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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1515807
The Next Generation The Spectrum 2 project kicked off with a gathering of over 100 Adobe staff representing a literal spectrum of disciplines, from engineers to accessibility experts as well as including a group from the company’s unique Product Equity team who make sure that Adobe’s products and services are truly unbiased and give a high priority to taking into account “historically underinvested and marginalized creators” when designing and developing Adobe’s suite of over 100 applications. After its initial meetings, the Spectrum 2 team came up with three main goals: 1. Every experience should “feel at home,” no matter where “home” is. 2. Every experience should be accessible and inclusive. 3. Every experience should be not only be functional, but joyful too. “Feeling at home” originated through one of Adobe’s biggest challenges, and one that didn’t factor in to Spectrum’s initial release. The interface needs to remain true to the hardware interface’s conventions as well as Adobe products’ unique look and feel. Users needed to feel comfortable with it. For example, a smart phone’s version of an application needs a UI that is familiar enough to a desktop user yet takes advantage of the phone’s unique capabilities such as a touch interface. Creative Cloud has done a good job of this so far, but going forward, Spectrum 2 intends to keep the product teams mindful of the many different platforms a feature will run on. Universal Appeal Building accessibility into all its products has been part of Adobe’s development cycle for years, but the company wants to go beyond the basic requirements. And, like many aspects of Universal Design, there will be benefits for all its users. A typical case is creating color palettes for interface features. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide standard palettes that are acceptable for people with color vision deficiencies. One of the features Spectrum 2 will help bring about is to give users to easily adjust factors like interface contrast and density. Most companies only consider the majority of its current and potential customers when it comes to product design. Adobe’s Product Equity Team’s mission is to devise a “equitable processes into practice so historically underinvested and marginalized people are prioritized,” according to Timothy Bardlavens, Adobe’s Directory of Product Equity. This team, who are part of the Spectrum 2 project, will help the development teams build equitable practices into the products from the start. This can be a win on both sides of the cash register. A larger base of users will find the Adobe product environment more welcoming and preferable to other options that may not be so well thought through.