I write frequently about UX, accessibility, information architecture, web development and related topics at LinkedIn.
Are you familiar with the curb cut effect?
Originally posted at LinkedIn
Put simply, it is the phenomenon of everyone benefiting from a feature that was created for a particular group of people, usually for accessibility reasons.
If you start digging on your screen and your surroundings, you will begin to notice them: switching on closed captioning when you’re at a cafe working—like I am right now—; pulling your suitcase through a curb cut; activating the high contrast feature on your phone or zooming a text on your browser.
I love this effect and I enjoy picturing an accessibility feature I develop as a small creek pouring down a hill and capturing more and more water until it reaches the ocean. We all benefit if we empathize with one another.
Try this small exercise today: picture a vulnerable or historically marginalized group; then, think of something you can do to improve their life; and see the stream flowing.
Put simply, it is the phenomenon of everyone benefiting from a feature that was created for a particular group of people, usually for accessibility reasons.
If you start digging on your screen and your surroundings, you will begin to notice them: switching on closed captioning when you’re at a cafe working—like I am right now—; pulling your suitcase through a curb cut; activating the high contrast feature on your phone or zooming a text on your browser.
I love this effect and I enjoy picturing an accessibility feature I develop as a small creek pouring down a hill and capturing more and more water until it reaches the ocean. We all benefit if we empathize with one another.
Try this small exercise today: picture a vulnerable or historically marginalized group; then, think of something you can do to improve their life; and see the stream flowing.
CTA: There can be only one
Originally posted at LinkedIn
When devising a strategy for a website, we usually plan for the most important task to be the call-to-action. There may be a temptation to have more than one, but this will hurt your usability and confuse your audience.
Why? Because of the Von Restorff Effect, also known as the isolation effect, which states that when we’re presented with a group of elements, for example, buttons on a menu, we’re more likely to remember the one that differs from it.
If you add more call-to-action buttons, they will compete for your user’s attention, ending up being ignored.
Do not just rely on color to tell the difference between items, make sure the product is accessible to all.
When devising a strategy for a website, we usually plan for the most important task to be the call-to-action. There may be a temptation to have more than one, but this will hurt your usability and confuse your audience.
Why? Because of the Von Restorff Effect, also known as the isolation effect, which states that when we’re presented with a group of elements, for example, buttons on a menu, we’re more likely to remember the one that differs from it.
If you add more call-to-action buttons, they will compete for your user’s attention, ending up being ignored.
Do not just rely on color to tell the difference between items, make sure the product is accessible to all.
Essays and fiction
Domingo 6:14 pm / Sunday 6:14 pm (bilingual)
addanomadd magazine, January 2023.
The senses behind writing essays (in Spanish)
Medium, July 2022.
You can hear this essay on the podcast Laboratorio de escrituras vivas along two other essays of my own.
Walking metamorphosis (in Spanish)
Soflama no. 4, November 2022.
Diluviar / Pouring (bilingual)
addanomadd magazine, October 2022.
Thursday (in Spanish)
Catástrofe Magazine, January 2021.