Book Image

UX for the Web

By : Marli Ritter, Cara Winterbottom
Book Image

UX for the Web

By: Marli Ritter, Cara Winterbottom

Overview of this book

If you want to create web apps that are not only beautiful to look at, but also easy to use and fully accessible to everyone, including people with special needs, this book will provide you with the basic building blocks to achieve just that. The book starts with the basics of UX, the relationship between Human-Centered Design (HCD), Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and the User-Centered Design (UCD) Process; it gradually takes you through the best practices to create a web app that stands out from your competitors. You’ll also learn how to create an emotional connection with the user to increase user interaction and client retention by different means of communication channels. We’ll guide you through the steps in developing an effective UX strategy through user research and persona creation and how to bring that UX strategy to life with beautiful, yet functional designs that cater for complex features with micro interactions. Practical UX methodologies such as creating a solid Information Architecture (IA), wireframes, and prototypes will be discussed in detail. We’ll also show you how to test your designs with representative users, and ensure that they are usable on different devices, browsers and assistive technologies. Lastly, we’ll focus on making your web app fully accessible from a development and design perspective by taking you through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Chapter 11. A Practical Guide to Web Accessibility

Web accessibility is usually seen as something you only prioritize if your product is focusing on people with special needs, but this is a distorted point of view of what web accessibility truly means for your product and the users who will interact with it. Someone once gave the example of a wheelchair ramp: the wheelchair ramp was originally built for the person with a wheelchair, but that does not stop the everyday person from using the ramp instead of the stairs. In fact, it's easier to walk up the ramp than the stairs as it's the path of least resistance. Web accessibility is based on the same principle.

Even though the majority of the WCAG and WAI-ARIA guidelines are to accommodate compatibility with assistive technology, these same rules will make the overall experience of the product even more enjoyable to every user interacting with the product. This chapter will focus on the following topics to effortlessly analyze and implement...