No. 88: Zappos makes selling shoes more inclusive.


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A Stark Difference

Issue. 88

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Why do you think we're still arguing the business value of design?

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Good reads

A sign hangs outside the headquarters of Zappos in Las Vegas. Picture taken by John Locher at AP.

A sign hanging outside the headquarters of Zappos in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)

Featured Article

Zappos to start selling single shoes and mixed size pairs to cater to people with disabilities, special needs

"Zappos is now making an attempt to cater to shoppers who naturally have different sized feet, as well as those with prosthetics, which can create a need for different sized shoes.

Starting Tuesday, the popular online retailer will offer the option for several brands, including Nike, Converse, Stride Rite, and New Balance. Launching as a “test,” the Single and Different Size Shoes Test Program will be available in all sizes and widths, from toddler to adult, ranging in price from $17.50 to $85."

I remember when Atoms announced they would not only make a super comfortable and almost therapeutic shoe, but also allow you to customize your size per foot. In this case though, I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never thought about how some individuals end up paying the same amount for shoes and/or apparel—essentially pay more than a "typical" individual, for something they will not use.

In addition to that, I can’t imagine how sad many people must feel to get that box and need to just toss that extra shoe or reconfigure their clothing to adapt to their needs. Given that, this announcement from Zappos (who continues to deliver happiness) was wonderful to see.

Article

Babusi Nyoni is making AI more accessible and relevant

"Nyoni deliberately made the app available via web and mobile browsers (as opposed to a standalone app), as he was skeptical about creating barriers to entry. The results showed that it was accessed by more than 300 devices, most of which were really low-end. A nod to his acknowledgement of context, given the prevalence of lower-end feature phones across African countries.

...

Gqom and vosho are niche apps, but nevertheless the vosho app was relatively successful. Successful enough to convince Nyoni that the same algorithm could be used in another, more serious application. With parameters in place to track body movements and with the ability to track these over time, he started experimenting with how this could work as a tool to help with the early diagnosis of Parkinsons disease."

Educational

What are A++ examples of asking for qualitative product feedback at scale?

"I always liked the phrasing: Would you kindly mind jotting down a few bullet points of feedback? What did you like? What do you wish?

Other surprisingly great feedback prompts or UIs?"

From Stark

Stark UI showing swatches of colors selected, and a purple badge of approval showing the colors are accessible.

New Feature

Introducing Smart Suggestions: Taking the guess work out of accessible color selection

Smart Suggestions is here to simplify the process and allow you to update your design—be it in the individual file you’re working inor in your design library, and hand the new color value off to your team of engineers in less than 30 seconds. With Suggestions, Stark provides alternative foreground and background swatches that are guaranteed to meet AA or AAA criteria, and don’t deviate too far from your original. What’s more, they adjust automatically in real time as you select various combinations.

Smart Color Suggestions is available today in Figma, Adobe XD and Sketch! As you’re diving into color suggestions please let us know your opinion! We’re all ears!

Updates

Changelog

General fixes to all

Add Refresh Subscription option
Renamed "Original" to "Original Artboard" in color blind type
Make it so that long artboard names don't overlap the arrow in the Artboard dropdown
Fix the upgrade link not working in the Upgrade message
Improved how the color suggestions work so this should fix that random white and gray and black boxes that were showing instead of solutions to the colors you were looking for.

Specific to Figma v1.3.1

Fix the window height for color contrast checker (didn't match the designs 100%)

Specific to Adobe XD v1.6.2

Updated logo in header.
Improve alignment of elements in the Rapid Contrast Checker
Fix the dismiss (top right X) not working in all dialogs
Fix flash of dropdowns (artboard and color blind type) when making a selection
Change all components over to function components (this should give you a nice speed bump, especially when opening the plugins

Specific to Sketch v2.16

Fixed the window height for contrast checker dialogs
Fixed empty transparent window look upon load

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