World Wide Web Resources
2.9 Accommodating Hardware and Software Diversity
In addition to accommodating different classes of users and skill levels, designers need to support a wide range of hardware and software platforms. The rapid progress of technology means that newer systems may have a hundred or a thousand times greater storage capacity, faster processors, and higher- bandwidth networks.
However, designers need to accommodate older devices and deal with newer mobile devices that may have low-bandwidth connections and small screens (Fig. 2.2 ).
The challenge of accommodating diverse hardware is coupled with the need to ensure access through many generations of software.
New operating systems, web browsers, e-mail clients, and
application programs should provide backward compatibility in terms of their user-interface design and file structures. Skeptics will say that this requirement can slow innovation, but designers who plan ahead carefully to support flexible interfaces and self-defining files will be rewarded with larger market shares.
For at least the next decade, three of the main technical challenges will be:
high-speed (broadband) and slower (dial-up and some
wireless) connections. Some technological breakthroughs have already been made in compression algorithms to reduce file sizes for images, music, animations, and even video, but more are needed. New technologies are needed to enable pre-fetching or scheduled downloads. User control of the amount of material downloaded for each request could also prove beneficial (for example, allowing users to specify that a large image should be reduced to a smaller size, sent with fewer colors, converted to a simplified line drawing, replaced with just a text description, or downloaded at night when Internet charges are perhaps lower).
Responsive design enabling access to web services from large displays (3200 × 2400 pixels or larger) and smaller mobile devices (1024 × 768 pixels and smaller). Rewriting each webpage for different display sizes may produce the best quality, but this approach is probably too costly and time-
consuming for most web providers. Software tools such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allow designers to specify their content in a way that enables automatic conversions for an increasing range of display sizes.
Supporting easy maintenance of or automatic conversion to multiple languages. Commercial operators recognize that they can expand their markets if they can provide access in multiple languages and across multiple countries. This means isolating text to allow easy substitution, choosing appropriate metaphors and colors, and addressing the needs of diverse cultures
(Section 2.5 ).
Practitioner’s Summary
The good news is that when designers think carefully about the needs of diverse users, they are likely to come up with desktop, laptop, web, and mobile device designs that are better for all users.
A frequent path to success is through participatory methods that bring designers in close and continuing contact with their intended users. In some cases, improved tools and designs mean that one design can be made so flexible that it can be presented
automatically in text (with a wide range of font sizes, colors, and contrast ratios), in speech (with male or female styles and at varying volumes and speeds), and in a wide range of display sizes.
Adjustments for different cultures, personalities, disabilities, ages, input devices, and preferences may take more design effort, but the payoffs are in larger markets and more satisfied users. As for costs, with appropriate software tools, e-commerce providers are finding that a small additional effort can expand markets by 20% or more.
Although it can require additional effort, designing for diverse users is cost effective and sometimes leads to major breakthroughs.
While market forces provide incentives for changes, additional legal and policy interventions could speed progress in ensuring that
desktop, laptop, web, and mobile device user interfaces continue to be accessible to all. The expanding worldwide research community, especially the ACM Special Interest Group on Accessible Computing (SIGACCESS), hosts international conferences, publishes journals, and encourages further research.
Research on diversity often brings innovations for all users; for example, input devices for users with poor motor control can often help all passengers in rough riding cars, buses, trains, or planes.
Improved automated assistance for conversions to diverse
languages and cultures would improve designer productivity and facilitate changes to prices, dimensions, colors, and so on. Research on cultural diversity is still needed about the acceptability by differing user groups of novel features like emoticons, animation,
personalization, gamification, and musical accompaniments.
World Wide Web Resources
www.pearsonhighered.com/cs-resources
Major suppliers offer diverse accessibility tools:
Apple: https://www.apple.com/accessibility/
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Google: https://www.google.com/accessibility/
And many consumer-oriented and government groups provide assistance, such as:
AARP: http://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal- technology/
Older Adults Technology Services: http://oats.org/
U.S. Section 508: http://www.section508.gov/
Resource list from Trace Center: http://
trace.wisc.edu/resources/
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