Accessibility is the concept of whether a product or service can be used by everyone—however they encounter it. Accessibility laws exist to aid people with disabilities, but designers should try to accommodate all potential users in many contexts of use anyway. To do so has firm benefits—notably better designs for all. I am going to…
The Appeal of Oregon Trail
Oregon Trail has a certain rustic charm and probably evokes nostalgia for many. The game doesn’t rely on fancy graphics or functions to provide entertainment, but is based heavily on chance and the user’s own decisions. In a way, it is similar to gambling as you take risks and choose how to spend your time,…
Evolution of Mac and Xerox UI
Some of the first concepts and functions of computers that we are so familiarized with today were revolutionary not that long ago. In 1982, the Xerox Star boasted a desktop-like interface in which the user could organize his or her files, folders, and documents. It was accompanied by a keyboard with the regular typing keys,…
Charlotte Perriand: The Underappreciated Genius
Charlotte Perriand is an artist who wasn’t given her due credit. She was a designer from France born in 1903 who mostly worked on “furniture, scale models, and photographs” (Luckel). She works with wood and metal for the development of these sculptures and pieces, but she has created a sense of genuineness, pragmatism, and aesthetics…
Braille Board
I think today’s UI or app have already included some feature for users who were blind, physically disabled, or have hearing issues. However, I think most of the force users to learn something new. But sometimes is already really hard for the normal user to learn new features, so I think maybe we can build…
Could a Designer be a Murder?
Northern California has been dealing with catastrophic seasonal fires for the last couple of years. Its deadly blaze has killed over 85 and destroyed 18,804 homes in 2018, according to USA TODAY. If you remember, this year’s wildfire was extremely severe, and it lasted for a couple of months until it got under control. During this…
Information Landscape/Patterns
The Information Landscapes demo from The Visible Language Workshop initially confused me, as the necessity to display information in a three-dimensional plane has not caught on entirely. 3D modelling is incredibly useful for diagrams and demonstrations, but to display text and keywords on multiple planes reminded me of a simple Google search and made me…
Mobile Phone line for blind
Last night when I went to bed and closed all the lights, I found that I forgot to charge my phone. In the dark room, I touched around just like blind people. After I found my Mobile phone line. I was trying to find the hole on the phone and put the data line into…
Design Patterns
Christopher Alexander’s spatial architecture and design patterns can be easily overlooked by most of us living in them, but once you consider the profound impact his concepts have had on our neighborhoods and communities, it is impossible to unsee. As someone once oblivious to how housing is set up and the impact location has on…
ASL for Siri
Siri is one of my favorite features on the iPhone and one that I use incredibly frequently. The tool is particularly useful to me if I am driving, wherein my vision and kinetic ability are limited. In this situation, my voice is the only safe and available method to interact with my phone. And I’m…
Voice Recognition with AI to Aid the Disabled
Visual impairment is a large probability of our current population. According to the World Health Organization, there are 39% of people who are blind. People over 50 years old are 82% blind. We often take for granted the ability to see. Even being able to see the people in front of you or the text…
Redesign iPhone
The device that I last came to make interaction with is my cell phone. My iPhone is supposed to be very interactive friendly for all kinds of users since it has lots of functions that were designed just for the users with disabilities. There are functions like narrator that can describe the current screen, connecting…
Designs for Everyone
At work, we use a Square cash register with one screen for the employee and one for the customer. Although this cash register design is sleek and futuristic, even for abled individuals, it can be difficult to use with its lack of indicators so I can not imagine what this experience would be like for…
Environmental Sound Exposure Feature in Health application for the iOS 12
The introduction of Airpods has a major impact on how consumers interact with sound. There are more and more people have their Airpods on all the time. It has become a trend that can be alarming. According to Mayo Clinic, a long term exposure to loud noise will damage the cells of your inner ear….
Redesign the smartphone case and text app
The mobile is an integral part of our everyday life and work. However, the flat screen of a smartphone is difficult for the blind and visually impaired to operate. Because of these kinds of inconveniences, millions of people around the globe feel excluded. I hope to improve this problem with a phone case and a…
Designing With Intent
I recently had an annoying experience with the target.com app. I was looking to buy Christmas stockings or something but I was struggling to find the “add to cart” button. It turns out there are 2 buttons for purchasing items but they work differently. One called “Deliver it” means it will be delivered to your…
Vivianne Castillo – Reframing UX Empathy
Not many have turned user research around and focused it not on customers, but on the designers themselves who craft the user experience. Vivianne Castillo is one of the first to challenging areas in the User Experience industry. She discovered two large challenge areas; the first being that many designers experience Compassion Fatigue and burnout…
Be Haptic, Instagram
After watching the videos, I found that the design should care more about aesthetics and usability, which often ignores the aesthetics, referred to like the word ‘Discrete.’In the video of Ellen Lupton’s lecture, she describes how to exhibit objects with braille for both disabled and non-disability people, considering other sensories.According to an article by a…
