Thomas McAuley, Author At Thomas McAuley, UI/UX Designer & Visual Strategist

Understanding A11Y Accessibility: Designing for Inclusivity

Dec 4, 2024 | About Design, Accessibility (A11y)

You can think of Accessibility as just a design standard, but my feeling is that makes for a pretty cold starting point. If you think about it as a commitment to creating products, interfaces, and experiences that are usable by everyone, regardless of their abilities, you’ve built into the project the heart, the empathy that allows you to step into the experience of ALL users, not only the abled.

That’s the spirit behind Accessibility (A11Y). It’s designing from a mindset greater than simple compliance; it’s about designing empathetically and with inclusion at the forefront of every design decision. It’s dedication to creating products an experiences that ensure no one is excluded from participating in the digital world.

As a designer, I’ve found that accessibility challenges push the boundaries of creativity and problem-solving. You still must meet legal or regulatory requirements but there’s no reason you can’t also strive to better understanding the diverse needs of users and crafting solutions that enhance their experience while benefiting the entire audience.

Why Accessibility Matters

Digital accessibility is about leveling the playing field. Whether someone is navigating with assistive technologies, relying on a keyboard rather than a mouse, or needing sufficient color contrast to differentiate content, accessibility ensures that digital products are inclusive.

Accessible design doesn’t just benefit users with disabilities; it enhances usability for all.

Think of how closed captions, initially created for the hearing impaired, are now widely used in public spaces, noisy environments, and even among language learners. Similarly, designing for accessibility often leads to better overall UX. When you create clear navigation, logical information hierarchies, and clean layouts, everyone wins.

Designing with Accessibility in Mind

Understanding the Standards

Accessibility is guided by clear standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which outline levels of accessibility (A, AA, AAA). These standards provide a robust framework for ensuring your design is accessible, covering aspects like contrast ratios, alternative text for images, keyboard navigation, and more.

Designing for Assistive Technologies

Many users rely on assistive tools like screen readers, voice commands, or Braille displays. Designing with these tools in mind means ensuring clear labeling of UI components, creating a logical flow for navigation, and avoiding inaccessible design elements like unlabeled buttons or vague alt text.

Text, Language, and Readability

Many users rely on a keyboard to navigate, so ensuring that every part of your design—menus, forms, buttons—can be accessed without a mouse is essential.

Focus on Keyboard Accessibility

Readable, straightforward text benefits all users, but it’s crucial for those with cognitive or learning disabilities. Use plain language, clear instructions, and avoid jargon. Adding semantic HTML ensures that screen readers can convey text meaningfully.

Color and Contrast

Color should never be the only means of conveying information. For example, pairing color with labels, patterns, or text ensures everyone can understand critical content. Icons and sufficient contrast between foreground and background elements also improves readability for users with visual impairments.

My approach to A11y design

Over the course of my career, I’ve integrated accessibility considerations into everything I design. I’ve created video game UIs, websites, enterprise-level desktop, kiosk, and mobile apps, and more, all of which have deserved the same degree of accessibility attention.

Here are a few ways I make accessibility a core part of my process:

My approach to A11y design

Over the course of my career, I’ve integrated accessibility considerations into everything I design, from video game UI to enterprise-level applications. Here are a few ways I make accessibility a core part of my process:

Early Integration

Accessibility isn’t something to add at the end of a project; it’s baked into the design from day one. I review accessibility checklists alongside user personas and wireframes, ensuring all user journeys are inclusive.

Empathy through User Research

To design accessible experiences, you have to understand your users. I conduct user interviews and usability tests with individuals who rely on assistive technologies. Their feedback is invaluable, offering insights I couldn’t gain otherwise.

Iterative Testing

No design is perfect out of the gate. Regular testing, including accessibility-specific tools like contrast analyzers or screen readers, ensures I catch issues early and refine the design over time.

Collaboration with Developers

Accessible design is a team effort. I work closely with developers to ensure they understand the rationale behind design choices and to troubleshoot implementation issues, particularly in making components accessible across devices.

The Future of Accessibility

As technology evolves, so do accessibility needs. From AI-driven interfaces to augmented and virtual reality, the challenge is to ensure new technologies include everyone. Take AR/VR. Ensuring that applications are accessible to users with mobility or sensory impairments should be an exciting challenge and a responsibility for every designer in the field.

A11Y Is for Everyone

Accessibility is a journey, not a destination. It’s about continually learning, improving, and applying inclusive principles to every project. By designing with empathy and following best practices, we create products that are usable and meaningful for everyone.

If you’re interested in discussing accessibility in your project or want to explore how I can help make your product more inclusive, let’s connect. Together, we can design experiences that leave no one behind!

Website Redesign “Complete”

Nov 27, 2024 | Uncategorized

Qualification

Calling this portfolio website “complete” might be a bit generous—it’s more accurate to say that it’s a complete minimum viable product. Like any good design project, this website will require ongoing edits, maintenance, and evolution. It’s a living document of sorts, destined to grow and improve with each new portfolio example I add and every tweak I make to enhance its usability.

Acknowledgment

I also want to address the elephant in the room: the glaring gap between this article and my last one, and the one before that. Too many designer blogs take on a predictable pattern after long silences—either an awkward apology or an overambitious promise of frequent updates moving forward. While I won’t make the latter mistake, I will acknowledge that I’ve now built a tool I’m excited to use for sharing my work and knowledge. With this foundation, I feel better equipped to commit to writing more regularly about the fields of design I work in, and I even have a plan for rolling out articles that touch on video game UI/UX, app design, creative direction, branding, and more. So while this is a small step, it’s one I feel good about.

What the Website Offers

The current iteration of my portfolio focuses on starting strong, with sections that highlight my key areas of expertise: Video Game Design, App Design, UI/UX Design, Creative Direction, and Graphic Design. Each section provides an introduction to my approach and showcases relevant projects. It’s intentionally structured to give visitors a clear understanding of my diverse design capabilities while allowing me to build and expand the portfolio over time.

More work went into this than I initially anticipated (as is often the case with creative endeavors). Every section, every paragraph, every image demanded my attention. And forgive me for feeling a little proud of what I’ve accomplished here—it’s satisfying to have a platform that reflects the quality of work I strive for in my design practice. That said, it’s not without its frustrations. For example, my header and footer have inexplicably gone wonky after the last round of tweaks. This, of course, is the nature of any design project: even the “final version” is never truly final.

Invitation

I encourage you to look around the site, explore my work, and feel free to reach out if you notice anything that seems off or out of place. Constructive feedback is always welcome, as it helps me refine and improve what I’ve built.

And, of course, if you’d like to discuss working with me, I’d love to hear from you. Whether it’s a project, a question, or just a conversation about design, I’m always open to connecting and sharing insights whenever I can. Thanks for stopping by—I hope you find something here that resonates!

Balancing Storytelling, Aesthetics and Functionality in Crafting Player Experiences

Dec 3, 2024 | Uncategorized

Designing video games is an intricate process that involves the seamless combination of storytelling, aesthetics, and functionality to create an unforgettable player experience. While beautiful visuals and clever mechanics certainly contribute to the overall appeal, the heart of video game design lies in harmonizing storytelling, player-centric design, and seamless user interface integration. By carefully balancing these elements, we can transport players into immersive worlds while delivering intuitive and enjoyable gameplay.

And here’s a special challenge for you as you continue reading: try to find where any of the points I discuss are not relevant to design in general, regardless of the medium—print, web, apps, even more distant applications like public spaces, product design, and so on. You might need to do some translation to make it applicable, but I believe there are relevant points in all of these areas.

The power of storytelling

Storytelling in video games is a blend of visual and textual elements, each playing a critical role in shaping the player’s experience. While visuals often set the tone, text and writing carry much of the weight when it comes to sustaining engagement and driving narrative depth. For a detailed exploration of how these elements enhance game design, be sure to check out my article, The Power of Storytelling, which dives deeper into this subject.

Visual storytelling

When I designed the Crossy-Roads-style casino game, its quirky humor inspired bold, playful colors and custom graphics, ensuring that the visuals not only enhanced the tone but also complemented the gameplay mechanics

Or when I designed a Jurassic-era card trader/battler game, its more serious tone and its young male audience, what was needed was dramatic dinosaur action shots, stone and steel framing elements, and vivid, high-contrast colors for levels and counting symbols.

Every design decision—whether it’s color palettes, textures, typography, or button styles—supports the game’s tone and themes. At its best, visual storytelling doesn’t just create a beautiful game world—it guides players, highlights objectives, and ensures immersion.

Textual storytelling

Writing in video games can achieve what visuals alone cannot, offering players context, emotional depth, and narrative clarity. Dialogue brings characters to life, mission briefings and journals provide purpose, and even environmental text—like graffiti or signs—adds layers of meaning.

In the Old West-themed slots game I created, I paired immersive visuals with character-driven text to enhance the player’s connection to the game world. Instead of using standard UI copy like “Shoot one of the bottles for a bonus,” I wrote, “Take aim, partner. Go for the biggest BONUS! You’ve earned it,” while the game’s bounty hunter character acknowledged the player’s progress with a knowing look.

In both instances, the combination of visuals and text created a memorable, cohesive storytelling.

Player-centric design

At the core of every successful game is player-centric design. Understanding your audience and designing for their needs is essential to creating an engaging experience. Casual gamers may want simple, stress-free mechanics, while hardcore FPS players demand quick access to critical information.

In a fast-paced first-person shooter, the UI needed to communicate essential details like health, ammo, and objectives without interrupting the flow of gameplay. By prioritizing clarity and responsiveness in each design element, I ensured players could stay focused and immersed.

Empathy is the foundation of player-centric design. This means asking questions like:

Who are the players?
What do they need to succeed?
How can the design remove frustration and maximize enjoyment

Answering these questions requires user research, playtesting, and iterative design to refine the experience and keep the player at the center of every decision.

Seamless UI integration

A truly effective UI becomes invisible to the player—it integrates seamlessly into the game world, guiding without distracting. Achieving this balance requires deep collaboration with developers, attention to accessibility standards, and iterative refinement to ensure both functionality and aesthetics align perfectly.

In casual games like DropX, where players focus on clearing tiles on a grid, the UI needed to be visually engaging without pulling attention from the gameplay. I designed an 80s-inspired interface with vibrant colors and intuitive layouts, striking a balance between the nostalgic tone of the game and its functional requirements.

Seamless UI is more than just visual design; it’s about creating a dialogue between the player and the game. Every button click, menu navigation, and on-screen prompt should feel natural, guiding players without breaking immersion. By prioritizing this connection, I ensure that the UI enhances, rather than detracts from, the overall player experience.

Bringing it all together

When storytelling, player-centric design, and seamless UI integration come together, the result is a game that captivates players and keeps them coming back. These elements work in harmony—the visuals set the stage, the text deepens the story, and the UI ensures a smooth, immersive experience.

For me, designing video games is about more than just crafting worlds and interfaces; it’s about creating experiences that resonate on a personal level with players. My diverse background in storytelling, branding, and UI/UX design allows me to approach each project with a unique perspective, blending technical expertise with creative vision to push the boundaries of what’s possible in game design.

Whether you’re designing a charming casual game or an action-packed first-person shooter, the goal remains the same: to deliver an experience that’s engaging, intuitive, and unforgettable. And as the industry continues to evolve, I’m excited to keep exploring new ways to connect with players through thoughtful, innovative design.

Building Apps for Real-World Problems: Designing for Usability and Scalability

Dec 11, 2024 | Creative Direction, Digital-Design, Uncategorized

Drawing on my experience in behavioral health and SaaS industries, I’ve learned that designing apps is more than an exercise in balancing aesthetics and functionality, important as that is; it’s about creating solutions that address real-world problems and seamlessly scale to accommodate growth and change, especially in today’s fast-changing digital landscape.

Whether it’s an enterprise-level behavioral health application or a SaaS solution for streamlining organizational processes, the core of successful app design lies in understanding your users’ needs, solving their problems effectively, and planning for long-term adaptability.

Understanding the problem

The first step in designing any app is identifying and gaining a deep understanding of each of the problems it aims to solve. This begins with thorough research—conducting interviews, analyzing workflows, and gathering user feedback, and so on.

For example, in the behavioral health industry, I contributed to the design of an application aimed at simplifying the ride selection process for individuals with developmental disabilities. Creating an app that works is always a given. The challenge is ensuring that it addressed the a wide variety of users, accommodating their varying levels of cognitive and physical ability. By working closely with stakeholders, caregivers, and end-users, we identified pain points such as difficulty selecting the right transportation and scheduling conflicts.

Our research provided the necessary information to create an intuitive, user-centered app that made selecting and scheduling rides a straightforward process for all users, regardless of their abilities.

In my work with SaaS applications, I’ve tackled real-world problems like optimizing ad placement within live-streaming platforms. The challenge here was creating a system that leveraged AI to recommend ad placements while providing users with actionable analytics in real time. This required a deep understanding of both the technical capabilities of AI and the needs of advertisers looking for insights into user behavior.

Designing for usability

An app might have all the functionality in the world, but if users struggle to navigate it, the app has failed its primary purpose. Here are examples of projects and what factors related to usability I needed to consider.

Behavioral health example: Simplifying complexity

In the behavioral health app I helped design, we focused heavily on accessibility and usability. Key features included:

Streamlined User Flows: We designed the app to guide users step by step, simplifying ride selection by presenting options based on user preferences and abilities.

Visual Cues: Clear, accessible visual indicators, such as color-coded vehicle types and schedules, helped users easily identify the best choices.

Adaptive Interfaces: The app’s interface was tailored to users with developmental disabilities, featuring large, easy-to-read text and simplified navigation to prevent confusion.

These usability considerations not only solved the immediate problem but also built trust with the app’s audience, ensuring long-term user engagement.

SaaS example: Real-time data vizualization

For the live-streaming SaaS platform, usability meant providing users with actionable data without overwhelming them. We designed a live analytics dashboard that:

Simplified Data Presentation: By using clean, intuitive visualizations, users could quickly understand complex data like user views, clicks, and conversion rates.

Customizable Features: Users could adjust ad parameters in real-time using sliders and drop-down menus, making the process efficient and intuitive.

Proactive Design Adjustments: Based on user feedback, I optimized the layout to include an ad carousel, making it easier for advertisers to manage multiple campaigns simultaneously.

In both cases, usability was not just about making the app easy to use—it was about anticipating user needs and designing for seamless interaction.

As you consider any app design, remember that usability isn’t just about creating a seamless experience for the app’s end users. It’s equally important to design tools and features that make the app functional and efficient for the client—the organization or entity that hired you.

Scalability: Planning for the future

Solving immediate user problems is crucial, but designing for scalability ensures the app remains relevant and functional as user needs evolve and the user base grows.

Behavioral health example: Planning for growth

When designing the behavioral health app, scalability was a critical consideration. Though the initial scope focused on a specific geographic area in Canada, the app was designed to expand seamlessly to other regions. Key scalability features included:

Modular Architecture: The app was built with a flexible back-end architecture, allowing new regions, languages, and ride types to be added without disrupting existing functionality.

Interoperability: It was designed to integrate with other behavioral health systems and services, creating a seamless experience for users as the app expanded.

SaaS example: Leveraging AI for flexibility

In the SaaS ad placement platform, scalability was built into the system through AI and data-driven decision-making. As the app grew to support larger audiences and more advertisers, features such as:

AI Learning Models: The system became smarter over time, adapting to changing user behavior and advertiser needs.

Cloud-based Infrastructure: This ensured the app could handle spikes in user traffic during live events without performance issues.

By planning for scalability during the design phase, we avoided costly overhauls later on, ensuring the apps could grow alongside user needs and industry demands.

Scalability: Planning for the future

The real challenge in designing apps for real-world problems lies in striking the right balance between usability and scalability. Too often, apps sacrifice one for the other—focusing so heavily on user experience that they fail to scale or prioritizing growth at the expense of usability. However, when these two elements are integrated thoughtfully, the result is an app that not only solves immediate user problems but also remains a valuable tool for years to come.

For example, the behavioral health app succeeded because it combined an intuitive user experience with a modular architecture that allowed it to scale. Similarly, the SaaS platform’s real-time analytics dashboard was both easy to use and capable of supporting more complex features as the user base expanded.

Key takeaways

Understand the Problem: Effective app design begins with understanding the real-world problems users face and gathering insights through research and feedback.

Prioritize Usability: Design intuitive interfaces that guide users seamlessly, anticipating their needs and removing friction from the user experience.

Plan for Scalability: Build apps that can grow and adapt, using flexible architectures and technologies that accommodate future needs.

Designing for usability and scalability is both an art and a science. By keeping these principles at the forefront of every project, I’ve been able to create apps that not only meet users’ needs today but are also equipped to grow and evolve alongside them. Whether in the behavioral health industry or the SaaS space, the goal remains the same: to build apps that solve real-world problems effectively and create lasting value for users.

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Case Study: Creative Direction: TwelveStone Health

Sep 13, 2023 | Creative Direction, Digital-Design, Environmental Design, Graphic Design, Marketing, Print Design, Trade Show Design, Uncategorized

Synopsis

TwelveStone Health began as a humble startup with an inconsistent brand identity, an outdated website, and little digital marketing presence. As the client was essentially a solo founder with a small team, they lacked even a company name when they approached us.

The Need

Our client required a complete transformation into a well-established company, starting with a new company name and a corporate identity that signified growth, regardless of their current size.

The Proposal

Our first step was brainstorming a suitable company name. Drawing inspiration from the founder’s Christian values, we identified a favorite biblical verse that led to the creation of “White Stone Health.” We then crafted the logo, designed essential print collateral, and developed a fully responsive website with compelling copy. Experience design played a crucial role in this process. Following this, we meticulously planned and implemented a multi-channel digital marketing strategy.

The Outcome

Throughout our partnership with TwelveStone, we consistently met and exceeded the client’s expectations. White Stone Health has continued to thrive, building upon the foundation we established at the outset. This strong foundation has demonstrated that strategic planning for future growth is a valuable and enduring investment.

Lessons Learned

Our upfront research and planning for TwelveStone Health proved to be invaluable. Regardless of the company’s rapid expansion into new territories, our corporate identity and design remained adaptable. One challenge we encountered was that the branding, while reflecting the gentle sentiment of the biblical verse it was inspired by, required adjustments in terms of color and saturation to accommodate various applications as the company grew.