Inclusive animation and accessibility maze game (SBLTN Lab Notes 023)
Varied bodies in motion, simulated web barriers & gender identity on government forms
IN THE MARGINS
It feels like being a multipotentialite/multi-hyphenate is inherently at odds at being in a commercially-driven creative industry (e.g. graphic designer).
You may contain multitudes (thanks, Walt) but industry 'success' requires to target and preaches you to niche down to allow people to put you in a box. Multipotentialites are the grey area between artists (self-expression) and design (problem solving). I can't turn it off even if I wanted to (which I'm learning I don't because it's an asset). While designing I'll think of the String Theory Calabi-Yau shape and apply it to a logo concept. While developing strategy, I’ll recall a philosophical concept and weave that into the content marketing.
And in some creative careers, like being a Creative Director (CD), being a Swiss Army Knife is actually both a benefit and requirement. They have to know the whole pipeline and even tangential fields like copy or advertising. It's seen as "good" to have a broad skill set and varied interests. Also, your mastery of one item can change over the years. That’s literally how you go from designer to CD - by shifting your specialty. You still have mastered one skill but what the skill is changes.
So where then is the creative industry's line for when it's 'good' or 'bad' to be broad and varied? Is it when you shift from producer/executor to director/manager?
Anyways, gonna think on this a bit more. Let’s get into this edition!
ACCESSIBILITY
The Accessibility Maze Game
The Accessibility Maze Game is a fun browser-based game made to introduce those new to web accessibility to potential barriers on the Web that may prevent some people from accessing content. You will experience the challenges of navigating the Web that some people with disabilities experience.
The learning objectives of this game are:
Learn how images, and other visuals, are made accessible
Understand how web forms are made accessible
Experience how timed elements can create barriers
Discover why mouse-only features are inaccessible to many people
To top it off, the puzzles are fun, the characters are cute, and it’ll give some of you a hit of Nintendo nostalgia.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
Gender Identity & Government Forms
I had to help someone replace their government identification card and when signing in, I realized the Department of Motor Vehicles asked this question:
I prefer to enter my…
Name and Gender
9-Digit DMV ID number
It’s encouraging to see more and more legal forms of identification like passports and driver's licenses accept new options for gender or ask for alternative information for security purposes. I’ve seen some even separate “assigned sex at birth” from “gender”.
I know terminology like “gender expression” vs “gender identity” can be confusing for people, especially when LGBTQ+ discourse is not in their daily life. As definitions rapidly change and if it’s appropriate to use a specific term is on a person-by-person basis, it can be hard to keep up. Hell, I’m in the community and half the time I’m lost in the sauce haha
So here’s a little starter guide to gender identity terms and tips about pronouns
❓ QUESTION: Are legal documents in your area catching up with the change in gender identity terminology?
ART & DESIGN
Inclusive animation
Lots can be said about the body types used in animated films from big houses like PIxar or from popular entertainment like video games. These heated debates often touch on racial stereotypes, but I haven’t seen much chatter in the motion design space related to that. To depict people, a blobby, amorphous figure-drawing style has taken over startups and UI/UX portfolios - perhaps as a way to skirt diverse representation through abstraction. I was interested to Eddie Song’s “thicc boi” animation that was both visually fun and thoughtful. I don’t know if they intentionally went against Eurocentric beauty ideals or not but it was refreshing to see an athletic body type other than thin or absurdly abstract.
Adobe Color Blindness Proofing
Designers, I hope I didn’t lose y’all with my animation talk haha This one is for you! I usually hop into Adobe’s Color Accessibility tool if I’m already in one of their programs designing. I recently noticed that Illustrator has built in a proofing mode for color blindness (“View” menu then “Proof Setup”). It currently only offers 2 types (red and green color blindness), but it’s a starting point. I’ll be poking around to see what, if any, other accessibility integrations exist.
Signing off from the Starship SBLTN,
Laneen (Pronouns: she/they)
🎧 Listening: There and Back Again album by Eric Nam
📖 Reading: Atomic Habits by James Clear
👀 Watching: The Witcher (Season 2) on Netflix
💬 Quote: “Tuesday: Nothing. Existed” - Jean-Paul Sartre (Nausea)