Emily Lytle-Painter

A free-to-use image collection with descriptive alternative text… #accessible

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This week, I came across Maggie Appleton's term "barefoot developer." The concept is as follows: non-tech folks have been pushed to learn how to code/program (e.g., doctors, teachers). These folks may not be interested or have the time to learn. On the other end of the spectrum are professional developers. In the middle are "barefoot developers" who use pre-existing software and tweak it to meet the needs of a small group. Their needs will never be fully met by commercial products nor can they hire a professional developer. The barefoot developer is the person who creates a "home-cooked" app to fill that gap. I work in a small library and fulfill this barefoot developer role. Some of my projects have included using * JotForm to develop readers' advisory tools * Coda.io to build an interface to manage book groups * Notion to create a dashboard/homescreen for book groups * Floorplanner to design 3D models to reuse elsewhere including in home-built kiosk software What do you think of this concept and are you a "barefoot developer" for your library? If yes, what projects have you been built? Read Maggie Appleton's conference notes at https://lnkd.in/eN6yjrxw

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“The value of design isn't actually in producing visual artifacts, but in the process that leverages those artifacts.” Excellent article by Pavel Samsonov reminding us all of what it actually means to * design * something! Anyone who has ever interviewed me and asked me to “tell me about your process” has gotten an earful about this. The value of design will always be in producing a deliverable that embodies decisions made about benefits to the user-which requires understanding the user well enough to be able to make those decisions. https://lnkd.in/gBfMeVJn

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When you have a minute, check out this RKD blog post for #nonprofits on balancing #ethics and #automation in an #AI World. https://lnkd.in/gHxPCb_m

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How different is Research Ops in for-profit vs non-profit? What are the unique challenges of enabling UX research in government, especially where representation is critical? Stig Parfrey has answers to those questions! We discuss all things Research Ops, including: 🫶🏾 How working in the nonprofit space allows for a direct impact and the opportunity to do good. 🏢 The overlap between ReOps in government and other sectors. 📧 How recruitment in government makes a significant impact on people's lives. 🤖 The potential of AI to enhance qualitative research. Listen now on Spotify or on your favourite podcast app. 👇🏾 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gAMs94RK 🎧

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Tomorrow with Kimberly Elam, "All Systems Go!", focusing on how systemic and geometric patterns informs design decisions, and what that can mean for your Design System. https://lnkd.in/e8DDM3r7

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I’m seeing a worrying trend of archival conferences slowly transitioning into in-person only. At first they were digital, then they were hybrid, and then digital accommodations for presenters under extenuating circumstances. This was problematic enough as digital audiences began to be eliminated. Many of whom finally felt they were able to participate for the first time. Presenters also needed to disclose why they needed digital accommodations. Something that may make presenters quite uncomfortable to disclose. Me 10 years ago certainly wouldn’t have been able to. There are certainly exceptions, but I’ve noticed that we are getting to a stage where some conferences are eliminating language that even suggests digital accommodations in their callouts. Conferences heavily focus on networking and hosting in-person only eliminates those who may benefit from that networking most. Travel can be difficult for many of us. For myself, it’s health related. I also think of those who need to care for small children or sick relatives, students/early career professionals/those in the global south who cannot afford to travel because few stipends exist, and those who work in very small non-profits that are not awarded the time to be away. This is particularly troubling when so many conferences are themed around underrepresentation. I understand the difficulties that go into organizing a conference. I’ve been responsible for organizing events, including conferences in the past. I was organizing guest lectures during the pandemic. There are contractual obligations to sponsors and host sites but we need to be doing more. So, think about why certain demographics are more prevalent in our field. By returning to in-person only, we’ll always be stuck at the stage of “we need to be a more inclusive field.” Those voices that are necessary for such inclusion initiatives will never get to participate in the “here’s how”.

