Modern technology doesn’t automatically make life easier for everyone. Computer software and apps can present unique challenges to people living with disabilities. Vision impairment, hearing difficulties, mobility impairment, or cognitive disabilities all make navigating today’s digital apps difficult, or impossible. As a technological innovator, you shouldn’t be willing to leave anyone in the dust. The nature of technology is not to power ahead for those who can use it and forget those who can’t, but to adapt and invent ways to allow all people to benefit from digital advancements. The job of a good UI/UX developer is to create a product that makes the user’s experience easier – that goes for all types of users. A touch of clear design can go a long way. Is It Worthwhile to Design for Accessibility? The short answer is, if you don’t design for accessibility, you’re stunting your app’s ability to grow. The World Bank estimates that 15% of the world’s population lives with a disability. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that number is closer to 20% in the US. That’s a huge segment of the market that could benefit from improved accessibility. The government is increasingly recognizing this, and encouraging action to accommodate it. Congress has introduced legislation in a range of areas aimed at improving accessibility to products and services for people living with disabilities, and some of that includes computer software and apps. For example, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and its 2008 amendments specifies that public programs and services — including information technology — have to be accessible to people living with disabilities, and provide “effective communication” of their content and information. As the population ages, accessibility will only become more important. If you stay ahead of the curve and build this into your app from the start, you’ll have a more ethical product with more lasting power. Ways to Improve Your App’s Accessibility Improving accessibility doesn’t have to be hard. There are plenty of guides out there like these ones by Android and Salesforce that can help you get a full understanding of what your app design must include to be successful. For visual impairments, increased size or contrast text can go a long way in making content easier to read. If you’re targeting an older demographic especially, making the text in your app easy to read should be a goal. Using bolding or italics, instead of just color, to highlight important phrases ensures someone with a vision impairment doesn’t miss important content. Adding captions to audio or video allows people with hearing impairments to access and understand all content. More complex solutions can include formatting web and app content so that programs like Android’s Text-to-Speech can easily read the content aloud to users. Truly stellar accessibility will take more detailed design, such as ensuring your online forms are properly identified so that keyboard-only and voice-only computer users can still use them. Or, it can mean relocating menu items to places where they can be easily found for these users. If you have to hover the mouse over an item to see the actionable items, visual-only users might not even realize it’s there. This is where an experienced app developer can be a great resource to help you address potential user roadblocks you hadn’t even considered. Testing your product often and thoroughly can help identify where your accessibility issues lie, and allow your development team to innovate strong solutions. The Payoff When you make your product more accessible, it will reach more people. You can start to access some of the 20% of the American population living with a disability, who might not otherwise interact with your app. As more technologies are developed for people living with disabilities to navigate computers and apps, there will be more opportunities to develop strong, accessible app design. The field is only growing. When you design software to be more accessible, it’s useful for other purposes as well. Take, for example, captioning video content for people with hearing difficulties has became useful even for people without hearing impairments. Thanks to captioning, video can be watched by people who need to watch sound-free, or for those who don’t understand the video’s native language very well. Similarly, voice control features can be extremely useful for someone with mobility issues, but have the added side effect of assisting someone who’s got his hands full trying to cook dinner. Ultimately, constraint breeds creativity. When you’re required to work within stricter guidelines, you’re forced to adapt your design to fit – and often, you end up with something better than you had originally planned. At Barefoot Solutions, we embrace the creative challenges of accessible design; each challenge is a new opportunity to make your app even better for your users.

It’s not uncommon if the first thing you do in the morning is grope around the bedside table for your phone. Who can get out of bed without checking the stocks, checking email, checking Facebook. Or even before going to bed at night, the last thing many of us do is check Instagram, fire off a final tweet, or confirm what time boxing class is the next day. What is it about these apps that have inherently integrated them into our daily lives? There was a time before mobile applications when people didn’t NEED to check mobile apps, but that time occurred simply because they didn’t exist. Now that they do, it can be nearly impossible to imagine what life was like pre-app. How did the most addicting apps become so...addicting? Yet even more importantly, how can your app become one that users can’t get through the day without? Plug Into the Routine The apps that are used the most have everything to do with what their user does in day-to-day life. Think about the ones you use...apps that track exercise and eating, apps that help manage schedules, apps that provide music to help you hum through the day. These are the winners in most people’s lives because they are with the users as they go about their day, and even make it easier for them to do the activities they like. If you can fulfill a need that fits into a user’s daily routine, it’ll be addictive. Integrate with Other Services Some standalone apps have good reason to be just the way they are. However the golden handcuffs are fastened when your app can integrate with apps and services your users already love. For example, PayPal is a well known money transfer service, allowing businesses to accept funds and allows friends to send money to each other. All that is needed is an account holder’s email or phone number and poof, money is sent. However the hassle arrives when the payer must look up the phone number or email address of the person they wish to pay. This can be just as much of a hassle as getting up to get and enter the credit card, which can inhibit the transaction from occurring altogether. Then came along Venmo, a money sending mobile application integrated directly with Facebook. Upon sign up, a user immediately connects to Facebook and accesses the Facebook user’s profile and friends. Once bank account information is initially entered, the user can easily send funds to anyone on their friends list who has also activated the Venmo app. This integration makes it much easier to send money to friends, and removes the barrier of looking up any sort of account information. Because of this Venmo quickly became a go-to app for savvy spenders, and eventually were acquired by PayPal.  