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

Web accessibility requirements from a design perspective


The key to designing for web accessibility starts with proper planning of the design, its purpose, and the required outcomes. Creatives are passionate individuals who enjoy getting lost in their design process; unfortunately, some designs, as visually pleasing as they may be, they are not functional and will not adhere to the user's needs.

The following list gives some guidelines on what to keep in mind when designing for web accessibility:

  1. Keep to the logical structure: As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the logical flow of elements in the HTML structure and the visual elements in the UI should be aligned and should follow a natural reading structure.
  2. Be mindful of typography: As far as possible, make use of true text (text that's been added as HTML) to convey information as opposed to adding text to a flat visual element (text that's been added in an image and saved as a singular flat file), which cannot be read by assistive technology...