Articles

Should We Be Designing For Voice?

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Voice is one aspect of technology that is getting bigger and bigger, and showing little sign of relenting. In fact, 2019 data revealed that 22% of UK households owned a voice-controlled digital home assistant device such as an Amazon Echo or Google home. This is double the figure recorded in 2017 and it is predicted that over the next five years nearly 50% of all homes will have one. Smart home adoption rates are increasing, and it shows how voice control is something we are all becoming more accustomed to.

With these high figures, does it follow that voice should be something web designers build into sites? Or is it merely a gimmick that will die out and render sites with hardware and complex design issues? You only have to look at the failed introduction of Google glass to see that certain technological advancements don’t always have the outcome that might be expected.

Multiple Voices

One of the first issues with voice is establishing whether you want sites to recognise everyone’s voices, or just those who have registered. If you’re using the site in a crowded room will it pick up on snippets of conversation from others and think these are instructions? Google Home has a feature whereby you have to register your voice with its app to use more personalised features such as the shopping list. Is this the sort of thing websites would need?

Accents

The implementation of voice is complex, not only does it need to understand certain languages (such as English), but all the accents and variations too. With 160 English dialects alone, that is a lot that the technology needs to understand – not including mispronunciations, slang, and colloquialisms. Also, if a site is used all over the world (which many are) how many languages will it need to know?

Privacy Issues

if there are clips of your voice out there on the web…it can easily be imitated

If a website involves a feature such as online shopping or other functions which require sensitive details to be input, this could put people off using voice. Users need to know where this saved data is being stored, how it will be used and if it is secure. In 2018, HMRC had signed up about 6.7 million people to its voice ID service and HSBC said over 10,000 were registering each week. This shows many trust the service, but experts say that if there are clips of your voice out there on the web (such as in a podcast) it can easily be imitated. Bringing with it security and privacy issues.

According to futurologist Dr Ian Pearson, who invented the text message back in 1991, it won’t be long until we can complete a financial transaction with just a few words and a gesture. This can be a time-saver for things such as online shopping, but we need to ensure there are the correct security steps in place.

Users Don’t Talk The Way They Type

When speaking we tend to use shortened and more colloquial language as opposed to when we type. The voice function on a website will need to be able to adapt for this. One example is if you are filling in a form or comment box by voice for a website, you will need to tell it what to punctuate, letting it know where to add a comma, exclamation mark etc.

Website Processes Need to be Simpler

With the web as we use it now, we often browse through pages, reading other snippets of information before clicking through to the page we want. With voice recognition it will cut out these middle steps. For example, if you are looking for a recipe of something specific, you will just say the command “Show me the … recipe” and it will take you straight there. This direct access to what we are looking for could lead to a simplification of websites.

Regular Updates

With websites as they are now, they need updates semi-regularly, depending on how they are built, how complex they are, and what features we have built into them. A voice-based site will need updating regularly, whether to add new words or processes or to keep up with the fast-adapting technology. It might end up being quite a complex process.

Mistrust

While there are more of us now than ever using voice control via tech such as Alexa, Google, and Siri, there is still a level of mistrust over it. It’s still not quite clear where data is being stored, if it is being stored, and how easy it could be to abuse.

Larger Storage and Bandwidth

If a site is built for voice, will it utilise a ready-built plugin or will it have its own software built by developers? Will this feature require a greater amount of storage and bandwidth to cope with it? These are further factors to consider when thinking of the future of implementing voice to websites.

We Still Don’t Know Where It Will Go

Voice technology while working in some respects, is still a bit of a grey area when it comes to future use. Will it be the next big thing as many have predicted, or will it simply die down?

Look at Google Glass – highlighted as the big new technology, they soon died down and were eventually discontinued. Smart watches were another thing. You can see their initial downfall by reading an article published in 2017 about smartwatches – how major smartwatch makers such as Apple and Samsung rushed into the market before the technology was ready and they subsequently failed. Motorola exited the smartwatch market, Pebble and Jawbone shut down and Fitbit sold 2.3 million fewer devices than in their previous quarter. It was perceived as being a fad. However, fast forward to 2020 and more people than ever are wearing and using smartwatches. The smartwatch market was valued at shipment volumes of 47.34 million in 2019 and is expected to reach 117.51 by 2025, reaching a growth of 15.4 over the next five years.

