Forem: Gloria Kaduru

Web Accessibility: Who's it for?

Gloria Kaduru — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 08:55:37 +0000

Your website or app might look great, but can everyone use it?

Probably not. Let me explain.

Disability is part of being human, with about 16% of the global population—living with significant disabilities and navigating digital products just like everyone else.

Last year, I made it a goal to take more courses to help me design better, more inclusive products. One of my biggest areas of interest is accessibility, which led me to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)’s Introduction to Web Accessibility course.

I’ve learned so much about how people with disabilities navigate the web using assistive technologies and adaptive strategies. The course also broke down the business case for accessibility and how standards like WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) help ensure inclusivity.

I learned so much more but here are the most basic things I everyone should know:

Accessibility benefits everyone
It’s not just for people with disabilities. Whether young or old, able-bodied or not, making accessibility a priority improves the experience for everyone.
Include disabled people in your user research
Don’t guess—ask. Conduct interviews and include them in your personas. This ensures you address their needs, not accidentally exclude them.
Accessibility is everyone’s responsibility
It’s not just on designers or developers. Stakeholders, managers, and even marketing teams all play a role in creating accessible products.
Inaccessible products cost you money
If your product or service isn’t accessible, you’re leaving out millions of potential customers—and their wallets.

Another thing that stood out to me from the course was the idea of situational disabilities—temporary challenges like a broken arm or even holding a baby while using a phone. Accessibility isn’t just about permanent disabilities; it’s about creating products that work for everyone, everywhere.

There’s so much more to learn about accessibility, but one thing’s for sure: we all win when we build inclusively.

If you’ve never considered this before, start small: try navigating your favourite mobile app with just a screen reader. You’ll be surprised at what you notice!

When building products, do you ever use any accessibility tools? I find that I use accessibility plugins in Figma all the time, particularly WCAG Contrast Checkers.

What are Design Sytems? Definition and Types

Gloria Kaduru — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 18:36:01 +0000

What exactly is a design system?
Types of Design Systems
- 1. Brand Identities/Visual Language as Design Systems
- 2. Tools as Design Systems
- 3. Products as Design Systems
Conclusion

What exactly is a design system?

You’ve likely heard the term thrown around, or maybe you've even worked with one but still find it tricky to define. That’s understandable, as the concept has evolved over time. After doing a lot of reading and research, I’ve found several definitions that really stood out, and I think they help make sense of what a design system is and why it’s so valuable. Here are some that resonated most with me.

Brad Frost's Definition

Brad Frost, the author of Atomic Design, defines design systems as a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications.

Nathan Curtis's Definition

Nathan Curtis, founder of Eight Shapes, defines design systems as a library of visual style, components, and other concerns documented and released by an individual, team, or community as code and design tools so that adopting products can be more efficient and cohesive.

The Interaction Design Foundation's Definition

The Interaction Design Foundation defines it as a comprehensive set of standards, documentation, and reusable components that guide the development of digital products within an organization.

Dan Mall's Definition

Dan Mall, creator of Design System University, describes a design system as a connected, package-managed, version-controlled software product that contains the smallest set of components and guidelines an organization needs to make digital products consistently, efficiently, and happily.

Design systems have become a vital part of building digital products. They ensure consistency, scalability, and efficiency throughout the design process. Over the past years, I’ve had several projects that required me to either work on design systems or incorporate them into the products I was designing. The goal was always the same: to create cohesive products and speed up the design workflow.

Types of Design Systems

In learning more about design systems, I found Dan Mall’s work particularly insightful. His courses helped me understand the different kinds of design systems and how to build them effectively. In this article, I’ll explore three of the six types of design systems Dan identifies, offering a practical perspective on their application.

1. Brand Identities/Visual Language as Design Systems

The concept of design systems has its roots in the early days of graphic design and print media. Back then, style guides and typographic standards were used to bring order and consistency to visual design. As branding became more important, especially during the mid-20th century, companies began to formalise their visual identities with comprehensive brand guidelines. These early brand identities and visual languages—such as the ones we see today in brands like Spotify or Coca-Cola—are essentially the oldest versions of what we now call design systems.

A design language refers to the collection of visual elements, like colours, typography, spacing, and layout, that come together to make a brand instantly recognisable. Over time, these principles evolved into what we now know as modern design systems, but the core idea remains the same: creating consistency and cohesion in visual communication.

2. Tools as Design Systems

Tools as design systems are some of the most common instances of digital design systems we see. UI kits are great examples and they can be found in design software such as Figma where designers can use premade UI kits to easily drag and drop elements into their designs and sometimes to build their own design systems.

