Since the beginning of the digital age, circa the mid-20th century, society has slowly begun to harness the power of information technology. When computers became more portable and cheaper to manufacture, this meant that more people could access them. Mobile phones and device miniaturisation are continuing to make web accessibility more possible today.

Current statistics show that about 15% of the world's population is considered to be living with some sort of disability. While this is a significant proportion of the human race, it’s quite apparent that most technology is designed with the 85% in mind. 

Not only that, the web should be fully functional for every single person trying to access it, regardless of their software, hardware or location. Meeting this goal ensures accessibility isn’t exclusive to the majority.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility refers to the design and development of websites that are accessible to people living with disabilities. While there are various types of disabilities, there are some that make it difficult for some to access certain types of web content. 

Such individuals at times have to use assistive technologies to access it. Examples of these include screen readers, text-to-speech, screen enlargement, voice recognition and word prediction technologies. However, these technologies only work if the principles have been applied by the website creators.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are some web accessibility guidelines provided by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The current version of these guidelines is WCAG 2.1, although the newer versions 2.2 and 3 are still under draft.

Why web accessibility is important

People living with disability face a variety of disadvantages in their day-to-day living; one of these is web accessibility. When some individuals aren’t able to fully access the web, particularly due to its design, they are considered a part of the digitally excluded.

Disability inclusion aims to address the barriers posed by information and communication technology as this infringes on some of their basic rights. A person living with disability has a right to access any web service just as much as an able bodied individual.

Improving accessibility for your website helps to address any discrimination that it can potentially pose on people living with disability. Web accessibility means “that people with disabilities can equally perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools.”

The four principles: POUR

There are four principles that should be the baseline for the design or development of a website to ensure accessibility. They can also be applied to any other information technology as well. A website should be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust:

• Perceivable: When it comes to perceivability, this means that the content and user interface elements can be identified using human senses. Generally, vision is the primary one, since websites are usually meant to be read. Secondary senses include sound and touch.

A website or app should be built in a way that ensures that there is alternative access through other senses that may be diminished or missing. This is why there are video captions for those who are partially or completely deaf, for example.

• Operable: A website’s user interface components (e.g buttons and controls) and any of its interactive parts should be accessible through multiple input tools. The site or app should not have interactions that the user is unable to perform.

The website should also allow for errors, making sure that the user has ample time to fix them. One example of operability is that a website should cater for those who might use only a keyboard, for example, and cannot use a mouse. 

• Understandable: This refers to a website having consistency in formatting and having predictable patterns. Users should also be able to understand and remember how to navigate the website or app.

In addition, it should provide feedback to users, helping them with any errors. In fact, any potential errors a user may experience should be mitigated against through contextual help. 

• Robust: For this principle, a website needs to be able to be interpreted well by multiple platforms, devices and other technologies, taking into consideration the functional limits of each of these. Users should have choice with regards to the technology they desire to use to interact with a website or app. Also, the coding needs to be clean to prevent errors.

How to become AAA compliant

There are currently three levels for web accessibility guidelines, according to the WCAG. These are levels A (basic), AA (intermediate) and AAA (optimal). The majority of organisations aim to achieve AA status. Compliance level AAA encompasses the standards of all three levels.

• Level A aims to meet 25 criteria and is relatively easy to meet. However, these websites are usually difficult for people living with disabilities to use. In general, requirements include the ability to navigate using only a keyboard and having alternative text for content. 
• Level AA has 38 criteria that the majority of people with or without disabilities have the ability to use. It includes criteria such as having a colour contrast of at least 4.5:1. In addition, alternative text should have meaning.

To become Level AAA compliant, you have to meet all 61 success criteria as provided by the WCAG. To help you, the WCAG provides a checklist. 

AAA sites are mainly aimed at maximising users and the criteria is very strict. This compliance level is aimed at enabling access to individuals with audiovisual impairments.

Some of the AAA criteria include having a colour contrast level of at least 7:1. In addition, there should be sign language interpretation of media content. Having a variety of accessibility tools is commonplace on AAA sites.

If you are considering a level of compliance you would like to meet, first try and figure out who your target users are. For example, if your website or app is meant for elderly users or those living with disability, then AAA compliance is the way to go.

So, choose a compliance level that suits the needs of both you and your audience. Start taking steps to understand what changes you need to make to your website using the chosen compliance level and watch your audience grow, while better serving your current users.

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Author: Brandon Busuttil, MD, Digital Grind

These days, setting up and publishing a new website is easy to do and can be done in just a matter of minutes. While this sounds like good news, it isn’t always the best route to go for many businesses because such websites aren’t always optimised to attract the right visitors and ultimately convert them to customers.