Will voice follow a similar trend?

No More Impulse Buying

People enjoy browsing websites and many businesses rely on user’s impulse buying and ask their websites to be designed to reflect this. With voice taking you directly to the page’s users want to find, will they bypass these potential selling traps and just buy what they want – rather than added extras? Will it end up being a negative for businesses and see users not as satisfied for the experience?

Voiceless Still Matters

You will also have to remember that not all devices might work with voice, or people might be browsing somewhere where voice cannot be used. This means in the design process it needs to work both for voice instruction and manual use. It needs to work just as well for both to ensure the customer journey isn’t affected.

There are many ways voice can affect how we design websites in the upcoming future. It’s important to take note of market trends and usage – seeing how people use voice and thinking of the customer journey. It’s vital we don’t forget the end goals of websites – whether it’s to inform or to sell, the implementation of voice needs to assist this process not make it harder.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Avec les solutions SAP Ariba, ERG digitalise sa gestion des achats et affirme son engagement en faveur du développement durable

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE : SAP) annonce que ERG, l’un des principaux producteurs d’électricité indépendants en Europe dans le secteur des énergies renouvelables, a mis en œuvre les solutions SAP Ariba pour digitaliser et unifier ses opérations d’achat.

En activité depuis plus de 80 ans, ERG a effectué sa transition du pétrole vers l’énergie verte en 2008 en produisant de l’électricité à partir de sources d’énergie renouvelables comme l’énergie éolienne, solaire et hydroélectrique et les centrales de cogénération thermoélectriques à haut rendement et à faible impact environnemental.

La digitalisation des achats vient soutenir les objectifs de transformation cloud d’ERG

ERG adopte des technologies cloud pour obtenir une infrastructure plus flexible avec une meilleure intégration, des processus améliorés, des mises à jour plus rapides et des coûts de gestion réduits. ERG a choisi les solutions SAP Ariba dans le cadre d’une stratégie visant à consolider ses achats sur une plateforme unique, rapprochant les besoins de diverses fonctions commerciales afin de partager des informations avec tous ceux qui en ont besoin au bon moment.

« Après une évaluation approfondie des solutions disponibles, nous avons choisi les solutions SAP Ariba pour leur facilité d’intégration avec nos systèmes SAP existants, et pour offrir à nos fournisseurs une interface unique à partir de laquelle ils peuvent se connecter et collaborer avec notre organisation et nos partenaires », a déclaré Anna Campi, responsable du contrôle de la planification des achats et de la gestion des fournisseurs chez ERG. « Depuis que nous avons adopté les solutions SAP Ariba, nous avons réalisé des économies considérables par rapport à la solution précédente. Nous avons également amélioré notre structure de qualification des fournisseurs par secteur de produits grâce aux solutions SAP Ariba, qui proposent une liste de fournisseurs beaucoup plus précise et plus fiable. »

Grâce aux solutions SAP Ariba Sourcing et SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, ERG pourra collaborer avec ses fournisseurs tout en s’assurant qu’ils sont alignés sur ses principes organisationnels et son code de conduite. Elles aideront notamment ERG à évaluer régulièrement la conformité de ses fournisseurs stratégiques, qui représentent environ 80 % des achats de la société. Grâce à la collaboration en temps réel, ERG pourra améliorer ses marges d’exploitation et récompenser ses fournisseurs stratégiques pour leur conformité.

