Starting with Jesse James Garrett's model of User Experience, this webinar will examine where accessibility and usability dovetail in areas such as user research, information architecture, persona, wireframes, visual design, and user testing. By understanding more about each other, we may better navigate each other's challenges and solve each other's problems more effectively.
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Usability and Accessibility Have a Conversation: How Accessibility and UI/UX Teams Can Collaborate for More Inclusive Products
1. Usability and
Accessibility Have a
Conversation:
How Accessibility and
UI/UX Teams Can
Collaborate for More
Inclusive Products
Jiatyan Chen
Online Accessibility
Program Manager
Stanford University
www.3playmedia.co
m
Twitter:
@3playmedia
Live tweet: #a11y
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Patrick Loftus
(Moderator)
Marketing Assistant
3Play Media
7. Why?
Usability and Accessibility have a lot of overlaps in topics but structured differently.
Designs are handled as elements or whole, while WCAG is organised by
principles.
UX A11y
9. 1. Strategy
Purpose & goals
Needs, both outside & inside
Stakeholder meetings
Market research
Personae
Success metrics
10. 1. Strategy - persona
Description: 35, divorced, 2 young
children, mid-level manager, wants
promotion and pay raise
Stresses: time to take classes & do
homework, travelling, no spouse to
tend to children, babysitter choice
Needs: calendar, when to do tasks,
choices of courses, what others
chose
11. 1. Strategy - success metrics
Unique users
Time on site
Traffic source
Time on task
Sales
Brand impression
Student grades
Messaging perception
Reduce help desk calls
...
12. 1. Strategy
Purpose & goals
Needs, both outside & inside - business case for
accessibility?
Stakeholder meetings - invisible stakeholders?
Market research
Personae - credible 'disability' characteristics. Need ideas?
See A Web for Everyone Persona, An Alphabet of
Accessibility Issues
Success metrics - unique users, % reached, reduce errors,
equivalent ease of use, standards violation, improve
comprehension
13. 2. Scope
Features and content.
Functional specification aka "feature set"
Task analysis, user interviews
Put personae into scenarios
Content inventory, content analysis
Project charter
Trade-off requirements vs feasibility of making them
14. 2. Scope - scenario
(Scenarios): Which courses to
enroll? How can I graduate?
Deadlines?
2min on page
17. 2. Scope
Features and content.
Functional specification aka "feature set" - critical (vs
optionals) to make accessible
Task analysis, user interviews - happy path to make
accessible
Put personae into scenarios - situational disability, platform
constraints in tasks
Content inventory, content analysis - core content to make
accessible
Project charter - assumptions about time limits &
capabilities, in scope vs out of scope
Trade-off requirements vs feasibility of making them - refer
18. 3. Structure
How product works
Interaction sequences & responses (IxD) using standards,
HCI guidelines, cognitive psychology
Content structure & information relationship (IA) using card
sort & data analytics
Writing style guide
19. 3. Structure - interaction sequence
Tech Support Cheat Sheet by xkcd
26. 3. Structure
How product works.
Interaction sequences & responses (IxD) using standards,
HCI guidelines, cognitive psychology - use accessible
pattern libraries eg. WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices,
eBay MIND patterns, deep dive into non-standard
elements
Content structure & information relationship (IA) using card
sort & data analytics - be intentional about hierarchy,
sequencing, semantic structure, help/contact
Writing style guide - taxonomy, keywords, title, link text
35. 4. Skeleton - Usability Heuristics
1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10.Help and documentation
36. 4. Skeleton
Presentation for understanding and interaction.
Wireframe, navigation/wayfinding - annotated wireframes,
read order, beware of cognitive load,
UI controls, states, behaviours, error handling - keyboard,
time limits, platforms differences
Prototype, test & refine with user testing - AT testing,
verbal walkthrough
Heuristic evaluation/expert review - both usability and
accessibility experts
Code framework, platform & library - automated
accessibility tools, use libraries which have a11y
support, code to standards
38. 4. Skeleton - annotated wireframe
Early prevention of accessibility issues with mockup & wireframe reviews by Aidan
Tierney
39. 4. Skeleton - verbal walkthrough
Accessibility and Design — Where Productivity and Philosophy Meet
by Ryan Strunk, Joe Lonsky
40. 4. Skeleton - Usability Heuristics
1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10.Help and documentation
52. 6. Sustain
Continuous Delivery -> "Agile" feedback
Sprints on limited features - automated regression test,
timeboxed manual test, test something every sprint
User Acceptance Test - SR & keyboard test with UAT
script, UAT for accessibility
User feedback using questionnaire - periodic WCAG
evaluation, prioritise accessibility requests
53. Sustain - Yahoo! A11y Lab Top 10
common issues
"Don't let us find these!"
