The Best Friends™ Approach was developed by Virginia Bell and David Troxel. The pair are world-renown experts that have revolutionized Alzheimer’s and dementia care, and provide consulting, workshops and resources for all those affected by dementia.
The Best Friends™ Approach was developed in the 1990’s while both Virginia and David were working at the University of Kentucky Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Since then, it has been shared with individuals and health care facilities all over the world.
One of the challenges that Troxel and Bell faced with their website for Best Friends™ Approach was the vast age range and technical ability levels that their online audience spanned. Their previous website fell short of the desired level of accessibility desired for their whole audience.
As I approached this project, special design and development considerations were made, to make the website accessible to visitors of every age and ability level. Some practical examples of this were: completely avoiding drop down menus which are hard to navigate if you have limited experience using a computer mouse or trackpad, avoiding use of text as images that aren’t compatible with tools like larger text settings or screen readers, and incorporating big, bold, buttons throughout the site’s content for easy navigation.
The result is a very user-friendly site that makes sense to their audience, and effectively delivers the content that audience needs.