« Collaborer avec ses fournisseurs n’a jamais été aussi important qu’aujourd’hui, car les entreprises se concentrent actuellement sur la continuité de leur activité », a déclaré Chad Crook, senior vice president and global head of Customer Engagement and Adoption, SAP Procurement Solutions. « Avec les solutions SAP Ariba, ERG dispose d’un processus digital simplifié de gestion des dépenses de bout en bout sur une seule plateforme et d’une meilleure capacité de communication et de collaboration avec ses fournisseurs, qui lui permet d’assurer la conformité et la fluidité des opérations entre ses partenaires commerciaux. »

L’engagement d’ERG en faveur des énergies renouvelables et du développement durable

La société ERG est engagée en continu dans développement durable. Pour la deuxième année consécutive, elle figure parmi les 50 grandes entreprises les plus durables au monde, selon l’indice Corporate Knights Global 100, et est cotée à la Bourse de Milan. Cette initiative, et l’objectif que s’est fixé ERG de développer ses projets de production et d’achat tout en améliorant les processus de bout en bout, ont influencé ses achats. Conformément aux nouveaux principes écologiques de la société, le conseil d’administration d’ERG a récemment approuvé un code de conduite pour les fournisseurs.

 

The post Avec les solutions SAP Ariba, ERG digitalise sa gestion des achats et affirme son engagement en faveur du développement durable appeared first on SAP France News.

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Le client d’abord, un état d’esprit et un mantra pour la réussite

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Un état d’esprit axé sur le client signifie qu’il faut constamment penser non seulement à votre client, mais aussi aux clients de vos clients – et à tous leurs employés. C’est ce que pense avant tout Martin Mrugal, responsable mondial de Customer First chez SAP.

« Pendant la pandémie COVID-19, les entreprises ont prouvé l’une après l’autre que la sécurité de leurs employés, le service aux clients et les engagements envers les parties prenantes sont des priorités absolues », dit-il. « C’est notre travail de défendre passionnément nos clients en leur fournissant les meilleurs outils, services et inspirations pour les aider à remplir leurs obligations et à s’épanouir dans le processus ».

A Customer First Mindset

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A Customer First Mindset

 

Mrugal a partagé avec les clients des histoires incroyables sur les nombreux résultats positifs obtenus par les clients qui ont un partenariat solide avec SAP.

Faurecia, un équipementier automobile mondial, s’est d’abord concentré sur la protection de ses employés, puis a renforcé ses liquidités pour rassurer les parties prenantes : l’entreprise pourrait faire face à tous les défis posés par la crise. Il a également saisi l’occasion de développer la résilience de sa chaîne d’approvisionnement et d’accélérer la neutralité en matière de CO2 grâce à l’achat d’énergie et d’acier décarbonisés. Malgré le blocage, Faurecia a rassemblé plus de 1 000 fournisseurs en ligne afin d’assurer conjointement la continuité de la chaîne d’approvisionnement et de s’assurer qu’ils sont prêts pour la reprise.

Le géant suisse du commerce de détail Coop a utilisé un nouvel outil de prévision pour s’assurer que les rayons des supermarchés étaient bien approvisionnés afin que les clients puissent s’approvisionner. Il a également transféré temporairement des employés de ses secteurs d’activité non alimentaires, qui ont été fermés pendant la crise, pour travailler dans des entrepôts et des centres de distribution en sous-effectif.

Lamb Weston, un fournisseur nord-américain de produits à base de pommes de terre, a renforcé les pratiques sanitaires sur tous ses sites et n’a autorisé que les visites critiques dans ses usines de fabrication pour éviter la propagation du virus. Elle a également optimisé les stocks, permettant à l’entreprise de transférer les fournitures aux épiceries qui avaient besoin de plus de produits à base de pommes de terre.

« Ce ne sont là que quelques exemples de la manière dont les clients de SAP se concentrent sur leurs employés et leurs entreprises », explique M. Mrugal. « Nous constatons que tout le monde, partout dans le monde, est confronté aux mêmes défis, sous une forme ou une autre. Maintenant plus que jamais, nous augmentons notre niveau d’engagement et nous pensons de manière créative pour accroître notre collaboration et notre connectivité avec les clients par le biais d’engagements virtuels et numériques ».

Interrogé sur son rôle, M. Mrugal explique que « Le client d’abord » est à la fois un état d’esprit, un modèle d’engagement et une organisation construite autour de meilleurs engagements avec les clients – le tout réuni en un seul.

