Articles in Design

Why is user accessibility important?

Maybe you’ve heard of the recent lawsuit against Domino’s Pizza, which didn’t make its site accessible through a screen reader — and to be fair, Domino’s isn’t the only one. Traditionally, accessibility has been more of an afterthought or a “nice-to-have” element in many organizations’ design plans. Hopefully moving forward, we’ll see a greater trend in planning and incorporating Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as a basic part of the design process.

“Good design is good design” is a phrase I often find myself saying, whether it’s to someone I’m instructing, a prospective client, or in agreement with a coworker. (My other go-to phrase is “Don’t design in a vacuum,” but that’s a post for another day.)

Branding and corporate identity. When you can you spot the difference at a glance between an ad from Tiffany’s, featuring the Tiffany-blue box and white satin ribbon; and an ad from Target, whose tagline “Expect more, pay less” underscores the benefit for consumers and the financial return for investors: well, that’s branding.

The em dash vs the hyphen and what to do when WordPress automatically changes it, whether you like it or not.