Creating the Best Experience: Accessibility & UsabilityPresented by Carol Smith

WPFSeptember 20, 2011

Designing for Everyone is

Impossible

Who will use your product?

What do they need to do?

Understand User’s Experience

User’s Experience

• Interaction with a product, service, or company– Functional – Emotional– Sensorial– Social

Functional

• Able to complete task– Find information– Submit form– Contact someone– Purchase item

Sensorial

• Visual– Layout– Colors– Images

• Auditory– Video– Music– Ads

Emotional

• Bring their life with them• Interface

– Conveys ideas and emotions

– Sets the tone

• Interactions with other people• Social networking• Help features• Chat

Social

Where They Overlap...

X➘Experience

Functional EmotionalSensorialSocial

Usability is an important characteristic

of what makes a good User Experience

Minimize Human Cost

• Tiredness• Discomfort• Embarrassment• Frustration• Effort

Benefits of Good User Experience

• Increased Usefulness• Increased Efficiency ($$$) • Improved Productivity

Benefits (continued)

• Fewer Errors• Reduced Training Time• Improved Acceptance

Happy Users!

Where do I start?

Who are your users?

Same Job Title, May Differ in…

UserExperience

Frequency of use

Priority of tasks Characteristics

Motivations and attitude

Expectations

Which Student?Rick Connie

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrjkbh/ via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en http://www.flickr.com/photos/caharley72/ (Christopher Alison Photography) via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

Small,Iterative

Steps

Interview the Experts

•Customer Service•Marketing (Web statistics)•Training •Sales/Business development

Who Are the Users?

• How many are there?• Common complaints?• Most important/frequent tasks?• Show stoppers?

• Understand:– Assumptions and stereotypes – Differences between users

About Them

• Environment• Experience Level, Knowledge • Technology• Define Primary & Secondary Users

Make User Groups

• Loosely defined at first• Determine what differentiates them

Share What You Learn

Personas

• Help guide decisions about:– Navigation– Features– Design

• Archetype, based on research

“I need help keeping track of all of the assets for each of my projects.”

Anthony Johnson

• Anthony (Tony) is 29 and lives in Centreville, VA in a large apartment complex. He drives a Prius which allows him to use special lanes on the highway and speeds up his commute (still takes about 40 minutes). His girlfriend works for the federal government in Washington, DC.

• He was never interested in teaching, but wants to improve the educational system. When he saw a job opening at an educational company he felt it would be a great opportunity to do just that.

• Despite the frustrations, Tony feels his company is great to work for and the benefits can’t be beat. He isn’t sure what is next for his career.

Editor and Math Specialist - 5 years of experienceDynamic Learning, Fairfax, Virginia

Goal Improve the educational system by making great courses for teachers and students.

Concerns Needs a good tool for tracking all of the assets for each of his projects. Too much time is spent fixing previous projects instead of working on current ones. Resigned to having to go back and forth with the publisher a few times to get everything just right.

Professional Environment Casual work place. Frequently frustrated by work.Has taken training offered. Not currently interested in taking on new responsibilities.

Technology & Education Does personal banking, shopping and email online.BS in Mathematics from George Mason.Took an organizational psychology course in college and enjoys management challenges.

ResponsibilitiesManages many different projects at once.Manages a great group of freelancers allowing him to focus on other things.Tracks many separate assets for each project.

Task Analysis

Example of a Task Analysis by Todd Zaki Warfel from his Agile2010 presentation "Opening the Kimono a look behind the design process."

Gap Analysis

Suggested Solutions

•FAQ on how to make an appointment•Online Request for Appointment•Prominent contact information

(800 number)

Mental States & High Level Tasks

•Make appointment•Plan for future appointments•Coordinate appointments

Are We Confident?

Confirm Assumptions

• Representative users who DO the tasks.• Visionaries, leaders, perhaps.

Observations

Interviews

34http://www.flickr.com/photos/rosenfeldmedia/ via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Card Sorting

Observations

Go to the user

36

Why Observe?

• Great way to understand your user’s situation– “Cheat sheets” and other artifacts– Real processes– Number and type of interruptions– Who are they?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/heygabe/ via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/Actual Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/heygabe/47206241/

Interviews

Interview to Discover/Confirm…

• Build on what you’ve learned:– Tasks– Attitudes and Opinions– Problems– Goals– Experience level and knowledge – Technology

40

Use Scripts

• Memory tool for facilitator• Don’t have to follow• Promote consistency

– Questions– Order of questions

Questions

• Quality of questions correlates to quality of answers:– Open-ended– Unbiased– Don’t lead or make assumptions– Use participant’s words

Silence is

Golden

User’s Time to Think!