« La véritable mesure du succès de SAP est le succès de nos clients. Ce concept est inscrit dans notre ADN », dit-il en racontant l’histoire d’un représentant commercial de SAP qui a aidé un client à localiser 500 lits d’hôpital en 30 minutes pour un hôpital de fortune à New York au plus fort de la pandémie. « Le représentant a reçu un appel d’un fournisseur, Ram Tool Construction Supply, qui aidait un entrepreneur à construire l’hôpital. Le représentant de SAP a utilisé l’outil SAP Ariba Discovery pour répondre rapidement au besoin ».

M. Mrugal note que depuis que SAP a donné aux clients un accès gratuit à SAP Ariba Start Sourcing à la mi-mars 2020, les affichages des acheteurs sur ce site ont augmenté de 58 % et les réponses des fournisseurs de 404 % par rapport à la période du 1er janvier au 9 mars 2020.

La fourniture de logiciels gratuits est l’un des moyens par lesquels SAP démontre que ses clients sont au premier plan. SAP offre également à ses clients un accès gratuit à plusieurs solutions clés de SAP et de Qualtrics.

« Les clients profitent de nos offres gratuites », a déclaré M. Mrugal. « Qualtrics leur permet de sonder et de prendre le pouls de leurs employés pour s’assurer qu’ils sont vraiment en sécurité. C’est primordial dans l’environnement actuel ».

M. Mrugal a un mantra de trois mesures essentielles que les organisations doivent prendre pour survivre avec succès à la crise. La santé et la sécurité des employés, des clients et des communautés figurent en tête de liste.

Ensuite, une communication claire et cohérente est essentielle. Selon M. Mrugal, il est essentiel de garder les lignes ouvertes avec les clients et de rester connecté : « Nous devons comprendre en temps réel où nos équipes ou nos clients ont des préoccupations, et nous devons y répondre immédiatement ».

Enfin, M. Mrugal estime que le maintien de la continuité garantit que le niveau d’engagement de SAP ne diminue pas ; il affirme plutôt que SAP change la qualité – et pas seulement la quantité – de son engagement avec les clients.

« Dans de nombreux cas, nous sommes encore plus engagés avec nos clients que jamais auparavant alors que nous traversons ensemble cette période inhabituelle », déclare le dirigeant de longue date de SAP, qui pense que le rôle de son organisation continuera à évoluer à mesure que les besoins de SAP et de ses clients continueront à se transformer.

Une chose, cependant, ne changera jamais : le client sera toujours au centre de nos préoccupations.

 

Publié initialement en anglais sur news.sap.com

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Finding Your Way With Domain Mapping

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It’s no secret that having a custom domain name is an essential piece of any company’s branding strategy. While there are a myriad of hosting plans available that offer domains like your company.webhost.com, making the shift from one of those to simply yourcompany.com is an important step.

However, your domain branding strategy need not end there. Domain mapping offers an opportunity for web developers and online business owners the ability to improve their marketing campaigns, protect their brands from competitors, cut down on costs, and develop a more efficient workflow.

What is Domain Mapping?

Domain mapping refers to how visitors to your website are directed to different domains and subdomains and what URLs will be displayed in the visitors’ browsers.

When you first set up your online business, one of the very first things that you do is register a domain name for your company website. But depending on the business, it could be wiser to actually register multiple domain names at once. This is because you will want to lease the primary domain name you plan on using in addition to all related TLDs. This way, cybersquatters will not be able to hold your domain name hostage, especially once you have grown into a more established brand.

For example, if you register the name yourcompany.com, you might also want to register yourcompany.net and yourcompany.org. Then you might set up a URL redirect so that visitors to the latter two sites will be redirected to yourcompany.com. However, with a domain redirect, visitors to yourcompany.net and yourcompany.org will be redirected to yourcompany.com, meaning the URL in their browser will appear as yourcompany.com no matter what they typed.

With domain mapping, this isn’t the case. A visitor to yourcompany.net will still see that URL in their browser even if the content is actually being hosted on yourcompany.com.

