Cat Noone

For years, accessibility has hardly been a priority in the tech industry. But companies are finally starting to realize that designing services for all is a move where everyone wins. In today’s episode, we chat with Stark's CEO Cat Noone about building accessible products and the importance of software that doesn’t exclude by design.You'll find a full transcript of today's episode here: https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/starks-ceo-cat-noone-on-designing-accessible-products/You can listen to our own story of accessibility with the Intercom Messenger Notification sound here: https://www.intercom.com/blog/podcasts/intercoms-notification-sound/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today’s guest is designer, founder and CEO,  Cat Noone.Cat grew up with her grandparents in Brooklyn, New York. She started her career in web design and then worked in special education before founding the Iris app which was a modern-day emergency alert – and going on to co-found and be Chief Designer Officer at Liberio, an eBook publishing tool. Cat is now co-founder and CEO of Stark – which provides a beautifully designed suite of tools for designers and developers to ensure their software products are more accessible and compliant for all.In today’s episode, Cat and I discuss the difficult childhood she had and how it shaped her a person as well the career path she has followed, making technology as accessible as possible to all. At the core of Cat’s mission is something close to her heart - this idea that no one should be excluded. No one should be left behind. It’s a truly heartfelt conversation and I am so grateful to Cat for opening up like this. As I say in the interview, I really believe that in being vulnerable as founders, we help others and I think that sums Cat up. She wants to channel her energy for good. And she does exactly like that.I really enjoyed our conversation and feel I learned a lot from it. And I think you will too. You’re listening to the Danielle Newnham Podcast where I interview tech founders and to learn the inspiring, human stories behind the game-changing tech we use every day. Cat Twitter / Instagram / Stark / Substack NewsletterDanielle Twitter / Instagram / Newsletter

How can we do better at designing websites and applications, so that they cater for people with special needs? Our guest today is Cat Noone, CEO of Stark. You’ll hear about Cat’s mission-driven SaaS, examples of inclusive design, her tool recommendations, as well as her expert tips on accessible design.Podcast feed: subscribe to https://feeds.simplecast.com/4MvgQ73R in your favorite podcast app, and follow us on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play Music.Show NotesStark — Cat’s companyHanlon’s razor — a rule of thumb that states “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”Figma, AdobeXD, Sketch — popular UI design softwareStark raises $1.5M for a toolkit that helps developers and others create more inclusive design — a TechCrunch announcement of Stark’s recent fundingApple’s Human Interface GuidelinesStark’s blogUnderstanding Conformance — a W3 article on WCAG 2.0 conformance levels (AA/AAA regulations)Apple, Microsoft, Fable, Barclays — companies that do great at inclusive designMicrosoft Design — where to download Microsoft’s inclusive design toolkitSign up for Stark’s newsletterStark’s Slack communityFollow Stark on Twitter and InstagramFollow Cat on TwitterToday’s SponsorThis episode is brought to you by Userlist — a lifecycle messaging tool for your SaaS product. At Userlist, our mission is to make your founder journey more enjoyable and less overwhelming. That’s why we built an email automation tool that does exactly what you need. No more, no less. Manage your users, segment them, and get in touch throughout their journey — all based on their behavior. Try Userlist free whenever you’re ready at userlist.com.Interested in sponsoring an episode? Learn more here.Leave a ReviewReviews are hugely important because they help new people discover this podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please leave a review on iTunes. Here’s how.

FEATURED LINKS Cat Noone heyimcat.com Twitter Stark SHOW LINKS GoDoCreate.today Twitter Instagram

In this episode, Lacey is joined by Cat Noone from Stark. Stark is a suite of accessibility and compliance tools that are designed for product teams. Cat shares about her background in design and what led her to founding Stark. Additionally, Cat shares about how no code can challenge designers ー and why that's a good thing.

