opaque tracking of his everyday life, that he decides to pull the plug in an act of self-defence:
Crum, a charming individual who shares his […]
2022

PSA: Google et al. may lock you out of your account at will …and they do

What if you woke up tomorrow, and saw that you were blocked from Google. You’d probably be confused, right? You didn’t think you’d done anything wrong. Why would you be denied access to your Google account? Suddenly not being able to use […]
2022

Reposting a Tweet by Eileen Wang

twitter.com

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2022

Chinese Number Websites: The Secret Meaning of URLs

newrepublic.com

At first sight, this article may not have much to do with accessibility or inclusive design. Yet, after reading it, I suddenly realized how even my own thinking, deliberately tuned to think in an inclusive, prejudice-free way wherever possible, has been biased by a preconception of something I do not fully understand.
#design-for-all
2022

Championing Inclusive Research Through User Stories

answerlab.com

When people ask me what I do as a UX researcher my answer is usually along the lines of “I watch people struggle with technology without judging them.” And I’ve watched hundreds of people struggle with technology.
In an […]
#design-for-all
2022

Situated Software

shirky.com

Sometimes, an article from 18 years ago can still be of great relevance and inspiration. That’s what happened when I encountered Clay Shirky’s essay on “Situated software” (by way of an equally interesting personal project by Robin Sloan) today.
2022

Progressive Enhancement, the New Hotness™

gomakethings.com

It’s 2022, and 36.8% of respondents (not a representative survey, but assuming the demographic of Sara Soueidan’s Twitter followers to be dominantly web developers: even more shocking) don’t know what Progressive Enhancement is. This short […]
#design-for-all
2022

How many people are missing out on JavaScript enhancement?

gds.blog.gov.uk

This is a 9 years old article. Yet, while the quantitative numbers may have shifted in one direction or the other, the qualitative statements stand unchanged: it cannot – and must not – be assumed that all JavaScript code is executed for every visitor of a website.
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2022

Write plain text files

sive.rs

Derek Sivers lays out the arguments for creating digital files in plain text format whenever feasible. This is at the core of building a strategy for resilient digital assets – while fancy formats come and go, a plain text file written on MS-DOS in the […]
2022

Everyone has JavaScript, right?

kryogenix.org

Stuart Langridge presents this simple, yet convincing flow chart to illustrates all the various things that may go wrong as users request a web site requiring JavaScript code.
#design-for-all
2022

The ROAM policy principles for an inclusive internet

Molly Holzschlag called for more attention to the UNESCO’s ROAM principles, a United Nations policy framework for an internet for all: Rights, Openness, Accessibility to all, Multistakeholder participation.
#design-for-all
2022

Visualizing the Length of the Fine Print, for 14 Popular Apps

visualcapitalist.com

Having referenced Dima Yarovinsky’s exhibition installation “I agree”, visualizing the overwhelming size of web platforms’ “terms and conditions”, on various occasions, this visualization by Nicholas LePan struck a […]
2022

Visualisation of law and legal Process: An opportunity missed

journals.sagepub.com

This academic paper is based on a systematic content analysis of legal texts, building a statistic on how often flowcharts and similar visualizations were used to make legal concepts more approachable. The result – astonishingly, but maybe not surprisingly […]
2022

How the Accessible Usability Scale Makes User Research More Inclusive

equalentry.com

This looks like a very interesting impulse for more inclusive UX research:
Fable released a tool called the Accessible Usability Scale , which we have made freely available. It is specifically meant for conducting research with assistive […]
#design-for-all
2022

The New Requirements for WCAG 2.2

visionaustralia.org

While WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 are the current standards demanded by many legislative frameworks, work is well under way towards the next version, WCAG 2.2, which can also be expected to become the overall baseline at some point. Hence, this review of the drafted […]
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2022

No Accessibility Without Disabilities

yatil.net

As with any fields of design, confirmation bias can stop us from seeing the reality. Eric Eggert points out how (in this field of design, too, one may add) only verifying solutions with real users – in this case people with disabilities – will lead to good results.
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2022

Digital Profiling in the Online Gambling Industry

crackedlabs.org

Wolfie Christl aka CrackedLabs is known for his meticulous investigations of surveillance adtech’s inner workings. This latest research report, on the dangers and perils related to behavioral advertising in the online gambling context, is no exception […]
2022

What is Design? Note on Bill Buxton

maeda.pm

John Maeda’s commentary on an essay by Bill Buxton writes out something that is tacit knowledge to many designers, but that deserves attention from a strategic perspective:
The difference between a sketch and prototype is a matter of where you want to put risk. To make a sketch presents a lower risk, but embodies higher risks because the sketched idea may be untested and unviable. To make a prototype presents a higher risk (due to production costs), but embodies loser risks because the prototyped idea can be tested for viability.
#design
2022

The Prussian semaphore telegraph system

The history of communication technology is not just a collection of – often curious – inventions and developments, but also a valuable reminder that even most things we consider "innovative" today likely have roots far back in time. A recent blog post motivated me to finally write up one of these historical curiosities I encountered in the most unlikely of places: the countryside outside Berlin.
2022