Benefits of Domain Mapping

Although domain mapping may seem a bit esoteric and complex at first, it serves several purposes and offers many benefits:

1. Make Web Addresses Easier to Remember

Imagine that your restaurant chain, Larry’s Lunches, just opened a new chain on 116th Street in New York City. Your first instinct may be to direct customers to larryslunches.com/116thstnyc, but that domain is a bit long and hard to remember. Instead, you might want to register the domain larrys116th.com for customers for that specific store.

With domain mapping, you can serve up the content from your main domain, larryslunches.com, while still having your visitors see larrys116th.com. This makes it easier to brand your sites without having to manage several different sites.

2. Boost Your Web Development Career

If you are a web developer yourself but are not admittedly well-acquainted with domain mapping already, you would do well to change that.

One of the easiest ways would be to look at online web development programs that one can take to read through documentation to get caught up to speed on how domain mapping can help their efforts and how to implement it. These kinds of programs can be more comprehensive than university courses and offer an impressive 88% job success rate for those who successfully complete the programs.

3. Shield Your Brand from Competitors

Remember, it’s a good idea to purchase several different related domains in anticipation of competitors snatching them up from you. Choosing the right domain names is essential to protecting your brand.

For example, Larry’s Lunches might want to snag larrysnyclunches.com and larrysfamouslunches.com as well. However, simply leaving those domains parked can be a bit of a waste, and managing multiple domains can be a pain in and of itself.

But with domain mapping, you can manage those domains just as easily as if they were your primary site, so you no longer need to leave them empty.

4. Save Time and Lower Development Expenses

Development isn’t cheap, and time is money. While the maintenance costs for a website are already high enough, adding in separate domains can sometimes break the bank due to the increased complexity of managing so many different moving pieces.

Domain mapping can lower expenses and save time by keeping everything tidy and in one place. By managing everything from a single WordPress installation, for example, you can push updates to all your subdomains at once, saving you from the tedium of going through each domain and making the same updates.

5. Manage Client Sites from One Place

If you’re a freelance developer or run an agency, using domain mapping for some of your clients’ sites can save you time as well. For example, if several clients want blogs, and you use the same infrastructure for them, you can easily push updates and changes to all of them at the same time. In short, domain mapping can make maintaining sites much easier and quicker.

How to Implement Domain Mapping

If you’re sold on the benefits of domain mapping, here’s a quick primer on the steps you’ll need to take to get started:

  1. Choose a domain registrar: The ideal registrar you choose should come with a number of important features including adequate hosting for keeping your website visitor friendly, SSL certification to ensure security, 24/7 customer support, comprehensive packages that make it easy to operate your online business.
  2. Register the domains you’re interested in: These can either be domain misspells (otherwise known as typosquatting), like youcompany.com, yourcmpany.com, etc, or related domains like yournewproduct.com, yournewlocation.com, etc. Whatever you decide to go with, you’ll need to have it registered before you can get started.
  3. Install WordPress Multisite: WordPress is one of the easiest ways to develop websites, and that holds true for domain mapped sites as well. Plus, considering WordPress sites account for over a third of the entire internet, you can’t go wrong with the famed CMS. All you need to do is install WordPress and, once that’s installed, open wp-config.php and add define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true) above the /*.
  4. Configure your DNS settings: Next, you’ll need to point all your name servers to your hosting account. These changes can take up to 72 hours to go into effect.
  5. Add domains to your hosting plan: From your hosting platform, you’ll need to link your custom domains. You can usually do this from your cPanel.
  6. Map subsites to your custom domains: Once you have your domains set up, you’ll need to link them through WordPress. To do so, simply login and navigate to Sites -> Add New. After you assign them a subdomain or subdirectory name, you can click Edit and add your custom domain. Then just hit Save Changes, and you’re good to go.

Take note that domain mapping is not necessary for transferring a domain name. When you map a domain, you’re simply telling your domain where it can find your website on the internet through having your name servers updated. When you change your name, it only affects where the domain has been resolved.

