A Stark Difference
Issue No. 79
Hey there friends,
We hope you're staying safe and healthy during these unsettling times. In hopes of keeping your minds occupied while we self-isolate, here are our recommended reads of the week.
If this was forwarded to you, sign up here! Got your coffee or tea ready? ☕️
|
|
Around the web
Featured Article
“Navigation was another challenge for users with visual disabilities. Thirty-one of the 50 state pages contained empty links or buttons, which means a screen reader will not be able to tell the user what the button does or where the link is supposed to go. A screen reader is accessibility software that enables translation of text and images on a screen to speech or a Braille display.
Umm. Yikes? It's always painful to see some government initiatives roll out, mainly because there is so much drastically wrong with the design and development of them. They're often done in a rush (and we all know this was a scramble for COVID-19), and if we thought those with disabilities were left out in general, it really shows itself during these times.
The websites of 31 out of 50 states not only had navigation issues, but also low-contrast text, which we all know can be challenging for users with low vision—including seniors, which in this particular case, are at higher risk in the outbreak.
|
|
Article
“By designing for impoverished communities first, Nyoni says the agency is able to guarantee their products will be useful and usable for everyone, regardless of level of privilege. Working out of his office in Amsterdam, he collaborated with team members on the ground in Zimbabwe as they observed, tested, and tweaked machine learning models that could look at subjects’ posture, gait, and the presence of tremors. To do this, they worked closely with health care workers and residents at long-term care facilities for seniors.
|
|
Article
“But voice interfaces present inherent challenges and surprises. In this relatively new realm of design, the intrinsic twists and turns in spoken language can make things difficult for even the most carefully considered voice interfaces. After all, spoken language is littered with fillers (in the linguistic sense of utterances like hmm and um), hesitations and pauses, and other interruptions and speech disfluencies that present puzzling problems for designers and implementers alike.
|
|
Webinar
Join Eric Snowden, Senior Director of Design at Adobe, as he outlines the strategies he and his team use to lead a large scale design team at Adobe. He'll be covering everything from hiring and resolving conflict to best practices. Go reserve a spot!
|
|
✨ Stark Spotlight
🏳 32 orgs explicitly whitelisted Stark
📥 58 orgs have opted to auto-install Stark for everyone on their team that is on and/or joins in the future.
Thank you everyone sticking around for the long haul. We're giving it our all. 🖤
|
|
|
Woo! I was stoked to get the opportunity to talk about design, development, my background, and Stark on this latest episode of VisualDev FM with @LaceyKesler. It was top notch.
1. I (Cat) say “much more broader” at one point—no ragretz! Quarantine + Work + Homeschool = Lucky I can talk.
2. There’s some language in this. 🙈
3. I dig into @getstarkco stuff! 🥰
4. Starts @ 26min.
Hope you enjoy!
|
|
|
|
|
