Accessible Design

Why has inclusive design become so important? On this episode of What It Means, Principal Analyst Gina Bhawalkar and UX Researcher Senem Biyikli delve into the multi-faceted benefits of inclusive design.

As previous Forrester research has shown, gender bias remains an urgent concern in cybersecurity, and issues around diversity, equity, and inclusion go far beyond gender. In the bot management world, where end users historically struggled with CAPTCHAs and other challenges that didn’t always support visual and physical impairments, having diverse voices in the room can […]

Over the last two years, digital accessibility quickly became a business priority. Forrester has seen a significant increase in inquiries related to accessibility, and more companies are hiring accessibility specialists — an encouraging signal that companies are making investments in this space. This increase is partly driven by the pandemic, which elevated the importance of […]

Does your organization want to create inclusive experiences for your customers? Are you following an inclusive design process? If the answer to both questions is “yes,” great! But if you’re like most companies we speak with, you’re missing an essential component for creating inclusive experiences: an inclusive and diverse design team. Having such a team […]

Discover why your digital experiences need to make customers feel confident about the choices they make, and how to achieve that through deliberate design.

I have been part of the Global Mobile Awards (GLOMO) jury for several years and have each year discovered inspirational competitors. This year, I judged one of the Tech4Good categories, and I found it particularly difficult to come to a final ranking. The three finalists illustrate perfectly how technology can be a powerful driver for […]

Are you creating inclusive experiences for your customers? Many companies aren’t. For example, here’s a sampling of what we heard when we evaluated typical approaches to collecting personal information from consumers: “There is no open box to identify yourself. Ticking ‘other’ is alienating; therefore, if I didn’t identify as male or female, I wouldn’t feel […]

Our research shows that the best organizations use a design system to streamline and scale experience design (XD). Learn the benefits of a design system.

Digital analytics will become a more powerful force in design, as recent consolidation in the interface experience analytics technology space indicates. Learn more.

Update 4/21/22:  For more recent guidance on this category of vendors please see my blog post Get Help With Digital Accessibility: Tips For Selecting An Accessibility Partner. Let’s get straight to the point: There’s no quick fix for making your digital experiences accessible. That’s true even if your approach to accessibility is narrowly focused on […]

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, in many cases making digital the only channel through which customers could interact with brands, Forrester saw a significant uptick in inquiries related to accessibility, mostly from companies getting serious about accessibility for the first time. The pandemic served as a wake-up call not just about the importance of digital […]

I speak with companies weekly about the growing importance of digital accessibility, and prior to 2020, those conversations almost always started with this question: “How do we make our sites and apps accessible so we don’t get sued?” It’s a fair question — after all, the number of web and mobile accessibility lawsuits has increased […]

A design system continually evolves — it’s not a project a design team can complete and move on from. In fact, a design system requires an ongoing time and resources investment just like a customer-facing digital product.

As we're reviewing mobile banking apps for our upcoming European Digital Experience Review™ research, there's a noticeable gap between leaders and laggards on both user experience and functionalities offered in-app. The main reason that keeps laggards behind resides in their mobile experience strategy — or, rather, the lack of it.

The two companies' recent actions highlight the difference between placing accessibility front and center versus treating it as an afterthought.

Apple revealed major announcements for the new iOS 14 system during its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020. What is coming to the iPhone demonstrates a deep understanding of our behavior and use of our devices in mobility. It also makes a clear statement on privacy and diversity principles. UX Is All About Use In Context […]

To encourage customers to come back and usher in economic recovery, companies must plan to redesign their physical-location experiences to address customer fears of COVID-19 and their desire to maintain social distancing.