Jonathan Gomez

Custom is an email interface known for its roots in modularity with the ability to allow users to only view the features the wish to view, resize each component to their liking. And now, we introduce focus screen designed for people with cognitive disabilities such as dyslexia and ADHD.

Persona: Chuck Close Based on the actual artist, Chuck Close, our persona is someone who was diagnosed with dyslexia as child then face blindness (a cognitive dissability that imapares the ability to distinguish faces) & a spinal stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Chuck, has a hard time looking at reading when text and images are set in high contrast compositions. Like many people with dyslexia, he would “...benefit from amore subtle contrast such as dark grey on off-white or pale blue.” In general, Chuck wants his email interface to be simple, cluttered free, and customized to his needs. He wants to be able to focus and for the experience to be as less chaotic as possible.

Icons & Selection: Icons in the interface have the ability to be changed from Stacks, Lists, or Icons. In this way, Chuck Close, our user, can view email in whichever format suites him best. And, of course, these compositional elements are displayed with a thought color scheme for accessibility. Modularity: Getting back to the roots of CUSTOM, the interface, the placement of features ranging from inbox, content, calendars and compose field are movable and intuitively adjusting to their placement. This kind of flexibility and customization from the user allows for an inclusive email experience that is bespoke to user’s liking.

Background: Cyan to Violet Why use these hues? To create a Zen-like email interface, I referred back to my knowledge of landscape painting, and therefore performed additional research on this subject matter. Naturalist visual compositions are known for their quality of creating a contemplative, and meditative state for viewers which proved to be in alignment for interfaces for Dyslexic and ADHD accessibility. In this way, the naturalist email interface mimics the naturalist compositional elements. In particular, I implemented the aerial perspective. This technique which mimics landscapes can be implemented in digital visual design to recreate background in the atmospheric blue, green & violet hues. Aerial perspective has been used for centuries in fine art painting to depict how objects in the distance begin to lose saturation and black balance at they are situated further away from the viewer. And, due to the cyan blue to ultramarine tones of a sky, objects in the distance take on a blue town. So! that means that a magenta hibiscus bush will appear blue on a far away mountain even if they are of a bright pink up close. Midground: As in nature, UI elements in this region of the email interface appear in a midlevel of saturation and black level and can retain some of their hue. Foreground: Up close and in the foreground, saturation and black levels are at their highest. Yet, the color choices are mindfully chosen to never reach the highest level of contrast reducing misreading by a person with dyslexia and creating compositional coherence for someone with ADHD.

Our team conducted primary and secondary research on partnership and fundraising opportunities for CicLAvia. We identified that a high percentage of CicLAvia’s audience is unaware of their monthly donation program, Street Stars. Our result was a poster campaign designed for a QR code user experience that would bring users to Street Star webpages.

Our brief was to change the perception of CicLAvia as just a “just cyclist” event to one that reflects its more profound mission of being an organization that positively impacts community safety, health, and culture and advocates for public and non-motorized transportation. First, we conducted interviews with subject matter experts who work at CicLAvia and are partnered with the organization. Through those, we learned about strategies to implement in partnership and fundraising efforts and gathered insights into how the organization is fiscally structured. Then we attended the Heart of LA CicLAVia on Oct. 9th, where we surveyed event-goers. Our qualitative and quantitative data helped us identify that the monthly donation program is not as well known to eventgoers. So, as a team, we decided to focus on raising awareness of the Street Star program.

Due to the unique nature of CicLAvia where people may be walking, roller skating, skateboarding, or moving through a route of non-motorized transportation— grabbing people’s attention involves special considerations. During our Dec. 4th event, we found that engagement with the posters is significantly improved with larger scale posters, and placing them by event maps helps. For example, one of the posters had a call to action, “We’d love your two cents!” along with post-it notes while we asked people for feedback and asking for a donation.

We created a poster campaign to increase awareness about the donation opportunities for CicLAvia. It contained visual elements aligned with CicLAvia branding, a catchy tagline, and a QR code that led to the donation website.