This was the first time I’d seen Michael talk and it was fantastic. One of the reasons I picked this particular An Event Apart location was the number of inclusive design and accessibility sessions that were on the schedule. Michael’s illustrations of how AirBnB handle questions of inclusion were great, and I wish you could see them. (Go see him speak!)
Today: @soundslikesue on Inclusive Design’s Hidden Legacy — and how to rise with it. He’s leading off with a wooden leaf splint designed by the Eames. They had an “idealistic vision & realistic implementation”#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Schools don’t generally teach about the Eames’ leg splint, although of course we hear about the chair. Why don’t we hear about the beautiful, functional, empathetic solutions? #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
At Google, @soundslikesue worked on digital things, and at YouTube it was “get people to watch videos”. At AirBnB the stakes are a lot higher, especially since more than half of airbnb guests don’t speak the same language as their hosts. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
“You can’t innovate on products without first innovating on the way you build them” – AirBnB head of design, on design systems
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
They have a tool that takes screenshots of the application overnight, generating 80,000 screenshots, so that every designer can look up any flow on any system, in any language. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Design Technologists: People building tools that evangelize the system and drive adoption, making it easier for designers to design and developers to develop. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
In 2017 a lot of tech realized that what they thought they were doing (saving the world) was not what they were doing (no design for disabilities, no recognition that what they do affects people’s behavior) #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
We consider ourselves disruptive without sufficient consideration for the people and institutions we disrupt
– @anildash gets a shoutout from @soundslikesue #AEADC— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Able, allowed, should
Can we do it?
Are we allowed to do it – is it good for the business?
Should we build this?Margaret Stewart, VP of Product Design, Facebook #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Design Systems scale our good choices along with the harmful ones.
We scale things we don’t intend to, and they scale incredibly fast #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Design Language Systems are leverage to do really good things.
AirBnB talked with Facebook about their design system since Facebook was about 7 years ahead with their system.
AirBnB wanted to scale positive things and use the design system for good#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Accessibility:
Testable criteria for making products that diverse people and assistive technology can use.
Removing barriers from people who want to interact for the web. https://t.co/708pxYBMAk is a good resource to start#AEADC— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines—for People Who Haven't Read Them, by Alan Dalton – cited by @soundslikesue to help folks get up to speed on WCAG 2. #a11y #inclusion #AEADChttps://t.co/OoJdpUmIKr
— zeldman (@zeldman) August 1, 2018
AirBnB has a device lab. The same hex value looks totally different on 4 devices. If you spend a half hour nudging between two colors only to find out they’re different anyway…. maybe you should be spending time doing color contrast checking instead#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
https://t.co/ybxb8TvvJY gives you bands of color so you can see the inclusive colors and *then* “do the designer thing” nudging between colors within the bands you should be using #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
In our core system they try to limit to the smallest number of things possible because we’re then multiplying by all the number of systems. Do the most universal and work across the system. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
It can be really laborious to adjust transparency and screenshooting things and testing perceived and output color to make sure everything will be accessible when it’s combined. So what tools do designers have to handle these? #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Color Contrast Analyzer – https://t.co/d8LnBkVtem for Chrome#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Design Linter for Sketch – checks for color contrast problems. Also checks for content problems “see more, view all, look for”… there are certain words that if we don’t use them, it makes more sense for everyone #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Why does the tool that AirBnB built work?
1 – don’t have to go out another website to do things
2 – built into people’s workflowHabit loops: https://t.co/fLXiugSV9c
If you have a habit loop, swap out one thing, not everything. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Give credit away to create allies. When people volunteer to do things, champion what they did.
Ask two questions: what’s going well? What’s going bad?
After a year of following partners:
There are 2 systems: the one we’re building, and the one we’re overcoming. #AEADC— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
(This works for more than just accessibility allies.)
We want to build product in ways so that language, culture, accessibility, are not blockers for using the app. AirBnB has teams for accessibility, localization, internationalization, antidiscrimination, and trust. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Accessibility is a technique, a set of criteria. Inclusive design is a cultural behavior. Inclusive design is a practice of consciously designing experiences that let people belong. You do it over and over again, and you try to get better at it#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
There is no “done” in this kind of work. You’re always just pushing forward.
It’s way easier to change people that are new to the company than people who are established in the company, so get onboarding and training for inclusive design for new folks. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
There is no “normal” user. Normal is a narrow illusion. There’s a whole spectrum of people.
Disability is a mismatch in the relationship between the features of a person’s body and the features of the environment. — W.H.O.
Who sets up the environment? We do. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Inclusive watch: The Bradley E1 Watch allows both sighted and blind users to tell the time. https://t.co/RAqXsyvNyF If you build something that’s desirable there’s less stigma on people with disabilities for being different.#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Apply existing skills to people new to you. Maybe you’ve not interacted with users that need something you’ve not designed before. Follow the pattern of Frank Lloyd Wright – build something new. https://t.co/mFoG7oikJw
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Design Activism: doing design in a public space to get a reaction and change the world. The designer who created the new Accessible icon started a movement to change the old one by painting over the old one in parking lots. https://t.co/jUOjyUc6cU#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Diversity is not adding blue people in illustrations. Diversity is something where you can see yourself in the image, regardless of who you are. Embrace skin tone. Employ resource groups in the company. Collect images of different people. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Follow people that you’re not used to being around. It removes some of the stigma in your mind about people with disabilities. Put people with disabilities into everyday situations and everyday imagery in your site. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
(That’s true of more than disabilities, by the way. If your Twitter feed is all people who look like you — or worse, all white men — you’re missing most of the power of Twitter. And if you don’t have Twitter, as a designer, you’re seriously missing out on hearing from some of the best minds in our industry.)
Get comfortable being uncomfortable! Get feedback, and then work on incorporating that feedback.
Side note: there’s more than one sign language, so if you use it in your imagery, you’ll want to localize it the same way you do any other language#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
It’s tough to represent Autism in an illustration because it’s so subtle. Body language could be a useful indicator
– colleague of @soundslikesue with AutismAirBnB went out to tumblr and other sources to look at how people with Autism represent themselves#AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
AirBnB’s goal is to have 15% of their illustrations to include disabilities because that’s approximately the percentage of the world that has disabilities #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018
Progress looks like increasing belonging and decreasing exclusion. We are interconnected. Inclusion is not just in our legacy as a designer, it’s in our collective shared ancestry. We’re social creatures. Align our values and work with that. #AEADC
— Anne Gibson (@perpendicularme) August 1, 2018