Inclusive Design: DANA’s Approach for Visually Impaired Community
Do you know how the visually impaired can use applications on smartphones? Before jumping into the answer, let’s start with understanding visually impaired people.
We categorize them into several types or levels, total blind and partial low vision. We cannot generalize the difficulties of each because they are different.
Low vision is vision loss that categorizes as blind spots, poor night vision, and blurry sight. Generally, low-vision people only can see the image 30% of the original. While for the total blind it’s not visible at all.
How They Use Mobile Applications
While using the application, the visually impaired rely on the screen reader from their device. In a mobile device, the screen reader is already implemented in the device. iOS called it VoiceOver while Android called it TalkBack. The screen reader is applications with speech synthesizers. How it works is that users need to tap once to have the device read the text. Then, the user can tap twice or double-click to confirm.
To gain a fresh perspective, we interviewed Abdul Gawi who is visually impaired. Abdul is a university student who lives in Mataram, Nusa Tenggara Barat. For confidentiality reasons, there is no photo documentation.
Abdul faces one main problem when using applications. The problem is that most read-out results from the screen reader spoken as “without labels”. This is because the UI design uses an image, photos, and icons than real text.
The screen reader can only read non-visual such as text, so images, photos, and colors cannot be read. In such cases, the visually impaired cannot use the application or need the help of others.
Then how do they find out the location of the button, from the point of view of the total blind? In general, blind-friendly applications already have labels. If it is not labeled, the visually-impaired need to memorize the steps or stages on the screen. Even counting the steps and remembering the location.
Before buying, Abdul will look for the information he needed. For example, payment methods, promotions, and customer reviews. After that, Abdul will pay it through DANA.
“I often use the DANA to buy mobile credit. I have no difficulty when using DANA because most of them can be read by a screen reader,” said Abdul. Abdul also sells mobile credit using his purchases at DANA.
Based on daily use, Abdul said that his experience using DANA was not difficult. Compared to other applications that Abdul uses, DANA is very accessible. Plus, the people around him who are visually-impaired use DANA as well.
When talking about a bad experience, the unusable application is the worst. Whereas the main need of the application is that it can be used by the user. Applications are not always labeled compared to desktop screens. Even if the visually impaired don’t know how to use apps, they can search for them on Google or Youtube.
Visually-impaired people are often confused about whom to complain to about that problem. In some cases, they can use the application, but after it is updated, it becomes unlabeled. So, the visually impaired bother to update the application. It is because of fear that it will not be accessible anymore.
Abdul expresses gratitude to DANA for making accessible applications for the visually impaired. At the end of the interview, Abdul was grateful for the opportunity to discuss.
DANA’s Approach with Empathy
DANA continues to iterate on digital wallet products. Researcher at DANA conducting in-depth interviews and usability testing on target users. The goal is to get new insights, input, and the best suggestions for DANA.
Researchers at DANA interview to gain deeper insights of a specific product or topic. Sometimes, researchers need to know the needs, behavior, and pain points of the product. It is qualitative studies that focus on the “Why” rather than “How many”.
Another research method is Usability Testing. This is a qualitative method used to check and iterate designs in a project. In this method, users need to complete tasks, while they observed by the researcher. It’s recommended to conduct moderated testing in the earlier stages of design.
Usability testing is important to find out user opinions on our design. When creating a product, it’s better to involve users to make our product more inclusive to most people.
Inclusive Design in UX
Talking about inclusive design doesn’t mean you’re making one thing for all people. It is designing a diversity of ways for everyone. Its purpose for users is an experience with a sense of belonging.
Inclusive design is a process. Key to the understanding of inclusive design is a verb, a continuous act of doing. As inclusive design is a mindset that should be with you from start to finish. Another important mindset to have is it requires imagination, learning, and empathy.
Based on an article from NN Group about Inclusive Design, these are the following tips to grow your inclusive design practice:
- Focus on inclusive research practices. When testing and evaluating interfaces, ensure a diverse representation of users. Learn from it and use that to target needs.
- Educate stakeholders about how different people use technology. Involve them in the research, share examples, and highlight user quotes.
- Recognize exclusion and don’t bias into thinking your product make for everyone. Intent to reflect how people are, not an oversimplified version.
DANA has an annual meeting dedicated to making inclusive designs. This meeting discussed design review, competitor analysis, and revamp with stakeholders. The goal of this meeting is to discuss priorities and action plans to solve real problems.
Special thanks to:
DANA UX Researcher Jason Widjaja
Editorial Team prakoso sucahyo, Calvin Holyson, and Rivaldya Oktaviandy for helping me finish this article.