43

Card Sorting

Card Sorting

• Maximize probability of users finding content• Explore how people are likely to group items• Identify content likely to be:

– Difficult to categorize– Difficult to find– Misunderstood

Gaffney, Gerry. (2000) What is Card Sorting? Usability Techniques Series, Information & Design. http://www.infodesign.com.au/usabilityresources/design/cardsorting.aspImage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richtpt via http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Benefits of Card Sorting

• Easy and inexpensive• Use to determine:

– Order of information– Relationships between info– Labels for navigation– Verify correct audience

Gaffney, Gerry. (2000) What is Card Sorting? Usability Techniques Series, Information & Design. Image: http://www.infodesign.com.au/usabilityresources/design/cardsorting.asp

Online Tools

• Moderated• Un-moderated

Optimal Sort, Optimal Workshop - http://www.optimalworkshop.com/

Demo: https://livedemo.optimalworkshop.com/optimalsort/supermarketdemo

Usability Testing

Do I need a lab?

Rubin, Jeffrey. Handbook of Usability Testing. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 1994.

Computer / Concept

Facilitator

Participant

Observer

Timer Logger

Software*

UserlyticsLoop 11UserZoomChalkMark

GoToMeetingSkypeMoraeSilverback

Keynote

ModeratedUn-Moderated

Complex

Simple

*Incomplete list with subjective ratings

"The biggest waste of all is building something no one wants"

- @ericries #LeanStartupMI via @MelBugai

Break Time!

Accessibility

Overview of Terminology

• Disability– any condition that impedes the completion of

daily tasks using traditional methods (Wikipedia)• “People with Disabilities”

– Not “disabled” or “handicapped”

What is Accessibility?

• Accessibility is designing products so that people can use them regardless

of disability or environment.

Everyone can…

• Perceive• Understand• Navigate• Interact• Create & Contribute effectively

Disabilities vary by…

• Time of Onset • Course of the disability• Degree of Severity• Single or Multiple Disabilities

Disabilities Vary

• Visual – Blindness– forgot glasses

• Auditory• Physical• Speech

• Cognitive• Neurological• Language• Literacy

Environmental Factors

• Imposed limiting conditions include:– Manufacturing system – loud warehouse– Wireless device – on public transportation– Slow internet connection

Accessible and Usable by Everyone

Curb Cuts Universally Accessible Packaging

Curb Cut Image http://4sbccfaculty.org/lecture/2000s/lectures/Jan_Shapiro.html

Usability & Accessibility

• Increase– people who can effectively use a product– situations in which the product can be used– usability of a product – user satisfaction

• Estimated 650 million disabled people worldwide (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability - September 2011

Benefits to Organizations

• Demonstrate corporate responsibility• Cost savings and return on investment• Reduced possibility of legal issues

– Target– Jet Blue

Getting Started

• Institutionalize Accessibility with Usability– Plan for inclusion in all levels

• Support developers and discuss accessibility with your team– Standards, guidelines and laws– Inspection technology

Research

• Include people – with disabilities – People working under limiting conditions

Standards

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

• Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)

• Section 508 in USA

Evaluating for Accessibility

• Make code good and valid• Clear, understandable, content• Organized information

Become Familiar with

• Functional and situational limitations• Standards, guidelines and laws• Inspection technology• Assistive Technologies

Accessible, Usable and Beautiful

Accessible and visually stimulating

Wrap Up

Do UX Early & Often

• Put it on the Wall as information radiators– Test findings– Artifacts– Competitor info– Update information

Recommended Readings

References• Cato, John. User-Centered Web Design. Addison Wesley Longman; 2001. • Hackos, JoAnn T., PhD and Redish, Janice C. User and Task Analysis for Interface Design. Wiley;

1998. • Henry, Shawn Lawton. Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design.• Henry, S.L. and Grossnickle, M. Accessibility in the User-Centered Design Process. Georgia Tech

Research Corporation, Inc; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; 2004. http://uiaccess.com/accessucd/personas.html

• Kuniavsky, Mike. Observing the User Experience: a Practitioner's Guide to User Research. Morgan Kaufmann, 2003.

• Mandel, Theo. The Elements of User Interface Design. Wiley; 1997.• Nielsen, Jakob and Robert L. Mack. Usability Inspection Methods. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1994.• Powell, Thomas A. The Complete Reference: Web Design. Osborne/McGraw-Hill; 2000.• Rubin, Jeffrey & Dana Chisnell. Handbook of Usability Testing.• Schaffer, Eric. Institutionalization of Usability: A Step by Step Guide. Human Factors

International, 2004.• Slatin, John M. and Sharron Rush Maximum Accessibility: Making Your Web Site More Usable for

Everyone. Addison-Wesley Pub Co., 2002.• W3C, Web Accessibility Initiative - http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility

References (cont)

Contact

Carol J. Smith

@carologiccarol@mw-research.com

http://www.mw-research.com