Designer
The practice of design has an important role to play in moving accessibility thinking earlier in the product development process ("shifting left"). Design encompasses a wide variety of tasks and skills. Depending on their area of expertise, a designer could plan and write content, conduct research, or create visual mockups. These types of duties are usually broken down into three main categories.
User Experience (UX) Designer Anchor link
A UX designer focuses on how to best communicate information to users of their product. They improve accessibility by making content easy to understand. UX designers logically organize page content using headings and write in plain language to reduce cognitive load.
Duties for this role include defining information architecture, creating journey maps, planning content strategy, or writing content.
Other titles for this role Anchor link
- Content Designer
- Content Strategist
- Information Architect
- Service Designer
- UX Writer
Accessibility resources for UX designers Anchor link
- Accessibility for Everyone
- Agile Accessibility Explained
- Digital.gov Accessibility for UX Designers
- Digital.gov Accessibility for Content Designers
User Researcher Anchor link
User researchers study user needs and behaviors. They can gather feedback from all users, including those that have disabilities and use assistive technology. This feedback can help guide decisions on how to make a product more accessible.
Duties for this role include conducting user interviews, testing designs for usability, and analyzing data collected from users.
Other titles for this role Anchor link
- Experience Researcher
- Human-Centered Researcher
- Product Researcher
Accessibility resources for user researchers Anchor link
- Nielsen Norman Group's How to Conduct Usability Studies for Accessibility
- UK Department of Work and Pensions' User Research Accessibility Manual
Visual Designer Anchor link
Visual designers define how a product looks and feels. They create designs that are engaging and aesthetically distinct. To improve accessibility, they use colors that pass contrast requirements, consider visual layout and hierarchy, choose legible typefaces, and much more.
Duties for this role include designing mockups and prototypes, creating user flows, and establishing style guides.
Other titles for this role Anchor link
- Graphic Designer
- Interaction Designer
- Product Designer
- UI Designer
- Web Designer
Accessibility resources for visual designers Anchor link
- DigitalA11y's Accessibility Tools and Resources for Designers
- Digital.gov's Accessibility for Visual Designers
- WAVE Browser Extensions
Next steps Anchor link
When you are ready to learn more, here are some further guides and resources that may help: