In addition to the 10 UX principles, there are many other UX design considerations. Taking a closer look at one of them, when building apps on Salesforce, it’s important to keep accessibility in mind as well.
Accessibility refers to the practice of making applications usable by everyone, regardless of their abilities. This includes people with disabilities (visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments), as well as those with situational limitations (like slow internet connections or using a mobile device).
Here are a couple of accessibility tips for your Salesforce project.
Screen readers
People with visual disabilities often use screen readers to help them navigate. This means the device reads the text on the page aloud, so the user can understand where they are, and what choices are available to them.
Users can prompt their reader to just dictate the navigation options, which include hyperlinks. That is why links should never show, “click here”. These two words don’t provide sufficient information to understand where the link will take users.
Instead use the name of the page or descriptive wording. For example, checkout this article about screen readers.
Color contrast
The industry-leading standard for color contrast is a 4.5:1 ratio between foreground (i.e. text, images) and the background. This means the text color is 4.5:1 brighter (or darker) and then background color.
With sufficient contrast, text is easier to read, requires less eye strain, and reduces stress.
Here’s a free tool that verifies contrast.
The takeaway
Designing with accessibility in mind makes the user experience better for people with and without disabilities.
Note: This is the last planned post in the UX series. There are dozens of additional topics I could cover, so please let me know if you have one that is interesting to you.
Also, I perform UX assessments of Salesforce implementations. If you want the benefits of a strong UX design, contact me.