Considerations for the Audience

When making anything in the creative industries, there will always be some aspect in a project or creation that will or can be considered a disadvantage to someone. Colour blindness for example can be a nuisance in several art forms, in particular animations and games. This can be worked around by altering colour palettes so those who may suffer from colour blindness can see the media as intended.

Accessibility is extremely important, particularly in this day and age where there is a giant call for fairness and equality for all aspects of life. However, sometimes in the creative industry, we simply cannot and will not necessarily make allowances to all potential issues. An example of where making allowances could be detrimental to the art form is in the game 'The Last of Us.' This game tells the extremely emotional and moving story of Joel and Ellie. If players were given the choice to create or choose between a female 'Jolene,' chances are that the emotional impact would not have been the same. The story was created for the purpose of showing a father who has lost his child and figuratively 'adopted' Ellie and tries to protect her.

So what are some ways that we as designers can combat and adapt to try and cater for everyone? It is evident that we want to reach as many people as possible and make as much money as possible so how can we cater?

Looking at an example of how a game like Candy Crush, or any 'Match 3' type game could be accessible to someone with MS or Fibromyalgia. These diseases can cause extreme motor reflex issues. Speaking from experience with my mother who has Fibromyalgia, it is a horrible disease to watch someone suffer through, knowing that each day they get worse and worse. I thought about how I could adapt a feature to aid someone like my mother in playing this type of game (Which by the way she loves). One solution would be that somewhere in the start screen, or perhaps game screen itself is an icon where any 'gem' that has been touched would have a small 'preview' window pop up that zooms in on the general area of the gems that allow for someone with shaky hands or tremors to swipe more easily.

A relatively simple addition such this can make a whole world of difference to those with these types of issues. This opens the market even more, and it is good to keep in mind that usually people with diseases such as MS usually try to perform regular mental exercises, which can include gaming, to try and keep their brains as active as possible.

The more we look into various considerations, it is astonishing what avenues open up, and what careful thoughts should be taken before teams go charging into development with the potential to cut off a chunk of their target audiences.

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