Designing Inclusive User Experiences
Accessibility remains one of the most important topics across multiple industries, yet mental health & anxiety, don’t often come to mind as a piece of the puzzle.
As designers, we need to ask ourselves - what mental health hurdles may be unintentional consequences of our work?
Even though our world is becoming significantly digital, we need to think of how difficult certain digital forms can be in terms of accessibility. Certain health conditions & disabilities and their side effects, such as insomnia, headaches, fatigue, etc. come in many forms and make the digital world difficult for the user.
The first step would be to make sure to distinguish between a technical glitch and human error. Without proper messaging to explain the cause and the next steps, some may be completely lost - continuing to beat themselves up for thinking they made a mistake. And if it is a human error, make sure to nicely communicate it to them on how to fix it, or better yet to see what we could do to prevent it in the first place.
Look at it this way - is there any chance for our users to remember every account they've ever created, especially with all the different password requirements? Adding on top of that platforms which we use maybe once or twice a year, or somewhere we create an account in the middle of another longer form - or ones created for us by our employers and such?
So, what can we do about it?
It is very easy for us as designers to make decisions based on how we and our teams typically interact with products, especially in the digital sphere. But when we do so, we further alienate from those who are not so familiar with or anxious around technology. So what we end up doing is, instead of bringing technology closer to them - we push it away.
We need to put a lot of things about our users into consideration. What platforms are they familiar with, what level of education do they have around our products and services, what issues from their lives could be straining their "user" state?
Having all this in mind, one could argue that there are infinite items to consider when designing, so let us start off with just a few:
Separate the human error from the technical glitch - making sure to respond to each with high clarity.
Tell the user that sometimes, it is not on them - it is on us.
Have instances where you explain your products the same way you'd explain them to a five-year-old.
Do not leave steps of your interface where you do not offer guidance.
Make the effects of actions by your users' side crystal clear, and give them the option to undo them too.
Never design elements with any intrusive factors attached to them.
Paying attention to details such as those, helps us produce user experiences of higher qualities. Good experiences will make their good days better, while bad experiences tend to make those bad days even worse. Even the smallest straws can sometimes break the camel's back - so let us try design experiences and products which are going to help lift the weight of our users.