This week on the pod, Erin and JH talk to Cat Noone, CEO of Stark, a suite of tools designed to help teams ship accessible work. They chatted about how accessibility is constantly evolving, what teams can do to get started, and inclusive design. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/awkwardsilences/message

On this episode Abadesi talks to Cat Noone, CEO and designer at Stark, a suite of integrated accessibility compliance tools for teams. She is also co-founder of Iris, a modern-day emergency alert system.In this episode they talk about...The story behind StarkCat was raised by her grandma and says that that experience ingrained in her the drive to create things for people who are otherwise “put aside.” She is a designer by trade and turned out to be an accidental founder. She explains how the project arose out of her earlier work on Iris, which involved creating experiences for older adults. Stark ended up being a product that they built for themselves when they were working on Iris and then evolved into its own standalone product that they now sell to other teams. Why accessible design matters“There may be only twenty thousand people on a product using it that have only one arm but what you don't realize is that there are more individuals that have a broken arm. There are also millions of people that are new parents for the first time and only have access to one arm. So now your 20,000 just skyrocketed to 2 million.”Cat talks about why designing for accessibility and inclusion is important and talks about some of the other initiatives underway in the tech industry to make the web a more inclusive place for everyone. She explains why it’s important from an ethics perspective, but also why it makes financial sense to do so given the risk of negative PR and potential lawsuits. She says that sometimes compliance can be daunting but they are working to make it easier to be compliant with accessibility regulations through their work at Stark. Why they are “investing in customers” at Stark“I’m a huge proponent of investing in customers and so I think a lot of people think about cost of acquisition but we should ask 'how do we build a community that give back and in turns fuels our mission to be the gold standard.'"Cat explains the company philosophy they have at Stark and discusses what it’s like to be a first-time CEO of a “company that’s going somewhere.” She talks about how they think about culture as they grow and the initiatives that they are working on to grow the company, including content marketing, newsletters, and community. She explains what it means to be investing in customers and why they don’t look at customers as an acquisition cost. She talks about why traditional sales don’t work in a company like Stark and why sometimes the best practices for big companies don’t translate well to smaller ones.How she uses time design to be productive“I was someone who spent a lot of time working for a long period of time. It’s hard for me to sit here and say you can’t do that, because that’s how I got to where I am now. If I could go back in time, I would probably still work those long hours — but I’d take care of myself.”Cat admits that she struggled with managing her time in the past but that with some help she’s been able to “design her time” more effectively which has allowed her to get a lot done in the time that she has as a new mom. She says that her entire workday is planned out and that she starts by reading for thirty minutes every day, which she says helps her approach her work with a calm mindset rather than being frantic about all the things she has to do that day. She also says that she works first on the three things that she needs to make sure she gets done in a given day and then starts tackling the rest. She also says that she still makes sure to take care of herself and says that she can be the best mom and businessperson by prioritizing herself.She also talks about some of her favorite products, including the classics like Twitter, Slack, iMessage, WhatsApp, and Airtable, as well as DuckDuckGo for search. She says that she uses a record player to listen to music and explains what it is about vinyl that makes the music sound so much different from electronic music formats. We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Knowable and NetSuite for their support. 😸

Cat Noone, CEO of Stark, shares an overview of accessible design, dreams for shaping a more accessible future, helming custom support with a small team, and her motivation to create.StarkWeb Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)LyraA Stark Difference in Design NewletterCat on TwitterSee open positions at thoughtbot!Become a Sponsor of Giant Robots!Support Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Cat Noone is prolific and ruthlessly efficient with her projects. She's currently CEO @irisapp and @getstarkco and co-Founder @lyraapp. Her design passions lie in accessibility, building for real people and working with cross-functional teams to deliver products that represent the users she's targeting. Cat had some real zingers of quotes in our podcast, and we're so excited to have her as our debut episode. Episode notes Books Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine by Hannah Fry Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World - And Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling , Ola Rosling , et al Videos In my language

This week I talk with Cat Noone, Founder of Iris! We talk about growing up in Brooklyn, getting your first computer, pursuing medicine and then dropping out of college, having an advisor copy your product, being an entrepreneur and a parent and lot more! Enjoy! http://founderchats.com http://getiris.co https://baremetrics.com