Auditorial

How do you craft content online for those who can’t see?

Compelling stories for the visually impaired

Auditorial is a new approach to online editorial that combines written articles with rich audio, and advanced accessibility controls; adapting to suit the needs of blind and low vision readers. The first Auditorial, ‘The Silent Spring’ launched on World Accessibility Day 2021.

Users with sight loss can experience a rich audio-led story, complete with customisable visual settings and full control over audio and text. The result is an immersive editorial experience — usually reserved for the sighted — now available to blind and visually impaired readers. Auditorial is designed to be a benchmark for future online feature articles.

Role

Design Director

Period

2020–21

Agency

R/GA

Awards

x2 Gold Andys
x2 Silver Clios
x1 Bronze Clio

Lean back and enjoy the story

One of the tools in the suite was designed let users switch from a standard reading experience to a lean back, audio-led one, so that they could elect to have the stories spoken to them with accompanying visuals. It was this feature that Google decided they wanted to run with as the core experience. So we focused on creating a new kind of audio first, storytelling platform.

The new aim was to design an experience that could be enhanced over time to become a platform that anyone could create stories for regardless of their budget or recourses. You should just need a set of media assets and a microphone to record the v/o. The system would do the rest. It would be a system that could use keywords and map locations to generate ambient soundtracks and pull in imagery if needed.

The adaptive colour mode was a key innovation in making accessible design beautiful too — intended to add to the lean back experience, being subtle in transition to support the story

Fully customisable and geared toward the impaired

The platform is designed to allow users to quickly set things up to suit their visual abilities, press play and let the story unfold. It was be designed from the bottom up with the blind and visually impaired as the target audience, so text size, buttons, colours etc are all highly accessible.

We kept the UI patterns down to a minimum in order to ensure familiarity, and set ourselves the task of ensuring all UI was located within a single small zone in larger breakpoints so visually impaired users — who tend to zoom in heavily — don't get lost looking for buttons. The site had also been optimised and stressed tested for screen readers. We worked weekly with our panels of blind and visually impaired testers to ensure everything was fully validated through the process.

This prototype shows a flow of a first time user, and covers all the key interaction patterns contained within the experience. It does not contain the final story content