Human Diversity in Interactive Systems Development
When endeavoring to develop and create an interactive system, one must consider the diversity of people who may potentially interface with said system. All too typically, developers of interactive systems design for themselves. Their designs may seem perfectly logical to them, but may appear cumbersome — or even downright unusable — to certain segments of the population. Developers must be perpetually cognizant of the diverse needs, skill levels, handicaps, and mindsets of potential users.
When undertaking something as vast and complicated as, for instance, an operating system, the developers must consider the lowest common denominator — not in a strict numerical sense, but in terms of the skill-levels and competencies of a potential user base. Developers must leverage coding for this lowest common denominator with meeting — and even surpassing — the needs of experienced “power” users. A novice user shouldn’t have to spend minutes wading through documentation in order to accomplish simple tasks. The functions of an interactive system should be intuitive and fundamentally logical.
In addition to developing to a potential user base’s levels of expertise, systems developers must consider the physical and mental handicaps of users. As the Baby Boomers age, a growing number of computer users find themselves with less-than optimal vision. Crucial applications, such as web browsers and operating systems must be accessible to people with poor vision.
Correlatively, software programs and Internet content must also be accessible. In creating web content, web developers can ensure accessibility by 1.) Using relative (as apposed to fixed) font sizes, 2.) Using plain text instead of image-based text when possible, 3.) Providing alternate text for images, which is crucial for audible screen readers. (Screen readers cannot reliably determine the content of an image and must fall back to alternate text.), and 4.) Being cognizant of the contrast ratios of text color(s) and their corresponding background color(s).