1. Missing or incorrect names
2. Navigation doesn't follow visual design
3. Skipping over visible items or speaking invisible items
4. Not grouping visually related elements
5. Element type (link, button, etc.) is missing or incorrect
6. The state of buttons is not described
7. Headings are missing or used inconsistently
8. Missing "hints" that provide context
9. Missing closed captions or caption controls
10.Low contrast
54. More?
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web by Jesse James
Garrett
A Web for Everyone: Designing Accessible User Experiences by Sarah Horton and
Whitney Quesenbery
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about People by Susan M. Weinschenk
https://www.usability.gov/
Many thanks to ATHEN & WebAIM mailing list, and A11y Slackers.
Jiatyan Chen <jiatyan@stanford.edu>
Stanford University https://goo.gl/zgVCN
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Notas do Editor
Start with who and why, and get into the how.
Higher Ed. Stanford Online Accessibility Program manager - consults on policy, services, projects, communications
Web Accessibility Coordinator, IT manager, project manager, UX designer, instructional designer, build online courses and interactive learning modules.
~time when I first started building modules. The (Psychology) Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. He taught me that the problem is NOT the user. Not guilty for failing to use a product.
Designer's job to communicate the Affordances, provide appropriate Feedback and Constrain the errors. (eg. The biggest dial on a stereo should control its primary function of making sound. Particularly when the user is distracted by, say, driving.)
Usability (or the lack there of) has kept my interest since that book.
So how do we approach usability?
Moving across country with as little a possible. Pack an office + large 4-drawer filing cabinet into a bankers box.
Bat joined me in one late night for recycling.
Recycled a lot, but among the few I kept are 2 buttons.
Usability buttons - think about users and give them f() they need. Reminder of user-centred design.
User != mechanical monkeys pushing buttons perfectly every time, but rather == experience, state of mind, situation, ability
It took Whitney Quesenbery, juggernaut in UX, to point out that
Accessibility expands usability to include more abilities and situations. Still about the user.
Which is why...
We keep seeing the similar topics coming repeatedly.
Just structured differently. Use different language and conceptual maps.
UX use methods and heuristics, while WCAG has observable success criteria.
UXer design UI by elements, while Accessibility evaluate experiences by separate behaviours.
Purpose of this talk is to suggest a way for these 2 lenses to work closer together.
Model by Jesse Garrett to hold ideas together. Ideas I've picked up and filed. And when you get more than a handful, you need a way to organise them.
5 layers, from abstract to concrete, with activities to produce information feeding the final product.
Accessibility comes in really strong at the concrete & tangible product end but fades out around structure. Decisions made at these upper layers do not address the core and so a11y keeps being treated as 'fixes'.
This model might helps you map out where it is easier to affect the specific change.
Purpose & goals -> strategic/vision/mission document, learning objectives
User needs are the goals for the site that come from outside our organization -- specifically from the people who will use our site. Balanced against our own objectives for the site. (eg. user needs to fill in form as as little effort as possible) (eg. business need to gather sufficient info sell product)
Stakeholder meeting drawn from representatives of whoever product affects.
Market research on whether there is indeed a need, competitions, other users
Outcome is a close approximation of *a* user, with sufficient background story, characteristics, needs and challenges. => Persona. Clearer to design for a person than a "target audience" fuzzy, average, no-face to relate to.
Another outcome are ways to measure the product's success
(eg food safety busy mum)
with 2 young children, looking for degree programme to gain promotion, needs flexible scheduling
Google it - mostly commercial
Higher Ed metrics are student success, admissions support
So how do we integrate accessibility into these activities?
Business case for accessibility - policy, financial, legal, social, technical
Probe more for stakeholders
My boss and I were called to a meeting at the university president's office one day. The chief of staff and the secretary of the Board told us that they want us to build a digital kiosk. It has to be outdoors, available to the public, and the user can browse through 10 pages of text and media, and yes, it has to be accessible. It was a complicated project involving landscaping, infrastructure, hardware, OS, software and content. We have to build an UI to sit in a weather-proof display which is sealed in a climate controlled casing -- no external I/O except for waving your hands in front of the monitor -- super locked-down security, no keyboard, no mouse, no joystick, no audio jack. We went to DSS with these limitation and they said it is preferable to have an alternative website so that blind users can use their regular AT to get the same info, rather than being forced to learn a new interface. And we designed and built what that in mind. Come demo day, the president herself showed up. She liked it, and then asked that we make it speak the controls and titles for the blind users, and add 100 pages. That totally changed the specs. And my mistake was that I assumed the chief of staff gave me all the information in the president's head. So, ask a few more questions.
Persona is the 'average' target user with a story. And designers are encouraged to use ONE primary persona to stay focused. So you have to "average in" the disability story. Don't appear as a fringe case.
Success metrics - % of population, equivalent multiple paths, improve comprehension of courses
List of what you want it it do/to inform. Features and content.
Task analysis/user interview -> features, scenarios
Scenarios (eg. IT site for students reporting computer login failure)
Type of content to include
Project charter - why, how, assumptions, NOT building, responsibilities. Revisit Strategy.