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Catching up all of the GPT-4o updates, loving these use cases that'll be so powerful for accessibility https://lnkd.in/g5nfHrQ5

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Here's one of my favorite teaching points from this week when I had the chance to facilitate for Adobe's Design Summit with Scaling Intimacy School of Experience Design. What a great #experience! 🙌 👉 WE DON'T NEED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN CONNECTION OR CONTENT! 🙅‍♀️ 👉 In fact, CONNECTION CATALYZES CONTENT! 💥 We often think about #connection and #content being mutually exclusive but I love how Jenny Sauer-Klein references the #debrief as an example of how we can have both! 💥 It's so true and one of the reasons why I love #experientiallearning: All the participants can have the exact same experience, but take something totally different away!💡 😍 Connection catalyzes content EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. because people feel more awake, alert, engaged, AND MORE HUMAN with connection. Whatever content you deliver will ultimately land more deeply and have more impact that way. Let's banish the days when we have to choose between the two or only choose #connectionbeforecontent. We need it all! 💬 What other ways do you see connection catalyzing content? Let me know in the comments below 👇 #ExperienceLearningwithRomy

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Did you know that almost three quarters of professional designers are white? Crazy, right? With diversity being a strong driver of innovation, it's imperative to have more diverse voices in design. Diverse designers bring unique perspectives, experiences, and insights to the table, leading to more inclusive and effective solutions for ALL. I am excited to share how our students in Desiging Black Experiences are breaking barriers and bringing diverse perspectives to the forefront of design innovation. If you are working in the design space and have been looking for a resource that showcases diverse perspectives in design, then this video is for you.

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My rule of thumb is that if Wes Kao wrote it, I'll probably learn a lot from it. True to form, I appreciated Wes's recent post about how good design can obscure poor substance: https://lnkd.in/g4R6EjyU In technical documentation, it's often the presentation or formatting that first catches the eye but the substance that keeps the audience reading. It's true that a sleek website design adds to the overall product perception. However, it's the content that matters most. Our documentation is only a success if our customers can use it to complete their tasks. Note: All opinions are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer. #technicalwriting #documentation #contentdesign

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‘Conducting #Accessibility #Research In An Inaccessible Ecosystem’ by Michele A. Williams, PhD at Smashing Magazine. Including some useful guidance on ways you can accomplish #Prototype based research activities while working around inaccessible prototypes. 𝟷. Use a survey. 𝟸. Conduct a co-design session. 𝟹. Test with a similar system. 𝟺. Build your own rapid prototype. 𝟻. Use the Wizard of Oz method. https://lnkd.in/gK3jsZH5

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Attention researchers! Rosenfeld is hosting a series of seven community workshops over the coming months, and we're accepting applications for presenters. Each workshop will feature three presenters, moderated by a senior research leader. We'd love to hear from you, whether you work in #UXresearch, #DesignResearch, #MarketResearch, #CustomerResearch, #ContinuousDiscover, #DataScience... all the research silos! The Call for Proposals link is in the first comment below. Workshop dates and topics: • July 24: Democratization--Working with it, not against • August 7: Collaboration--Learning from market research, data science, customer experience, and more • August 21 : Communication--Innovative techniques for making your voice heard  • September 4 : Methods--Expanding the UXR toolkit beyond interviews • September 18: Artificial Intelligence--Passionate defenses, reasoned critiques, and practical application • October 2: Junctures for UXR--Possible futures and the critical decisions to move us forward • October 16: Open Call--Propose ideas that don’t match our other workshops’ themes These workshop sessions will take place virtually, and are free to all to attend. And we'll be drawing most of the speakers for Advancing Research 2025 from these workshops' panelists. (This model worked really well for AR24.) Please consider applying, and mark your calendars regardless to attend any or all of these sessions.

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Friday fun... The last post in motion 1 of 2. From last post... "Sharing some detail 3D work highlighted in the FY24 Studio reel I recently shared. Utilizing the new color palette from the Microsoft Brand these metaphors created for the Microsoft Cloud visual identity celebrate fluidity, harmony, diversity, transformation, and imagination. Waveforms showcase the human element, expressing these ideas organically with texture, imperfection, and inherent optimism." ACD's Juliet Park Tierney Cunningham 3D Artists Steve Lee joseph andrade Handel Eugene #Microsoft #BrandStudio #CreativeTeam #BrandIdentity #VisualDesign #Teamwork #Grateful #Brand #C4D #MicrosoftCloud #creativedirector #creativedirection #visualidentity #promotion #motion #motiongraphics #motiondesign

