Accessibility as Innovation: Looking more broadly at user research & usability testing with Whitney Quesenbery
Just as responsive web design aims at designing for a diversity of devices, accessible design aims at creating products that are modern, global, responsive and which work for people with a wide range of abilities. If we aim to design for all senses we can focus on good design to create delightful user experiences where accessibility and usability work together. The result is a web for everyone.
Rather than a checklist of design and technology guidelines, or as a problem of compliance with regulatory standards, accessibility can be viewed as a challenge to design for a broader audience. This approach can be applied to any design problem, from physical objects to software to service design to web sites and apps for web or mobile devices. This presentation is aimed at connecting the goals of user experience and accessibility, showing how they not only work together, but that focusing a design on accessibility first can result in innovative web sites and applications.
About Whitney
Whitney combines a fascination with people and an obsession to communicate clearly with her goal of bringing user research insights to designing products where people matter. She's written three books on the subject - Storytelling for User Experience and A Web for Everyone (Rosenfeld Media) and Global UX (MKP/Elsevier) - to help practitioners keep users in mind throughout the creative process.
She's also passionate about improving the way government communicates with citizens. She is the co-director of the Center for Civic Design, which works with election officials on usability and design of ballots, voter guides, and other election materials. Before she was seduced by a little beige computer into software, usability, and interface design, Whitney was a theatrical lighting designer on and off Broadway, learning about storytelling from some of the masters.
Follow Whitney's practical UX advice anytime on Twitter: @whitneyq or @civicdesign
Time and Date
Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014
6:30-7 p.m.: Light dinner and networking
7-8 p.m.: Presentation
8-8:30 p.m.: Q&A