Category: UX Design

Why Is Accessible Design Important to Maximize Your App Reach?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

You’ve created the next big mobile app… excellent work! The next step is to ensure that you get maximum users for your world-class application. Ensuring accessibility compliance in your mobile application is a way to ensure that you reach a substantial number of American audiences who suffer from disabilities. 

Inclusivity is not only the right thing to do but also offers lots of business benefits. Accessibility-enabled native apps will help you drive engagement, give you a loyal customer base and provide a personalized experience to your users. Governmental institutions are beginning to implement laws and regulations that require equal access for all users.

Here’s what you should know to make sure your app is inclusively designed.

1. New customer acquisition

More than 80% of people with disabilities have decided not to trust a service provider due to barriers, wherein poor web accessibility is the most common. Users with disabilities are willing to spend more money with companies that provide them with a well-thought-out user experience, although they are frequently ignored by most brands. This particular market has enormous purchasing power.

Accessibility enhancements will not turn away current customers but will attract new customers and increase conversions. By recognizing users with disabilities, you are letting them know that their rights are important and that their business is valued.

2. Enhanced reputation

Companies that welcome people with disabilities only benefit from it. Efforts to make a website or app completely accessible improve a company’s reputation and foster an image of social responsibility and concern for all users.

Silicon Valley giants do not shy away from bringing innovation to the game when it comes to adding accessibility features. They have invested millions in cutting-edge technology and ground-breaking new features. For example, this year, Facebook started using artificial intelligence to provide automatic alternative text to its blind users via object recognition technology. This feature now allows them to fully enjoy the 2 billion photos shared on Facebook each day.

3. Legal Compliance

The number of lawsuits filed in the United States alleging that websites, apps, and digital videos were inaccessible to people with disabilities increased by 64% year on year in the first half of 2021. 

For example, a visually-impaired person, Guillermo Robles sued Domino’s Pizza in 2019 for violations of ADA Title III. Similar lawsuits were against Nike and Beyonce’s company. According to the complaint, despite using screen-reading software, he was unable to order food from Domino’s website or app. Robles won the lawsuit and established a strong precedent for businesses. The threat of litigation is real!

Conclusion

Developing a mobile application with accessibility in mind will ensure a fabulous user experience for your mobile application. Accessibility compliance comes with numerous financial, moral, and legal advantages. Both the Android and iOS platforms provide a variety of tools for incorporating accessibility solutions into your app. There are virtually no valid reasons to disregard the concept of accessibility.

Achieving quality output well within your budget and timeline can be difficult for you. We can help you find the best approach based on your testing situation to reach your goal. Contact our experts today.

When to Outsource User Experience Design?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

You will witness how comfortable toddlers and preschoolers are in operating smartphones and tablets.  While it is true that these new-age kids are super smart and quite capable of comfortably learning to play games and run apps on their devices, a lot of credit also goes to the ingenious way the applications have been designed. 

The User Experience designers and developers make complex applications exceptionally simple, appealing, and intuitive. We are living in times where the demand for mobile apps, websites, and other digital products is on the constant rise. People are constantly demanding easy-to-use and effective applications with immaculate User Experience. 

That said, while digital products are becoming a necessity and IT companies are making innumerable applications, there is still a lot left to desire in terms of appealing and responsive UX design. 

Businesses have found that outsourcing the User Experience design and development is an ideal way to get beautiful designs, seamless navigation, and uninterrupted flow. It is also more cost-effective vis-a-vis in-house development. 

A large number of companies entrust professional outsourcing teams with the complete IT development process. This is to reduce cost, minimize risks, and achieve higher efficiency. 

Likewise, UX design tasks also have the scope to be outsourced separately. The process for the same is simple. The company just has to work out a blueprint of the product design and hand it over to the designing firm, which then creates the final product. 

Who should hire outsource UX design teams?

Outsourcing is expensive and it is hard to trust vendors! This was the argument that we used to hear a lot when we started our business over two decades ago. Our transparent processes and open communication channels have helped in addressing these reservations of our clients. 

There are many instances where it makes a lot of sense to opt for outsourcing the UX development. 

If you own a startup, you are probably tight on budget and would not want to invest in a full-fledged team for a one-time task. Along with the designer and developers’ salaries, add the time invested, the supporting manpower required for testing, implementation, etc. Outsourcing designing tasks makes more sense here. 

A similar case goes for Ecommerce enterprises. They work in and around IT but do not specifically have design and development teams for their niche is online selling, not IT development. 

An Ecommerce website design must facilitate a great user experience, making the buying process a breeze for customers. The design of the Ecommerce website is perhaps the most important element. It cannot be neglected, but at the same time, it is an expensive task. Thus, outsourcing Ecommerce design services to a third-party service provider like Galaxy Weblinks serves a great deal of convenience. 