In addition, it’s important to stay ahead of competitors by making sure your business stands out to your target audience and in search engine results. By doing so, web traffic to your website will noticeably increase as your conversions follow suit.

A website should not only be aesthetically pleasing design-wise, but should be functional and versatile. Below is a list of the top digital design best practices for 2021 we believe will catapult your business to greater visibility and success.

1. Easy navigation

When visitors click on your website, they shouldn’t struggle to find anything they are looking for. All the website’s elements need to be intuitive and logical, from headings and graphics to drop-down menus. 

Always try to view your website through the eyes of a first-time visitor. Is everything located where you could expect it to be? Are you able to keep track of which part of the website you are? With all the competition that’s out there, a visitor will simply move on if they see your website as too complex to navigate.

2. Consistency is key

Keeping things consistent in digital design goes a long way in maintaining your brand identity. Customers associate a website’s brand with certain colours, logos and messaging. Make sure this is the case when people visit your website.

This doesn’t only hold true for design elements. The content also needs to have a consistent tone and value proposition. Having colours or content that are inconsistent creates confusion and that is something you want to avoid at all costs.

3. CTA needs to be clear

Calls-to-action (CTAs) need to be clear and be seen by a visitor on first look. This can be achieved through a CTA button which lets them know where to go or what action to take next. Customers don’t need to return to your website at a later stage in order to convert. 

Also, your CTA has to be big, visible and available on the majority of your pages, not just the home page. It must stand out on the page it’s on, by having less elements around it. 

4. Tell a story

Storytelling is one of the best ways of communicating powerful messages. In web design, it can be a conduit to deliver a message into the mind of the visitor: that they should buy your product or service.

It’s important to tell a story as this reinforces consistency, while keeping readers engaged. Having facts without a good story to follow makes them lose interest and move on to something better. Your website needs to follow a logical order that ultimately leads the visitor to your CTA or contact information.

5. Less is more

Page visitors don’t want to be bombarded with a barrage of text, graphics and colours, such that they don’t know where to look first. It’s an important part of telling a story to only display essential information by eliminating any unnecessary text or graphics.

Keep text to a minimum by using fewer words, shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs and bullet points. Always use good content writing techniques that deliver your point across with as little words as possible and direct you to where you need to go next.

6. Mobile-friendly

Just about half of all website traffic comes from mobile users. It’s a no-brainer why your website needs to be mobile-friendly to cater to this group of visitors. In fact, many developers have even gone a step further and are mobile-first.

The main advantage of creating responsive websites through mobile search engine optimisation (SEO) is that it raises their ranking on search engine results. This means that more people will be able to view your website regardless of the device they are using.

7. SEO is king

SEO is undeniably one of the major and most popular best practices when it comes to digital design; every web designer has no option but to make it a priority. Always make sure that your website has relevant keywords that users typically input in search engines.

By using dynamic content, you can appeal to all possible visitors with various interests within your target market. By paying attention to tags, descriptions, sitemaps and using shorter URLs, your website can rank higher in search results.

8. Accessibility

We live in a world where not all individuals possess the same abilities that enable them to successfully navigate a website. With 15% of the world having some form of disability, it’s necessary to make sure your website can accommodate their needs.

Simple changes can be made to websites, such as by enabling keyboard-only support. This is particularly useful for individuals with motor impairments. You could also increase access to those with visual impairments by using contrasting colours.

9. Speed optimisation

This ties well with “less is more” due to the fact that websites with complex graphics take longer to load, which sends visitors off in search of greener pastures. A Google study noted that sites lose 53% of their visitors if they take more than three seconds to load—You don’t want that.

Web developers should prioritise file compression (particularly for media), using prefetching, and removing unnecessary fonts, CSS and JS files. Another upside is that your SEO rankings will be higher if your page loads faster.

10. A/B testing

A/B or split testing shows two different versions of a web page to different audiences, then compares them to find out which one performs better, with a certain goal in mind. It helps to find out what works and what doesn’t.

This should be a continual process as your target users’ needs are constantly evolving. By focusing on noticeably popular web elements, you can increase website conversions. Besides, analytics are always welcome when it comes to design.

So here’s our CTA too

At Digital Grind, we offer bespoke digital design services for platforms, websites and web apps, encompassing user interface and user experience design techniques. We can give your brand a facelift using the best practices mentioned above, to turn customer success into advocacy. Talk to us!

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have been synonymous with the worlds of gaming and entertainment over the past decade. And, while using AR has become much more mainstream, it started out as far back as 1968 as this obscure concept that people couldn’t quite get their heads around. Although, the term AR was only invented in 1990.

