Description:

Insight. A guide for designers to communicate effectively to the visually impaired.

Over time designers have become ambivalent to the need for accessibility thinking in their design process. And as designers, we play a crucial role in creating clear visual communication for everyone in society including the visually impaired.

Insight works to empower and design for the 180,000 New Zealanders who don’t view the world through the same lens. This is a graphic resource intended for graduating graphic designers, and ultimately the wider design community, to consider the frustration and parameters that face the visually impaired in everyday communications.

There is an opportunity to help combat this obstacle and make everyday life more accessible by stepping into the shoes of those who have difficulty seeing. This book ultimately aims to communicate the perspective of another person by forming a sense of frustration and then empathy to better understand what it is like to be at the receiving end of inconsiderate design.

This book needed to be obvious. Black and white, clear typography, negative space, suggestions on legibility and the use of visual obstacles — a starter guide for more considered design in any public forum.

Insight doesn’t hold all the answers, nor can it be a definitive work. However, by inspiring designers to widen their horizon and view life through an alternative lens, they can include the visually impaired in their creative thought processes.