The world of digital UX frameworks changes fast with new trends emerging regularly. Keeping up with everything is a full-time job. At the same time, different industries go through constant shuffles and developments. 

For instance, a B2B company, if opting for in-house designing, must be aware of frameworks like Angular, Vue, and React and their updates. How to use them and what technology fits where. This is an additional burden. When UX design isn’t the bread and butter of your business, keeping up with design and development trends becomes time-consuming, laborious, and inefficient. Instead, the focus should be on things happening in the B2B market.

UI/UX design outsourcing is a good idea as it is an investment, not an expense. The product company can reduce costs and concentrate on the core competencies, enabling rapid business change. 

More advantages – 

  • An outsourced team is a combination of an art director, designer, manager, and graphic designer all in one package. 
  • Design teams come in with the experience and skills needed to build great user experiences. You can expect them to be more progressive and smart with an added advantage of the ideas garnered by their collective minds.
  • You are assured that no matter what, the project delivery will happen on time and within budget. 
  • In the role of a client, you would receive 24/7 service and support. You can even ask for a customized workflow.

When to opt for in-house design teams?

Companies having complicated IT products requiring to be designed sprint by sprint, analyzed, and then designed again can save a lot of money by having an in-house design team. (But, that is not the case with most companies.)

Have an in-house design team instead of outsourcing if:

  • You have an art director, controlling the quality of the design. PMs or team leads can’t handle this. 
  • You have a lot of designing tasks in-house such as creating ad designs, platform designs, making new landing pages. And, these tasks are regular. 
  • You have a strict company policy of working with in-door specialists only. But, even if one department operates on an outsource model, having an in-door designer doesn’t make sense.

You need to pick the best solutions suited for your business. It can be an in-house team or outsource. If you are looking for a reliable partner to outsource the UX/UI design work, Galaxy Weblinks is here for you. Know more about us and our UI/UX design services here

Why is the Offshore Model better for UX design projects?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Note: This is an updated version of “Offshore UX | An option or need of the hour?” initially published on May 26, 2020. 

The world of business has changed dramatically since the pandemic. Real-time data and advanced analytics tools allowed the companies to adapt their strategy instantaneously. As witnessed after the outbreak of COVID-19, technology also facilitates instant communication with your team, no matter where they are located. Offshoring UX is now seen as a viable option. 

The consumers of technology expect a simple, intuitive, and visually appealing user experience. This was once considered aspirational and the domain of premium brands, necessitating months of research and large budgets. What was once exceptional is now a standard for all digital touchpoints, regardless of brand or budget. So, how can mid-tier firms with smaller budgets and shorter deadlines meet this expectation?

This challenge existed even 2-decades ago when the small businesses and big enterprises began offshoring software and product development. This approach is well understood and widely accepted and can be adapted to meet the needs of modern user experiences. 

In this post, we’ll talk about why it makes sense for your business to hire offshore contractors to handle your next UX design.

UX design has become a requirement

With the increase of technology in our daily lives comes increasing demands from consumers. Interfaces must be able to compete with the increasing standards. More products will begin to need UX designs. Being a market leader in your space, or even just staying afloat, will require it.

Even if you haven’t needed a UX designer in the past, there’s a good chance you will in the future. With that in mind, let’s talk about why offshore UX is a good business decision for your current or future UX designer needs.

Local talent can be hard to find

Because of the demand for UX designers, it can be hard to find local talent that is also available for full-time work. This is especially true if you want to hire top talent, which will command a higher price and be harder to keep on staff without some other company coming along with a better offer.

Thankfully, some of the same skills you look for in a full-time employee are what you’d look for in a remote employee. For both, you want someone who is a self-starter and will get the work done on time and as per specifications with minimal oversight on your part. As top UX designers realize they can make more work for themselves and takes on multiple jobs at multiple firms throughout the year, it becomes easier to find a qualified person for the job without having to commit to a full year’s salary.

The economics of developing nations

In the countries where the cost of living is low, the highest-paid professions may receive a little more than you would pay a UX designer. This means that UX designers in those nations can price themselves very competitively compared to western nations and still live a very comfortable life relative to their peers.

Of course, you’ll have to put some effort into finding the right candidate when you look outside English-speaking countries. Residents of most countries learn English as a second language, but you want to make sure that they speak it well enough that no language barriers exist. With offshoring, you’ll save money and provide someone with a better income than they could get in their economy alone.

Technology breaks down boundaries

Because it is such a visual art, there was a time in the past when doing UX work remotely would have been extremely difficult. This may be why there is still a reluctance on the part of many to embrace outsourced UX designers.

We now have technology that allows us to video conference and share our screens easily. There are cloud-based solutions, such as Miro and Invision, that allow for collaboration on even the most advanced projects so you’ll be able to give feedback to designers in a professional manner and ensure that nothing gets lost in the translation.

