Client Challenge
AMI wanted to bring their award-winning content to Apple’s mobile and TV platforms, and needed a development partner who would embrace their passion for accessibility and extend that approach to future clients and development projects.
The apps needed to present and play video content in an accessible format, adhere closely to the accessibility guidelines laid out by Apple, and be bilingual.
AMI’s chosen technology partner had to be deeply skilled in mobile app development with experience integrating APIs, web services and video content feeds into multiple platforms.
- User Research & Testing
- Human-Centred Design
- Agile Software Engineering
- Slack
- Google Docs
- Jira
- Sketch
- InVision
- Swift
- Node.JS
- AWS
TWG Approach
We ran our full end-to-end Agile product process to create AMI-tv for iOS and tvOS.
We knew we had lots to learn about designing for the visually impaired community. When interfaces are co-designed with the people who will use them, they become truly beautiful and intuitive. User research is a critical component of any digital product build, and was essential for this project.
Through multiple interviews, accessibility audits, and usability tests with blind and partially-sighted people, we were able to truly understand their needs.
Typically when testing product ideas, researchers use non-coded prototypes, which designers can build in just a few days to create production-style experiences for testing. However, these prototypes are not accessible to people with limited vision. Instead, we did lots of our initial testing with comparable products, such as Netflix and YouTube.
This allowed us to uncover many challenges associated with watching videos as a blind or partially-sighted user so that we understood what we needed to avoid. It also gave us examples of features that were particularly enjoyable, which we made sure to include in our own design.
The Outcome
These applications are helping the visually impaired community in Canada experience AMI’s content from coast-to-coast, and we are immensely proud to have worked on this project. AMI-tv was featured in the App Store, and as a “New and Noteworthy” app.
Forced to take a unique approach and consider accessibility from inception, the TWG team was meticulous in its preparation and worked closely with the blind and partially community to understand their needs and wants. The result was two fully accessible apps for iOS and tvOS along with a deep understanding of accessibility that the TWG team can share with clients and apply to future projects.