The Bottom Line

While domain mapping isn’t necessary for all websites, it can still be a major timesaver. By utilizing it properly, you can greatly improve the standing of your online business by saving time and money, making website management easier, and improving the branding of your sites.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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AWS KMS Use Case With Serverless Application Model (SAM): An End To End Solution

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The Basics

AWS KMS is a Key Management Service that lets you create Cryptographic keys that you can use to encrypt and decrypt data and also other keys. You can read more about it here.

Important Points About Keys

Please note that the CMK generated can only be used to encrypt a small amount of data like passwords, RSA keys. You can use AWS KMS customer master keys (CMKs) to generate, encrypt, and decrypt data keys. However, AWS KMS does not store, manage, or track your data keys, or perform cryptographic operations with data keys.

Source de l’article sur DZONE

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Exciting New Tools for Designers, August 2020

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The common theme in this month’s collection of new tools and resources is “things that help you show off your work.” Many of these tools are made to help you better web products or apps or showcase designs with others.

Here’s what new for designers this month.

Naturaltts

Naturaltts is an online text to speech converter, that allows you to download an mp3 recording. The tool has more than 60 voices to choose from in six languages. There’s a free plan for personal use (based on characters converted) and affordable paid plans for higher volumes and commercial users. One application of this tool is voiceover for videos or tutorials.

Handz

Handz is a library of hands with different gestures in three-dimensional shapes. The collection includes 12 gestures with nine skin colors, and three different sleeve types. Put all that together and you have 320 potential combinations that you can use for projects. The library is completely free and works in a variety of formats with different tools.

Isoflow

Isoflow allows you to create isometric diagrams for presentations and illustrations with ease. You can edit and then export diagrams for print or website use, thanks to vector rendering.

Device Shots

Device Shots is a small web app that helps you generate a high-resolution device mockup using a screenshot of your website or mobile application. It supports almost every device type you can think of and resizes for social media platforms.

Barchartrace

Barchartrace is a simple MIT open source bar chart generator. Use it to create some of the animated charts you see on social media. Just insert your information (upload via CSV file), choose animation settings, and go.

Zettlr Markdown Editor

Zettlr is a free and open source markdown editor for Mac OS. Zettlr supports simple notations, references, includes a dark mode, and tagging. It’s made for note takers who need a tool to amp up their projects, and is used primarily in higher education.

CSS Leaning Card Effect

The CSS Leaning Card Effect replicates the bookshelf feel you get when rectangles lean with a shadow against planes. Lynn Fisher does it in the pen with code that you can see and work on with your own images.

Lemon.io

Lemon.io is a tool that matches you with freelance developers to get projects moving more quickly. You are guaranteed a match in 24 hours and there is no risk if the match doesn’t work out. Just tell Lemon.io what you need and the algorithm will match you with a dev from the database. Prices for development through the platform start at $35 per hour.

Papercups

Papercups is a customer messaging tool that lets you chat in real-time. The customizable widget works with your favorite tools, such as Slack and Gmail, and is free to use. Chat apps are one of the most in-demand website features right now.

CSS Click to Animate Gif

Christian Heilmann has created a great guide/experiment in pure CSS that adds a play button on top of animated GIFs so that users can control the motion. He developed the concept because GIFs can get overwhelming and annoying. Learn how he did it and see it in action.

3D Book Image Generator

Here’s another little bit of CSS magic with a 3D Book Image Generator. Just input your image and set some specifications and get a 3D book cover image that you can use in projects. (There’s also an accompanying tutorial if you want to learn how to generate the CSS on your own.)

Luckysheet

Luckysheet is an online spreadsheet – it’s a lot like Microsoft Excel – with powerful data functions and tools. It’s user-friendly and open source. It even has quite a few built-in mathematical formulas and supports various table types.

RevKit

RevKit is a design system UI kit that works with Sketch, Figma, and Adobe XD. It includes plenty of organized components that you can pop right into designs to help get them started faster. It also includes a style guide, elements, and form controls. The download is free.

Card

Card allows you to store social media profiles, websites, and files in a customized profile. Share it in one click. Replace awkward contact exchange and multiple usernames with a simple QR code or link.