Combine that with the fact that all but the poorest of countries have access to high-speed internet, it is now possible to engage in real-time feedback even for visual projects like UI and UX. The boundaries that once stood in the way of taking UX design off-premise have now been torn down by technological advances.

Offshoring is flexible

If you’re a large business, you already have a design department with competent directors and senior designers. In that case, it will be the additional workers that take the vision of the senior members and help implement it that would make prime candidates for offshore workers.

For small businesses, it is impossible to hire a full-time staff to do your design work. Offshoring makes finding someone for a one-off job even more affordable.

Better Cost Control

Working with an agency allows you to control costs in a way that hiring someone in-house does not. After signing a statement of work (SOW), agencies are required to follow the scope of work outlined in the contract.

This specific type of agreement gives you more control over when work begins and ends, as well as how much money you commit to the project.

Increased Time to Value

Because agency design teams must meet tight deadlines, they typically adhere to strict, time-tested procedures. Whereas an in-house hire may take a week or two to get up and running, a good agency can ramp up and begin delivering within two to three weeks.

Often, agencies can simply do the work faster. For example, our UX team at Galaxy has been able to completely redesign relatively complex SaaS applications in less than three months, whereas an in-house team would typically take at least twice as long.

The bottom line is that agencies can move your project more quickly to the point where your investment begins to pay off.

Conclusion

For most companies, hiring designers locally is the way it’s always been done. With the coronavirus pandemic teaching us that remote work is not only possible but very practical, it may be a good time to consider the more affordable option. Now that we know situations can arise to force us into our homes, it would be a good time to take what we’ve learned from the outbreak and use that to experiment with new, cost-effective, and disaster-resistant forms of business.

Why Design QA should be a non-negotiable part of your process?

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Did you ever happen to spot some inconsistencies in your product’s design that were not there in your prototype? The color being a bit different, some changes in the font style or micro interactions not working the way they are supposed to.

You think that some of these errors could have been avoided if a designer was shown the coded version before the app release. And you are not alone in thinking like this. There is a solution to combat this problem.

The answer is… Design QA.

So what exactly is Design QA and how does its implementation resulted in streamlining our product cycle. Here are some tips and tricks for you that we learned along our journey.

Defining Design QA:

Design QA is a cross verification process done by designers. It entails checking for any inconsistencies in your copy, visual aspects, micro interactions, and the likes of the code developed before the release of your product.

Why is it neglected from design sprints?

In many organizations, design sprints are very elaborate, taking a full week or longer. And this is prior to the developer hand off. Once this is done, designers move on to other projects with no further updates on the previous product. Bringing designers back for the review is not considered by many. And some other common reasons we hear for neglecting design QA are:

  • A misconception in the design world is that a designer’s work is done after forwarding Zeplin links and Invision prototypes. But that is seldom the case.
  • Design QA discussion can cause friction between designers and developers, making it an uncomfortable conversation to have at times.
  • Design QA is seen as an add on step in an already elaborate design sprint. When teams are working under time constraints, collaborating with designers for more reviews is not ranked high on the priority list.

Why did we implement it in our process?

The reasons for design QA to be a part of our process is nothing different from what the experts vouching for it say. We pitched it to our clients explaining its importance and what benefits will they get after its successful implementation. Some major factors that drove us to inculcate it within our process were:

It’s a pretty underrated time saving hack

Design QA will be good for your long term goals. Getting a few extra hours of your designers is better than a few extra days of your developers to search, spot, and iterate for design inconsistencies after the app release.

Better collaboration between your designers and developers

When designers and developers are in the same room (or call) it will help in solving the issues at hand quickly. Your designers will be aware of the technical issues that developers are facing and will account for such issues in the future.

Developers will also get insights into how designers have envisioned the final product and code to bring out the same in the product.

No surprise design inconsistencies

A designer’s work does not end after a simple functionality test of buttons and interactions. Instead, they evaluate the design elements behavior right from the speed of the interaction to the feedback of an action being performed, will there be a slide-out option or slide in, you get the picture.

Minimum design debt

Design debt is accrued over time when small changes and improvements are kept for the next sprints every time they are brought up. As this pile keeps on growing, it results in a bad user experience. And there will be a point where no amount of small tweaks will make it better and you end up rewriting your whole product.

Integrating Design QA in our existing process ensured that we never went back to square one because of design debt.

You’re convinced that it belongs in your process, now how do you implement it?

We know that it is easier to say rather than execute any changes in your workflow. But how to transition from ‘thinking’ to ‘doing’? Here are some tips that have helped us in including design QA within our workflow.

  • Start out together

The first and most vital thing that we have learned is to involve stakeholders from various product stages in the initial meetings. This helps in seeing the feasibility of the product’s features and setting the right expectations for everyone onboard.

