Writing
Mostly about the people our defaults leave out, and what it takes to design for them on purpose rather than by accident.
Designers don't need Figma anymore
Figma costs us $21,000 a year for a canvas we rarely open, so I am letting it go. First I am making sure the history inside it comes with us.
Who is an accessibility file for?
GitHub now gives accessibility its own tab on a project, next to the license. I added the file to this site, and the part I did not want to write turned out to be the useful one.
What does a model owe you when it is not sure?
Every tool I have built can be fluent about something it got wrong, and I had never thought of that as a design choice.
Who writes the alt text for a picture nobody drew?
Alt text has always been written by someone who looked at the picture, and I had not noticed how much that assumption was carrying.
What should a team hand each other instead of a picture?
For as long as I have worked in this field the unit of design communication has been an image, and I am no longer sure it can carry what we need it to.
Who verifies what the agents built?
Generation got faster and review did not, and I keep wondering what is falling into the space between them.
Who can afford to participate?
We say participants give us their time, which is a polite way of saying we asked them to work and did not always plan to pay for it.
Is a terminal a user interface?
We argued for twenty years that screens should be readable, then moved our working day into one nobody ever measured.
What should an agent be allowed to do without asking?
A tool I built quietly rewrote my own source files six times before I noticed, and I had been watching it the whole afternoon.
How do you stop being the person who knows?
Everybody brought their questions to me. It felt like the most valuable thing about me. It was also the reason my team never had to learn.
How do you keep something powerful approachable?
I spent years being told that good design means less on the screen, and the best interface I ever worked on was one of the densest things I have seen.
How do we learn a spec nobody reads?
Nobody learns a language by reading its dictionary, and I think that explains most of what is wrong with how we teach accessibility.
Should a design system have a file written for machines?
Writing rules for a reader who cannot ask a follow-up question turned out to be the clearest thinking I have done about my own design system.
Where do accessibility decisions actually get made?
The color that failed our audit was chosen eleven months earlier, in about two seconds.
What happens when designers open pull requests?
I asked a room of senior designers to do something they would be visibly bad at, and I had not thought hard enough about what that costs a person.
What does the thirtieth study tell you that the first does not?
I ran accessibility research for years before I ran enough of it to find out that the people I was learning from disagreed with each other.
Who was not in the room when the data was designed?
We built a reporting tool about disabled students that disabled people could not open, and nobody involved did anything wrong.
What can a prototype made of drawings never answer?
I spent years reviewing pictures of interfaces and calling it design review.
When is a standard still cheap to change?
A bricklayer has about ninety minutes to move a brick, and I keep thinking our specifications work the same way.
Whose accessibility is it when you did not build it?
The signing screen in our onboarding flow was not ours, and I am no longer sure that matters.
Who does Lorem Ipsum leave out?
I have filled thousands of text boxes with fake Latin and never once wondered what it sounds like out loud.
Should a design portfolio be accessible?
As designers, our job is to create experiences that are inclusive and welcoming to everyone. Yet, how often do we think about accessibility when it comes to our own resumes and portfolios? In this article I'll share some accessibility and explain why making your resume and portfolio accessible is not just important, but essential.
What does a flashing screen cost someone with epilepsy?
As designers, we have a profound responsibility to create safe and inclusive digital environments. One critical aspect of this is avoiding flashing content in our designs. While WCAG 2.3.1 allows for content that flashes under strict parameters, it is strongly recommended to refrain from using flashing elements altogether.
What do neurodivergent users need from our designs?
Just like how everyone sees and appreciates art in their own way, the way we interact with digital spaces can also be unique. This is especially true for those who are neurodivergent, and as UX designers, we need to keep these differences in mind. This article will guide you through some essential tips for designing with neurodivergent users in mind.
Who can read your chart?
It is unfortunate the way we designers typically present data – through infographics, maps, charts, and other visual formats – inherently favoring sighted and with a higher than average literacy level. This exclusionary approach leaves many people behind, particularly those with visual impairment or cognitive disabilities. As designers and developers, it's time we broaden our perspective and champion inclusivity.
What changes when disabled people are on the team?
How involving disabled people early in the design process can lead to more accessible products
How do you move a whole team to Figma without the drama?
As design tools release real-time collaboration features, design teams struggle to adapt to this new way of working. These new features invite designers - and managers - to be more thoughtful about scalable interface design architecture.
What would you ask your future self?
In this time-travel activity, I propose an activity that focuses on creating an inclusive mindset from the standpoint that a lack of disability is, in fact, only temporary.
Learning to recognize exclusion
Who do we exclude, intentionally or not, in the work we do as designers and researchers? Written with Dr. Lesley-Ann Noel for the UXPA Journal of Usability Studies, this paper argues that recognizing exclusion is a skill that can be taught, and shares the tools we use to help practitioners see whose voice is missing, make space for plurality, and become first responders for inclusion.