Scale Nucleus

Scale Nucleus helps visualize data, curate interesting slices within your dataset, review and manage annotations, and measure and debug model performance. This tool claims to be “the right way” to develop ML models.

Previewed

Previewed is a mockup generator to create beautiful promotional graphics for your app. Browse a variety of templates, pick one, customize, and download your design to show off.

NSFW Filter

NSFW Filter is a browser extension that blocks images that aren’t safe for work. The best part is that it runs locally in-browser and doesn’t access any of your data. Plus, it saves you from on-the-job embarrassment.

ColorFlick for Dribbble

ColorFlick for Dribbble is another browser extension that makes it easy to copy hex codes from the tool to your clipboard with ease. You can also create palettes you can share from your favorite shots using Coolors.

Tabler Icons

Tabler Icons is a collection of more than 550 SVG icons that you can customize. Change the color, size, or stroke width with on-screen controls and then click to copy the icons you want to use. It’s that simple!

Teenyicons

Teenyicons might be some of the cutest icons out there. This collection includes minimal 1px icons in outline or solid fills. And there are plenty of icons to choose from. Adjust the size and grab the ones that you need for projects.

Basicons

Basicons is a set of simple icons for product design and development. Plus, they are updated weekly.

Chozy Mermaid

Chozy Mermaid is a super funky novelty typeface to close out summer. The characters feature beach themes within slab characters. It might be hard to find an application for this one, but it is too fun not to share.

Dotuku

Dotuku is a dingbats font with a back to school theme. The limited character set features filled and outline styles that are perfect for classrooms.

Margin

Margin is a fun retro style typeface with a 1970s vibe. It’s a “chubby serif” with 60 characters and 58 glyphs.

Rollanda

Rollanda is a signature-style script with a thicker weight and rough stroke. The character set is pretty robust.

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Web Design for Seniors: UX From a Mature Perspective

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It’s no secret that the senior population is growing. By 2030, people over the age of 65 are predicted to make up 20.6% of the population of the US. 

Around the world, people are living longer and remaining more active in the later years of their lives. What’s more, despite what you might have heard in the past, seniors aren’t as wary of the internet as they used to be. In 2019, the Pew Research institute revealed that 73% of people over the age of 65 were connected to the web. 

So, what does that mean for web designers?

your main focus needs to be on ability…people age differently

Well, first of all, it’s time for all of us to start thinking about user experience from different perspectives. We need to stop expecting our audiences to be made up entirely of iPhone-using millennials and start thinking about the needs of seniors too. After all, designing websites for seniors opens you up to a wide selection of potential visitors in the future.

What’s more, according to the US Census Bureau, people over the age of 65 generally have the highest household wealth figures of any age group. That’s a big deal. 

So, how do you adapt UX for seniors?

Creating Senior-Friendly Web Designs

When it comes to designing websites and applications for seniors, your main focus needs to be on ability. Age is just a number, and people age differently. 

That means that one person in their 70s might have no problem browsing through Netflix to watch the latest shows, while someone else wouldn’t be able to tell you what ‘streaming’ means. 

Rather than worrying specifically about age, think about how different people in older age groups might have different requirements when it comes to things like movement control, hearing, vision, and even device bias. 

Get the Visual Elements Right

Vision loss is by far the most common disability reported by elderly individuals in the US. Around one in six people over the age of 70 have some manner of visual impairment. That’s why UI designers need to think carefully about visual accessibility when creating the right websites. 

For instance, text and button sizes should always be kept large. Anything that needs to be read or clicked needs to be scaled up, to ensure that everyone can see the information clearly. For instance, on the Sandinmysuitcase.com website, you’ll find clear typography, combined with big buttons that tell you to “Start Here” so you know exactly what to do next.

Remember to stick to icons that are clearly labelled wherever possible. Stay away from anything that your customers might not understand. “Start Here” is easier to read and understand than “Submit”. 

It’s also worth sticking to the color and contrast guidelines laid out by basic UX design when you’re creating something for optimal visibility.  Colors that are too close together might create a nice pastel or gradient effect on a website – but they’ll also make things difficult to read. 