  • Sort issues on the basis of priority

You will face numerous issues when testing the final product from the design point. But not all these issues have to be solved right away, some can wait till the next sprint cycle or are the icing on the cake type features.

When discussing with your developers, define priorities to get the critical issues addressed before ones that are only for aesthetic value addition, this way you are making your developers life a tad bit easier.

  • Have a checklist ready

We all know how good our memory is when we need it the most. Having a reference checklist when design QA is carried out will ensure that we don’t miss out on essential checks. Look for text alignment, colors, content placement and spacing.

You also need to check for the accessibility of the design. Here again, a checklist sorted on priority basis makes it easier for everyone involved.

  • Start the review the moment you get your hands on functional prototypes

We believe that there is no fixed timeline that needs to be followed when it comes to review cycles. Infact, the earlier the review cycle starts, the better. Waiting till the last moment can lead to unexpected delays in the launch of your product.

Getting a designer review on the product’s features will keep the development going in the right direction.

  • Give reasoning behind your feedback

Just saying that “this does not look/feel right” defeats the purpose of reviews. You should back your reviews with proper reasoning and even document them for references. This will not only help your developers but your designers as well to evaluate what they like the best and why.

Design QA has helped us ship perfect products reflecting the original design intents. This has worked wonders for us, especially when collaborating remotely. To get your stakeholders onboard, you can utilize the same reasoning that aided us in actively streamlining our workflow.

Why it’s a bad idea to ignore older adults from your app demographics

Posted on by galaxy-admin

Modern technology has two problems: Devices have too many integrated features and everything is smaller.

A good implementation of more-than-what’s-necessary features can give some users an all-in-one experience. While a bad implementation can make it a nightmare to use for an often ignored demographic which is older adults.

Who exactly are these older adults:
Older adults are users aged 50 years and above. The learning curve isn’t that smooth for this demographic as compared to millennials or Gen Z.

UI that has too much going on with it often confuses older adults and they tend to blame themselves for not being able to use technology rather than the design.

But, one can’t put their lives on hold just because of their age. It’s simply a question of need. If they can go to YouTube and learn how to make a cake then they can also learn how to get a cab with Uber.

Infact, generational stereotypes are getting out of the way while building app interfaces for this demographic. As this cohort is not so far behind when it comes to using Facebook, Uber, WhatsApp or YouTube.

Myth #1 Targeting old users deemed as being the last Internet frontier

Video of Snapchat dog filter

Attracting older adults as part of the user-base was considered to be a niche market. Maybe ageing adults aren’t the target of Silicon Valley’s latest service or dating apps but startups believe there is value in addressing the elderly’s needs.

San Francisco-based company Honor (custom home care for seniors) has recently closed a Series C round. It has raised a total of $115 million in funding in just four years.

Myth #2 Elderly do not want to use modern technology at all

It’s not like they don’t understand technology and associated benefits. They want to use the tech but it’s targeted towards and tailored for younger audience. Besides older people are the ones who face trouble getting in a car and driving to get groceries or medical supplies. They need these apps as much as any other group of people.

Martin Gerstell, 94, volunteered at the National Gallery in Washington last month, used the Uber app his granddaughter installed on his iPhone.

Why should older adults matter to designers?

Man on a DJ console

From getting into the swing of mobile phones and computers to watching monologues of the late night show on YouTube or owning a fitness tracker, for decades people aged 50+ have used digital technology in one way or another.

  • Almost 70% of old people all over the world today have some sort of internet exposure on a daily basis.
  • According to the census report, by 2030, about 20% of the U.S. will be old.

The number of older netizens using smartphones is significantly more than ever but contemporary digital products continue to ignore and fail this demographic.

As Don Norman observed, bad design abounds, in both digital and physical products. Current interaction designs often feature startling sounds, tiny targets, illegible text, and other features that make the online world unfriendly to older users.

Good design for older adults is often recognized as good design for everyone

It’s worth giving a thought that when you’re designing for maximum accessibility you’re automatically designing something that is engaging and easier to use. Design guidelines below are consistent with the principles of Universal Design in most of the big enterprises.

  • Distinguish the primary buttons from their surrounding UI elements by proper pairing of color, contrast, layering, shadow and highlights.
  • A simple navigation is essential to allow users to easily and quickly get from point A to point B. Flexible patterns like grids, minimizing sublevel, keeping menus in a single function, etc. are among today’s best navigation practices.
  • Button and text sizes should be kept scaled up. Like keeping icons labeled with bigger text whenever possible or preferring Sans serif typefaces for on-screen readability.

Feeling bogged down while designing an ideal interface for this ‘optimistic’ crowd? Start a project with us for creating an inclusive experience that’s unique and accessible at the same time.