Talk to Your User Send timely notifications to let your user know you’re there. You’re competing with a heavy amount of noise both from the users app filled phone and with the busy world around. In order to become an app worthy of daily use, your user should be regularly aware of its existence. For example, if they haven’t logged in for a day or two, send a gentle reminder via push notification to remind them to check in. Perhaps you can gain the user’s email address. If so, send updates on what’s going on with your app to keep the user informed - and your app top of mind. Get Personal Have your user enter personal information, if it makes sense in the context of your app. From there, personalize their experience. When they log in, greet them with a, “Hello Brent!” or even ask them how their day is going. If you know their time zone you could go even further and say, “Good evening, Brent!” The sweetest sound to any person’s ear is their own name - so use that Psych 101 tidbit to your advantage to get your user hooked on your application.  Make it Fun Regardless of if your app is for business or play, most of the time you can still have fun with your user. Gamification is as addicting as sugar, so get your audience engaged in ways that make your app feel more like a game.* Perhaps you can add a host character who guides the user about the app, making it fun and friendly. Or encourage more activity by unlocking new features with continued use. Awarding points or prizes in some way is a great way to make your user feel rewarded - and keep them coming back for more. *If your app is a game, well, make sure it’s a really fun game.  Keep an Eye on User Activity Monitor where your users spend their time. What portions of your app are they using? Which are hardly opened? If you can determine usage you can gain valuable insight into what is working for your app, and build upon the features that intrigue and engage your audience. There are some great tools available that can help you with this, such as Google Mobile Analytics or Flurry Analytics. Just remember that what is taking up valuable data space could possibly better be used otherwise, which can make your app the attractive solution to getting the user through their day. Connect with Friends Similar to our point about integrating with other services, if you can connect your app to the user’s community, all the more reason for them to stay engaged with your app. While we know that we talked about dating applications recently, we can’t help but hammer on the issue of how genius it is to connect daters with people who aren’t entirely strangers. In our particular article we talked about Pear Friends, yet there are other dating applications that utilize user’s friends to get better results when providing matches. One such app is called Hinge, the app that helps users meet new people through friends by connecting daters only with people within the parameters of that user’s social circle. It does this by plugging in directly, again, with Facebook. From there the app searches through friends of friends to determine what kind of people may be a good fit. Using this strategy makes it much more addicting for daters, as infused with it is the excitement of learning who friends are friends with, and the added security that matches are not complete strangers. The success of your app depends on having users. Giving your users a reason to use your app daily gives them reason to talk about it with their friends, thus widening your user base and making you more successful. If you’re ready to get started making that app dream a reality, let us know how we can help you get started.  

Ah, the highs and lows of high school. Sure there was excitement around football, rallies and dances, but the technology factor compared to today was sorely lacking. Remember when the TI-81 was hip new technology right next to the greatest game ever, Oregon Trail? That was only until the TI-83 came out. Minds blown, it seemed like robots were right around the corner, and Marty McFly’s skateboard would be mainstream by junior year.   Yet as we look back today we realize yesteryear’s technology wasn’t even an iota of what it is today. This is even more true when reviewing and building today’s most innovative apps. Every now and then we’ll stumble across the next viral app in excitement..but then a little bit of jealousy will wash over. “Why didn’t this exist when I was 16?!”   Here are some of the greatest, and most jealous-worthy, apps that those lucky scoundrels today get to have at their fingertips.   PhotoMath   Some people look at an algebra, calculus, or arithmetic equation and the numbers come right to them. Those people are called asshats, and many of them work here at Barefoot. For the rest of us, solving equations takes a little more effort, coffee and possibly aspirin. Yet today we have PhotoMath, the mobile app savior for people who struggle to complete homework on time or for adults who use math in their everyday lives. The app functions by uploading a snapshot taken of a particular mathematical equation. From there, the app solves the problem and the user can go on living their life.   Study Blue   Flashcards are a requirement to survive language, science, public speaking, any class that requires memorization. Remembering to carry those cards around isn’t always the easiest, and the hassle of going to the drugstore to pick up a new pack can be a chore delayed indefinitely. Study Blue is the solution for this issue, as an app that provides users with sleek study cards on a well organized user-friendly platform. Students can even share cards with each other, create checkpoints and quizzes, and track how well they are doing with the subject matter.   Audible   The importance of understanding literature and taking time away from the world to read will always be a value. This notable fact can however backfire, fueling the overly ambitious English and Lit teachers who assign an overwhelming amount of books to read, leaving you little time to complete the assignments themselves. Audible would have been a great option for completing assigned readings when you were out walking the dog, shopping alone, or simply taking the car out for a drive. Had this option been available, perhaps we wouldn’t have overused the then-valuable Cliff Notes, and would have been able to enjoy the collections in their entirety.   Duolingo We recently dove into why Duolingo is a fantastic language learning app. Well we really mean it and think as teenagers we would have loved it then too. The app functions like a video game, unlocking levels as you learn new vocabulary and pass tests. Don’t be scared at the word “test,” though. The lessons function with varied games, testing your speaking with puzzles and guessing sequences to sharpen your language skills in different ways. From there, the app sends daily reminders to keep you on track and to keep the Owl - the cartoon friend who guides you through the language learning journey - happy. Even as an adult you’ll love it too and hablas español before you know it.   Tinder   Well...come on. High school is basically a giant dating forum. While you do have to be 18 to use Tinder, if you turn 18 in high school you’re likely ready to meet some new people outside of your class anyway. Those who attended smaller schools or are 17 and under could argue the lacking need for Tinder. But what about when you were hanging out at the mall on Friday night? Or went to another school’s football game and wanted to see what kind of talent existed beyond rivalry walls? Tinder could have been a great way for teenagers sich of their own dating pool and curious to see who else they could ask to homecoming.   High school may bring you a host of fond memories or a wave of recalled embarrassment. Either way, there’s no doubt that the mobile apps of today could have helped your life in some way as you meandered through the halls of youth. Have an idea that could be applicable for today’s teenagers? Let’s get it started.