It is defined as “an enhanced version of reality created by the use of technology to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed through a device (like a smartphone camera)”. VR, while the more popular cousin of AR, is a more immersive technology, as it completely blocks out the physical world.

Even though we’ve seen the potential of AR to make our lives easier (in tech-focused sci-fi shows like Netlix’s Black Mirror), in the real world, a lot of the big global brands have been rapidly adopting VR in their business models. For the tech-savvy entrepreneur, this is a very exciting opportunity that’s worth investing in and following through with.

AR in the real world

The two most common kinds of AR involve location-based realities and recognition features. You can easily access these from smartphones that have GPS, cameras and several other built-in sensors. 

An example of both location and recognition-based AR is the popular gaming app Pokémon GO. Since its hyped release in mid-2016, to masses of eager fans, it has continued to grow in user, from 84 million active users in the US (its main market) at launch to over 311 million in 2020, with billions of dollars spent by users on the app.

One of the contributing factors is the rapid worldwide adoption of smartphones over the past decade with over 3.8 billion users estimated in 2021—an all-time high. This number’s expected to keep growing over the next few years.

For entrepreneurs, this is the best time to harness the power of smartphones, by exploring ways to incorporate AR into their brand strategies. Think about how you’d like to see your brand from a user’s perspective, through their phone camera.

Global impact

AR can be applied to almost every sector, healthcare, automotive, industrial and entertainment. It has had a positive impact in multiple sectors, with usage continuing to grow each year in several major economies. The gaming sector continues to have the largest AR adoption share.

The economic impact of AR is undeniable, with its usage estimated to contribute over $450 billion to global GDP by 2030. When you combine this with VR, in what is known as mixed reality, the expected impact is even higher at over $1.5 trillion by 2030. 

The US holds the lion’s share of AR adoption and spending, with AR and VR expected to boost its GDP to the tune of $537 billion by 2030. Jobs will also be impacted, with an expected boost to over 2.3 million jobs by 2030.

Regions, such as the UAE, have seen rapid adoption of AR and VR, where its GDP is expected to be boosted by $4.1 billion by 2030 while enhancing almost 43,000 jobs. There’s no denying that shifting realities will play a major role in the future of our industry.

The world is changing, so take note

Technology keeps getting better each year, with devices becoming smaller, cheaper, faster and more powerful. At the same time, content is more engaging, with ultra-fast internet speeds making sharing easier.

In addition, consumer behaviour is changing, with one global study suggesting that 76% of consumers would rather spend their money on experiences than on material things. There are two major trends happening right now:

• Experiences are better. Consumers want to say they did something rather than bought something. They should be able to remember your brand and the connections they made with other people through the experiences you helped create.
  
  
• Mental health awareness is growing. Around the globe, brands and entrepreneurs have the opportunity to create AR experiences that lift the moods of their consumers, to help them deal with everyday stresses, depression and anxiety.

Consumers are also becoming more socially and environmentally aware.

Benefits of AR

Technology should always be expected to solve challenges rather than be a distraction from reality. Generally, using AR should transform the organisation by cutting costs and increasing efficiency,, making life easier. Let’s take a look at some examples of where AR can be applied in the real world to solve real problems.

• Retail convenience: For salespeople, instead of moving around with printed brochures and catalogues, they can show potential customers a 3D version of their products using AR. This is especially good for products that are hard to move around.

With AR being a mainly informative technology, customers may also benefit through seeing prices and other details of products displayed on their screen, when they walk into a store with their smart device.

• Customised user experience: With the growing emphasis on memories over things, providing personalised experiences becomes more important. People are using AR to watch ads in real-time, or watch shows of their favourite musician, right from their kitchen.
  
  
• Training: This can be expensive, particularly where there’s a lot of equipment involved. AR helps by cutting down the need to travel or move around medical equipment, for example. Difficult medical procedures can be practiced by trainee physicians simultaneously, with limited restrictions.

Future of AR

While AR has been incorporated in the vehicle sector (through heads-up displays in some premium cars), this trend is expected to continue in the near future with adoption becoming more mainstream. New and improved smart glasses, such as rumoured Apple AR Glasses, are expected to enter the market at more affordable prices and stand a good chance of capturing the commercial market if this comes to pass.

Smartphones are expected to continue to lead the adoption of AR as they are found in almost every pocket. Holographic AR is expected to increase, particularly in areas like education. This is useful during a global pandemic, for example, with students viewing their instructor through a compatible device. 

As we can see, the opportunities for entrepreneurs are endless through AR. If you can find a mode of application that fits your business model - the sky's the limit.

Get in touch

Want to know more about how Digital Grind can help you up your AR game and create something your consumers will love? Contact us.