AudioEye Website Rebrand: Accessibility in Design

Rebranding a website is an exciting, high-impact moment — an opportunity to reimagine the brand, elevate the user experience, and modernize visual and technical systems. But with that opportunity comes a critical responsibility: ensuring that accessibility doesn’t get lost in the glow of the redesign.

Unfortunately, accessibility is often treated as a post-launch checklist item rather than a core design principle. And during a rebrand, when visual styles, navigation structures, and content strategies are all in flux, accessibility issues can multiply quickly — unless they’re addressed intentionally from the start.

Why accessibility gets overlooked during a rebrand

There’s a reason redesigns and rebrands often introduce accessibility regressions — teams are moving fast, priorities shift toward visual polish, and decision-makers may not be aware of the impact their choices have on usability for people with disabilities.

Common pitfalls include:

• Replacing clear, semantic components with custom visuals that aren’t screen reader-friendly

• Choosing color palettes with insufficient contrast for readability

• Removing visible labels in favor of minimalist placeholders or icon-only UI

• Overhauling navigation without testing it for keyboard or assistive technology compatibility

• Not reevaluating accessibility when updating components in design systems

Even teams with the best intentions can overlook accessibility if it isn’t embedded in the process.

Here’s the paradox: while rebrands often introduce accessibility issues, they’re also the ideal opportunity to fix them. 

Why? Because you're already auditing and updating your:

• Design system: It’s the perfect time to build accessible components into the foundation.

• Content strategy: You can ensure your new tone, structure, and hierarchy are optimized for clarity, consistency, and screen reader navigation.

• Development workflows: Accessibility testing can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines or design reviews.

Instead of retrofitting fixes later (often under pressure from legal teams or unhappy users), you can make accessibility a strength of the new brand.

A collection of website snippets and social media posts, showcasing AudioEye's updated color palette of rich, sophisticated hues.

An internal case study: AudioEye rebrand and website redesign

Here, you get behind the scenes of AudioEye’s own website rebrand — exploring the challenges our design team faced and the accessibility-first decisions that shaped the new experience.

From typography and color palette decisions to component rebuilds and testing strategies, we’ll show how accessibility wasn’t just maintained during the rebrand — it was intentionally elevated.

AudioEye rebrand: the setup

In 2021, AudioEye undertook a quick, temporary brand refresh to align its logo, website, and overall appearance with the expectations of SMB B2B SaaS companies. Though functional, this temporary branding was never intended to be permanent. Over time, inconsistencies emerged, especially between marketing and product content, and the visual identity lacked sufficient accessibility and differentiation from competitors. This prompted AudioEye’s design team to reimagine their brand strategically and intentionally.

The old AudioEye logo surrounded by edits and notes as part of creating a more accessible logo experience.

The design team began by solidifying their messaging and positioning before diving into visuals. Their key goal was differentiation—breaking away from what they described as a "sea of sameness" within the accessibility industry.

Another critical goal was accessibility itself. According to the design team, "Everything we're making has to answer the question: 'Is this accessible?' first." Accessibility wasn't an afterthought but a guiding principle throughout every stage of the redesign.

Practical accessibility in action

One significant shift was updating the AudioEye logo to address legibility and visibility issues. Initially, the existing lowercase, no-space wordmark suffered from readability problems, especially at smaller scales. Transitioning to PascalCase—a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters—dramatically improved readability and accessibility, becoming a "non-negotiable" aspect of the rebrand.

The design team spent extensive time crafting a flexible and fully accessible color palette. Each color in the new palette was meticulously tested using target-shaped color wheels, which allowed them to visually confirm that every shade met AA compliance standards for contrast ratios. This innovative approach ensured each color remained consistent, vibrant, and accessible across all contexts.

Two columns of color wheels, comparing the old color hues to current hues for the AudioEye brand.

Typography posed another challenge. Initially considering trendy but inaccessible fonts, the team adopted a simple yet effective test known as the "1IL test," where the lowercase letter "l," the number "1," and the uppercase "I" are compared side-by-side. Fonts that failed this test were rejected because these characters were indistinguishable from one another, posing readability challenges for users with dyslexia or visual impairments. Eventually, the team chose a font that successfully passed the 1IL test, delivering clarity, distinct character shapes, and an elegant personality.

The design team also consciously shifted toward using authentic, full-color photography of real people from AudioEye’s A11iance Team. They chose images thoughtfully, ensuring genuine representation without stereotyping or artificial staging. This authentic approach brought warmth, credibility, and relatability to the AudioEye brand.

Accessibility: a continuous improvement

The team emphasized accessibility as an ongoing journey. Through their CMS, Storyblok, designers could receive real-time accessibility feedback and continuously improve user experience. For instance, the team actively worked on improving table accessibility by incorporating ARIA labels and redesigning layouts into dynamic tabs, ensuring usability across various devices and screen readers. This proactive approach was critical in ensuring the site remained both beautiful and accessible after launch.

As AudioEye’s Director of Brand and Design, Sojin Rank, summarized:

"Make accessibility your first step, and make it part of your design culture. When accessibility is your foundation, you don't just create compliance — you create great experiences for everyone."

The AudioEye rebrand is more than a visual refresh — it’s a practical example of how intentional, accessibility-driven design decisions create impactful, inclusive brands.