These UI kits are essentially libraries of visual components that help speed up the design process by offering ready-made building blocks. There are tons of them found in the Figma community, allowing teams to share their work and demonstrate how components and symbols can be reused across different projects.

Similarly, in the world of code, component libraries serve the same purpose. Just like you can quickly add components in a design tool, a component library lets developers use small snippets of code to access larger, reusable blocks of code. Both UI kits and component libraries are powerful tools that make it easier to maintain consistency across designs and code.

3. Products as Design Systems

Talking about design systems as a product refers to comprehensive frameworks that function much like standalone products, complete with their own dedicated teams.

Take well-known design systems such as Material Design, Atlassian’s Design System and Polaris by Shopify. These are prime examples of design systems treated as products. They have specialised teams focused on their daily and weekly development, maintain a backlog of tasks, and have budgets allocated to sustain them—just like any successful product.

Consider how a startup operates when developing a product. There's usually a dedicated team led by a product manager, a clear backlog of features to work on, and frequent releases based on user feedback. This approach allows the product to evolve and improve continuously, responding directly to what users need and prefer.

A good design system within an organisation follows the same principles. By treating a design system as a product, it can grow and adapt organically in response to the organisation's evolving needs. This approach ensures that the design system remains relevant, effective, and a valuable asset as the organisation scales.

Conclusion

Design systems aren't just a passing trend—they’re key to creating efficient, consistent, and scalable products. By adopting them, teams can streamline their processes, ensure brand consistency, and deliver better user experiences. But remember, a design system is a living, evolving tool that should grow with your organisation’s needs. Whether you're a designer or developer, embracing these systems can revolutionise how your team collaborates and builds.

This article is just the beginning. Stay tuned for more in my design system series, where I’ll go deeper into different aspects and practical tips. Want to learn more? Follow me on LinkedIn and keep an eye out for the next post!

Outreachy: Into The Wonderful World of Open-Source

Gloria Kaduru — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 19:40:05 +0000

Introduction

Hello 👋🏾 and welcome. My name is Gloria, and I'm a digital product designer based in Lagos, Nigeria, currently interning at Unstructured Studio through the Outreachy program.

Design, to me, is more than just aesthetics – it's about problem-solving and creating meaningful experiences. Over the past 3 years, I've worked across various sectors, from logistics to education, and I take pride in crafting functional and aesthetically pleasing designs, taking a particular interest in User Research, which I find totally awesome!

When I'm not designing, you can find me binge-watching anime, reading, or exploring new obsessions, like my current fascination with Rug-tufting videos 😄.

My Core Values

Getting to know me means understanding my core values – Beauty, Competency, and Fairness – and why they drive me. These values shape my approach to design and life.

Firstly, beauty is not just about aesthetics; it's an appreciation for the unfiltered, imperfect, and ordinary – finding magic in everyday moments. As a designer, I prioritize recognizing the beauty in everything around me.

Competency, my second core value, is more than skill; it's the relentless pursuit of growth and excellence. It's about joy in learning, thrill in mastering, and the humility to acknowledge that there's always room to evolve.

Lastly, fairness, my moral compass, is a commitment to equity and justice. It's about giving everyone a fair shot, acknowledging diverse perspectives, and advocating for a world where opportunities are distributed generously and without bias.

My Outreachy Journey

As a product designer, I've always sought projects with a meaningful connection between design and social impact. I had a vague knowledge of open-source and the open-source community but never quite acted on it. The perfect opportunity came when I stumbled upon Outreachy a few months ago and was drawn to its commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Outreachy provided the perfect platform to channel my belief in contributing to open-source projects, collaborating with mentors fostering diversity, and making a tangible impact in the world.

Sure, the application process was a bit nerve-wracking, but the sense of community and support from both mentors and fellow applicants made it a genuinely enriching experience. It's not just about gaining valuable hands-on experience but being part of a movement that's shaping the future of tech in a more inclusive way.

Conclusion

So here I am, ready to embark on this exciting journey with Outreachy. If you're considering it too, take that leap! It's more than just an internship – it's an opportunity to be part of positive change in the tech world. Let's design a future that's not just user-friendly but people-friendly. 🚀

Forem: Gloria Kaduru

Web Accessibility: Who's it for?

What are Design Sytems? Definition and Types

Table of Contents

What exactly is a design system?

Brad Frost's Definition

Nathan Curtis's Definition

The Interaction Design Foundation's Definition

Dan Mall's Definition

Types of Design Systems

1. Brand Identities/Visual Language as Design Systems

2. Tools as Design Systems

3. Products as Design Systems

Conclusion

Outreachy: Into The Wonderful World of Open-Source

Introduction

My Core Values

My Outreachy Journey

Conclusion