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Everyone wants a fabulous logo. It takes a great design process to get there. And that's exactly what we are covering in this series of posts. Yesterday, I covered the preliminary, "discovery phase" or, as some people like to call it, "onboarding." If you haven't read that post and the one before it, I recommend reading both to get full context. I'm breaking out the full brand design process so you know what to do if you are trying to do it yourself, or know what to expect of a really great designer if you are hiring someone. Here we go! The Brand Design Process: Phase 1 - Research This is THE MOST IMPORTANT PHASE. The better the research, the better the strategy. The better the strategy, the better the execution. The research phase is mainly comprised of audits. Compiling lists and comparing data. These are the audits and the data within each that we want to examine if it exists: • Brand - name, messaging, taglines, trademarks, brand manuals • Business - stationary, forms, invoices, business cards • Internal - memos, employee swag, holiday greetings • Retail - packaging, promos, bags, merch • Sales - sales/product literature, decks, investor relations, campaigns • Electronic - social/web, video, apps • Environment - interiors, exteriors, signage, trade show booths I use a checklist and a corresponding file structure to gather and organize all of this data from each client. This can take days, weeks or even months, depending on the size and history of the brand. (DM me if you would like the checklist and file structure) It should be noted that you can use the checklist to also reverse engineer the deliverables that will be created for the brand in phase 4 of this process. Corresponding with this data gathering is the interview. I interview the team that is responsible for branding decisions. The owner, founder, CEO, whoever it may be that is on the team. The interview is comprised of 16 questions that elicit the values, purpose, mission, vision, culture, goals and more. It is recorded, and transcribed and annotated and delivered for the team's digestion. This interview usually goes for several hours and a byproduct is a business/life coaching session where the answers that the team comes up with are revelatory for those being interviewed. I have found that time and again, that interview ends up being one of the most valuable parts of the branding process. The value comes from the clarity that arises for the leadership of the company. Even if the company had plenty of clarity in their business, it's amazing what happens when you get a whole lot more. Once the audits and interview are finished and all of the data is in our hands, the research phase is complete. The next phase is strategy, which is distilling this data down to two one page briefs. The Brand Brief defines the brand personality and the Creative Brief defines where we are going and why. And I have hit the character limit! See you tomorrow!

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Thank you to everyone who attended my UXPA Boston Conference presentation, "Mind the (maturity) gap: Building and scaling a UX research practice." I was really humbled by the size of the crowd, the engaged questions, and the thoughtful feedback I've received thus far. A slightly modified version of my slides with all attributions/sources is up on the Sched page for the talk. If you attended and haven't done so already, please leave some feedback on that page as well! https://lnkd.in/dW57FQMP

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What is design research? This new documentary explores this important topic. https://lnkd.in/gFE4PUg2

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Accessibility news for American schools and universities... The US government has released new requirements. Today, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) officially published a final rule for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title 2. In the past, the DoJ has confirmed that the ADA covers digital content and services. The final rule clarifies what that means for public schools and universities. I have provided a link to the full text of the rule in a comment. But here's a very brief summary. (1) Digital content and services must be accessible. (2) To be "accessible," a product must conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 2.1, Level AA (WCAG 2.1 AA). This is a minimum requirement. (3) Fewer exceptions will be allowed. (4) Institutions will have 2 to 3 years to comply. For me, one of the biggest takeaways is that content must meet WCAG 2.1. Over the last two years, some state Departments of Education have transitioned to WCAG 2.1. Educational publishers have also moved in that direction. But many schools and universities still aim for WCAG 2.0. In part, the continued focus on WCAG 2.0 relates to US accessibility law. WCAG 2.0 AA is the standard defined in Revised Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 508 doesn't specifically apply to educational institutions. But state funding and federal grant rules often require it. I'm not going to get into the weeds comparing WCAG 2.0 to 2.1. But here's one major difference. WCAG 2.1 has new standards for image contrast and reflow. These standards can significantly affect learning products such as digital textbooks, PDF journal articles, and graphics-heavy STEM content. Another big takeaway: The final rule also applies to content created by individual instructors. Not just officially procured products. How can institutions achieve accessibility at the instructor level? It's easy to say, "Invest in increased awareness-building, training, and instructional design support." But budgets and skilled staff are often limited. Schools may need outside partners to help build accessibility solutions for specific courses or instructors. Inevitably, there will be puzzles to solve as institutions respond to the final rule. But I applaud the DoJ for finally bringing some clarity to ADA Title 2. In the end, everyone benefits from clearer expectations and timelines. Image description: A notecard, eraser, and pencil lie on a desk. The following text is written on the notecard. A.D.A. Title 2, Final Rule. 1, Digital content must be accessible. 2, Accessible = WCAG 2.1 AA or more. 3, Fewer exceptions allowed. 4, Timeline = 2 to 3 years. #accessibility #inclusion #EdTech #HigherEd #education

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