What to keep in mind while designing mobile apps for the visually impaired?

Currently, there are 285 million visually impaired people. Our technology has progressed so well that now people with impaired vision too can have the same digital experience as the visually abled ones.

There are mobile apps under progress that will cater impaired vision category of users with rich UI & navigable features – this move is not only humanitarian but it is a scope where mobile app development services can plan to grow their business as well. The businesses who will put their first foot forward by developing mobile apps for visually impaired will not only win the amount of appreciation but will also gain a competitive edge. It will be a plus for any business to reach 285 million users.

Making an app adaptable & memorable to visually impaired will be a tough call for many but will be a worthy initiation in the long run – if the right choice of mobile application development company is made.

Here, in the following – Quantumsoftech – a tech & innovation based mobile app development company has put together a few parameters/guidelines that are required to follow while building accessible, approachable & functional mobile apps.

1. More use of textures over plain colors

• To make the app accessible & easy to navigate for impaired vision users, try to plant the colorful textures in place of the “just plain colors”. This will help your targeted users to swipe, navigate & access the app without any difficulty.
• Not only such users will find it accessible but appealing as well – in terms of designing and will end up spending more time on such apps.

2. Not to put the colors in the information box area within the app

• Many apps have an information box that marks red or in any bold color whenever a wrong input is entered. This practice is good for people with great vision but people who have a hard time reading & decoding colors might not find it easy.
• You can put up some vibrations or text whenever a wrong input or information gets entered by mistake.
• This will make navigation experience easy for such users.

3. Careful with the choice of colors

• While designing & developing the accessibility apps for color-blind users, color choice is one thing that is hard to deduce.
• In the end, only two colors come to mind – black & white, but these colors aren’t enough when the aim is to gain a competitive edge & win user’s first preference as a mobile app.
• When making a decision regarding the contrast, the ratios between the text & background should fall between 4:5:1.
• Apart from just white & black, there are other color options that you may add in your app theme like – Blue & Grey, Green & Grey, Green & Black, Green & Blue, Green & Brown, Blue & Purple, Light Green & Yellow & Green & Red.

4. Design your app based on the principle of “Minimalism”

• It isn’t necessary that your accessible app has to offer a lot under one roof – design wise.
• Too many designs & elements might confuse your user & force them to uninstall the app.
• Try approaching the theory of minimalism & see how your users will revert in the form of right conversions.
• Even if your features & segments are weaved in white space – your visually different users would still love the app.

5. Light mode or the dark mode within the app?

• If your app circles around too many text & alphabets – keeping the app on the dark mode will be much better than the light mode.
• The mobile app development team will have to work on the light mode of the app & the right choice of smart invert colors feature to make the app readable & approachable to users.

6. Put descriptive Alt tags for images in abundance

• People with low vision often have a hard time structuring the elements or happenings within the image.
• There are screen readers that read out image alt text. Make that alt tag descriptive & elaborative for such users.
• Take time to write well-written alt image texts – explaining what is happening in the image or what image is all about.

7. Accessibility apps should have a manual option to enlarge the text

• Visually strong users do not have much app session time to go through the text, images or offerings – by zooming it.
• Ask your developers to build a manual button aside each text para for increasing & decreasing the font size of the text.

These are the few parameters that you need to prepare with while making an accessible app for your visually impaired audience. Attain the first mover advantage in the market by making visually attractive & accessible apps for visually strong users – who were unintentionally left behind to target earlier.

Hire mobile app developer!

Quantumsoftech is a next-gen quality-led mobile application development company dealing in extensive types of operating systems – Android & iOS. Have a team of technocrats who are adept in preparing & launching the exemplary yet technologically smart mobility solutions for the variant business type.

Looking for the best mobile app development company? We are waiting with our white storyboard.

About the Author

About The Author

Rishaj is a new-age content strategist, having strong sense towards written web material needs. He finds his middle ground in learning about new dominating technologies for businesses. Steering with an aim to help businesses find solutions to their queries with the relevant pieces of information.