Negotiation and trade-offs
Scenario applied to persona
Jill only has 2~3 to read a page before she get interrupted -> structure, writing. Most important info first
For content, make a list
Figure out what you have to tell your user
Combine them
Critical functions to make accessible
Try for making happy path accessible
Critical -> prioritise, MVP with a11y built-in
Jill's situational abilities (eg. noisy children, eg. spotty bandwidth, eg. 1h commute), role play scenario -> platform constraints into tasks (eg. report computer outage == limited/no computer)
Charter - pay attention to assumptions about limits on time and capabilities, out of scope
Refer to strategic goals to see if it is the right thing to trade-off. Line item for accessibility (point back if needs be).
How the system behaves in response to the user, how the product works. The arrangement of content elements to facilitate human understanding.
Document interaction sequences & errors. Standards and heuristics. Error handling and prevention.
Document of content structure & information relationship/flow
Formulate style guide for coordinated writers
Familiar flowchart of sequence. Start and end, with decision points and procedures.
Bespoke interface of a microbiology procedure called Rapid Strep Test. When you go to your doctor with a sore throat and they take a swab, this is the test they do to determine if you have strep throat. Every step and behaviour has to be detailed for every step of what to do with a swab and number of drips in the well.
Content organisation
Manuel Lima laid out 15 topologies of information mapping
Card sort to inform structure, taxonomy, popularity
Gets translate design specs
site analytics (eg. popular path, drops)
End up with information architecture doc
Use pattern libraries, don't re-invent. Ever wonder how a MENU should behave when interacting with ENTER or SPACE keys? WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices already has a thorough answer. Only spend time on non-standard elements.
Be intentional and spell out hierarchy & semantic structure. Help/contact/grievance info.
In writing and documentation, decide on consistent terms and the format of title and link text.
Reason for deciding on taxonomy.
Open-sourced online learning platform Open edX. LMS presents course content.
Banner, tabs menu, modules listing, buttons for paging, footer
SR sees a different set pulled from the underlying code. Discovered this discrepancy when we are writing documentation for SR users.
Call it "contentinfo" landmark or "footer", ffs
What form that functionality will take. Presenting for understanding and interaction.
Time for prototyping
Expert review draft
Can be a sketch & explain
myBalsamiq detailed pages layout
User managed to find 3 pieces of info on "what this page is about"
… but couldn't tell that a large heading is related to a smaller indented heading. Design had positioned them too far apart.
Usability heuristics to run through. Famous one by Nielsen.
A11y loudest, examples from others
Annotated wireframe
Handle keyboard mappings. Detail out handle errors particularly with time limits
Read order for content in multiple columns
Call a button a button, a link a link
Mark out headings and buttons, even "convey disable state" with Traveller buttons
Number of travellers need to be announced every time user adds or subtract from it
Joe designer, Ryan a11y specialist. Joe walks through the design elements and Ryan comments on information needed in the design
Back button, search field, 3 tabs. Looks like the middle tab is selected. Ryan: "tell me which selected" and with experience, adds, "new section selected should remove old label."
Even if you don't have an a11y specialist to bounce ideas, do a blind test and walkthrough verbally with a colleague. See if they understand the information you are presenting.
Bring back slide of Usability Heuristics for expert review.
Half of usability heuristics covers accessibility topics. #1 visibility of system status.
The sensory experience created by the finished product. Senses: touch, hearing, vision, spoken.
Design comps & style guide -> consistency, provide enough details to make smart decisions in the future
Branding & pattern library/gallery -> explain use cases, limitations
Layout, position of cards. Responsive
Design comps detail all states
Contrast
Label images
Eg menu. Selected, hover, link
Dark and light background
Hover effect: zoom and underline
Vibrant to classic, heavy to light
Each combination test for contrast
(eg. meaning of icons)
"Click <something> on the button
This is the icon for click. Looks like the front of an igloo or a cave. Weird. Next tutorial.
"Zoom in and out <another igloo> for a better overview."
Couldn't zoom. No scroll bar, no drag and drop, no ctrl-drag, no keyboard arrows, no page up/down, no WASD, no cmd-+, no magnifying glass. Skip Next
Few pages later, another task I was unable to perform.
So I started flipping through the tutorial quickly and
… and noticed the difference between these 'igloos'. Red on left and red in centre.
And it finally hit me that it is the top half of a mouse! Why is this icon so unfamiliar to me? Because I use a Wacom pen. And it doesn't have a scroll wheel.
So. Label your icons, and don't assume everyone use the same device.
Added another layer because of engineering and new methods of product delivery
Sprint are short development cycles of a couple of week focusing on prioritised list of deliverables
UAT consist of a list of tests which the features have to pass
User feedback using questionnaires to inform of new features
UAT: test name, test step, test data, expected results, pass/fail. Long list.
Automated first.
Pick only the most important features to test, BUT include a11y testing EVERY sprint. So you might cover a11y for separate features.
Run through UAT with keyboard and SR. Even have a final UAT focussing on a11y
Periodic WCAG.
Here's how Yahoo limits the demand on their a11y testers - by teaching the simpler tests to their developers
So, I hope I have given you some ideas on how usability and accessibility can work together at every level. I'd be happy if you can walk away today with one thing you can implement.
Link for this slide deck.