Concentrate on Usability

Over the age of 55, motor skills and coordination can begin to decline for some people. These changes make it harder for people to interact with complex UIs. The mouse on a computer can be a particular problem for people with diminishing motor skills – as can the touchscreen of a tablet or smartphone. 

When you’re working on the perfect UX, think about how you can make things as easy to click as possible for people who have a hard time hitting their targets. For instance, in this website for people traveling over the age of 50, you’ll see not only fantastic large font choices but big buttons that are descriptive and easy to understand too: “Click here to start planning your trip”:

The scrollbar can also be a bit of a problem for people with impaired motor skills. Because of this, it’s best to keep your focus on designing above the fold. Make sure that users don’t need to scroll far to find the information that they need and keep scrollbars simple in terms of their look and feel.

While you’re working on usability, remember that it will be important to keep interactions to a minimum wherever possible. Where you can engage younger audiences with double-taps, swiping and scrolling, it’s much easier to connect with seniors through simple one-tap interactions. The less actions your user needs to take to reach their goals, the better. 

Deliver Smooth Navigation 

Navigating from point A to B on your website needs to be as simple as seamless as possible. Remember, crowded pages on your websites and apps are often overwhelming – even for younger browsers. Seniors are generally just searching for “must know” information, so they don’t want anything to get in their way as they navigate through their website. 

As you work on your site or app design, ask yourself if every element on the page absolutely has to be there. If it doesn’t deliver value, then get rid of it. 

Additionally, remember that seniors don’t always have the best memories and concentration levels. That means that they need your navigation experience to be as simple as possible. Basic horizontal menu bars that show everything at once are often a good idea – even if they’re not very exciting.

Look at this helpful navigation experience from RetireMove.com, for instance. Everything you need is located at the top of the page, and you can even just enter your postcode to get started:

Cognitive decline happens regularly with age. Although not all older adults will have issues with their memory and concentration, it’s important to be prepared for an audience that might process information a little more slowly. It’s worth double-checking that your viewer’s attention isn’t being diverted to multiple parts of the page at once.

Get to the Point Quickly

While younger generations have quickly implemented technology into every aspect of their lives, older consumers use tech a little differently. These people don’t want to spend forever fiddling around with different parts of your website. They want to get the answers to their questions as quickly and easily as possible. 

Applications that are complicated or difficult to access are usually instantly rejected by seniors. Even if you’ve offered everything that we’ve covered above, from seamless navigation to minimalist design, you still won’t get the interactions you’re looking for if older adults don’t consider your design to be useful. 

Because of this, you need to highlight the point of a website or application to your seniors as quickly as possible. Avoid worrying about things like gifs, animations and gamification. Instead, focus on making sure that your designs are useful and simple. 

For instance, from the moment your senior user arrives on a web page, they should have instant access to clear instructions on how to use the application or service, and what they need to do next. Keep in mind that this is particularly important when you’re creating mobile apps, as apps are still a relatively new concept to older generations. 

On the “When They Get Older” website, you can instantly find the information you need in a well-organized navigation bar that’s labelled clearly:

A clear interface like this, combined with simple, step-by-step guidance that shows elderly individuals how to get the information that they want is the key to keeping these users coming back for more. 

Bringing a Mature Perspective to Web Design

These days, most designers focus heavily on younger audiences when creating websites and apps. After all, it’s these users that allow us to experiment more with the latest tools and concepts, like augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robust animations. 

However, there’s still a market out there for the seniors of the world that want more opportunities to get online. This audience often goes ignored and under-served. However, as the value of older consumers grows, and their ability to interact online increases, you’ll find that more businesses begin to search for web designers who can provide immersive experiences for a more mature audience. 

The steps above will give you an excellent insight into how you can start designing for a different kind of customer base. However, remember that the best way to make sure that you’re delivering the right solution for any customer, is to test. User testing will provide you with the exclusive insights that you need to determine whether your senior UX is really working, or whether you’re still struggling to get into the shoes of an older user. 

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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