Building a site for diverse audiences, May 2007
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Presentation with Whitney Quesenbery to the 54th Annual Conference of the Society for Technical Communication Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
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Building a site for diverse audiences, May 2007
- 1. Building a Site for Diverse Audiences Whitney Quesenbery WQusability Caroline Jarrett Effortmark © 2007
- 5. Are differences a matter of culture or style?
- 8. Universal usability principles Equitable use Flexibility in use Simple and intuitive use Perceptible information Tolerance for error Low physical effort Size and space for approach and use
- 9. Are we more alike than we think?
- 10. 10 The Open University was a pioneer in making higher education available to all Pioneered open admissions – “open to all” Entirely distance learning 150,000+ students Expanding audience to traditional-aged students &“widening participation” in higher education www.open.ac.uk www.open.ac.uk/new
- 11. 11 We triangulated on different methods to discover, explore and validate user needs Focus groups Competitive analysis Site Intelligence data Expert reviews Desk research Stakeholder consultation Personas Card sorting Brand exploration Satisfaction questionnaires And lots of usability testing
- 12. 12 It was all going pretty well…until we met a new type of user
- 13. 13 Teens are seen as impatient browsers with short attention spans Poor reading skills Weak research skills Prefer sites that are ‘easy to scan’ Don’t like text with small type Are not always “techno-geniuses” May be on restricted machines “Teenagers on the Web” Nielsen and Horlanger http://www.nngroup.com/reports/teens/
- 14. 14 Older adults are portrayed as slower, more careful and hesitant browsers Easily distracted by cluttered designs Read more than younger adults, and read everything Are less familiar with technical jargon Skip unfamiliar terms May abandon a site quickly Are cautious clickers Designing Web Sites for Older Adults Lee, Chisnell and Redish for AARP http://www.aarp.org/olderwiserwired/
- 15. 15 Low literacy readers read more slowly and focus on the central content Read word-for-word, Don’t scan, and can’t read quickly Often skip large chunks of text Accept the first answer they find as ‘good enough’ Have trouble navigating and ignore areas outside of the main content “Work with low literacy web users” by Michael Summers and Kathryn Summers http://www.stc.org/intercom/pdfs/2004/2004 06_19-23.pdf
- 16. 16 We looked at guidelines for writing content on the web…. For teens Write simply, using words that are common to your readers’ vocabulary Be concise and get to the point For older adults Use words that most older adults know Write in plain language with short, simple and straightforward sentences For low literacy Put the most important information first Write text with a simple sentence structure Keep pages, paragraphs, sentences short
- 17. More alike than we think?For teens Use relatively large font sizes (10 points or more) Use restraint when selecting font types and styles Avoid using pictures that don’t show anything meaningful For older adults Make the default type size 12-point or larger Provide meaningful alternative text for images, video and animation For low literacy Make text large: 12 or 14 points Use information graphics and animations to show processes and relationships
- 18. 18
- 19. We adopted three basic guidelines Make the page easy to scan 1. Avoid long, dense blocks of text 2. Create informative headings 3. Provide navigation options within the content
- 20. But, we faced a challenge This is about three-quarters of a page called “Studying Psychology at the OU”
- 21. …even on a site for secondary school students
- 22. We asked what a year at the OU cost. …and it caused problems
- 23. We created a style with headings, informative links and meaningful captions
- 26. The site did well in usability testing We’d done a pretty good job of answering the top three questions: Where is the OU? What does it cost? How do I apply? But some of our links appeared to be invisible.
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- 30. Our final version followed the guidelines, but it also answered the questions that users wanted to ask. You need to be continually vigilant: Are you as concise as you can? Are you meeting users’ needs? This information also available in: UXMatters, “More Alike Than We Think” – Whitney Quesenbery www.uxmatters.com/MT/archives/000080.php BHCI 2006 “Applying usability principles to content for diverse audiences” - Caroline Jarrett, Whitney Quesenbery, Ian Roddis
- 31. 31 “To sharpen your cross- cultural skills, experience more cultures first hand” - Jean Luc Doumont
- 32. Whitney Quesenbery Whitney Interactive Design whitneyq@WQusability.com www.WQusability.com Whitney Quesenbery is a user researcher, user experience practitioner, and usability expert with a passion for clear communication. She has been in the field since 1989, helping companies from The Open University to the National Cancer Institute develop usable web sites and applications. Whitney is past-president of UPA - Usability Professionals’ Association, a leader in the STC Usability and User Experience Community and a Fellow of the STC. Before she was seduced by a little beige computer into the world of usability, Whitney was a theatrical lighting designer on and off Broadway. The lessons and stories from the theatre stay with her in creating user experiences. Visit her web site for articles and other resources
- 33. Caroline Jarrett Effortmark caroline.jarrett@effortmark.co.uk www. effortmark.co.uk Caroline Jarrett is an independent usability consultant. After 13 years as a project manager of computer systems integration projects, she founded Effortmark Limited in order to concentrate on 'what systems are for' instead of 'how the system is put together'. Through her work with the United Kingdom tax authorities, she became fascinated with forms and now specialises in evaluation and design of paper and web forms, and effective implementation of business process that includes forms. Her clients include (UK) HM Revenue and Customs, (USA) the Internal Revenue Service, the Australian Tax Office, Mayo Clinic, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide Building Society, NPower and Open University. She is co-author of the textbook based on the course: "User Interface Design and Evaluation", 2005, published by Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier.
Editor's Notes
- Everything we do is about dealing with diversity - Sometimes it’s about picking people out of the crowd, and understanding how they are different. - Sometimes it’s about understanding how they are the same. We may be looking for the most common behaviors and needs, or the ones that are most unusual Usability, plain language, document design are all about getting specific - understanding our audience: who they are, their environment, their goals, and how that affects how they work with our products
- It’s not personal demographics. Instead, they are connected by their attitudes toward their business tasks and how they accomplish them. They are in different industries, and work for different types of companies, but the bring a common attitude to how they work on their tasks and the way they use their tools.
- We can be diffeent because we see a task differently. When the two applications were merged, the staff and customers needs both had to be met.
- When we talk about culture, we often mean national culture. Priv. to go to China – a question that has come up every year is about whether design is “different in China” and therefore usability is different. One example is how much animation is on their web sites. But it’s hard to tell if this is a deep cultural preference, or simply that the web evolves in different ways and at different pace in different geographical and economic areas. Is this a fundamental difference, or simply a transitory madder of style.
- Use this slide for disabilities point. (albert einstein and stephen hawkings) (wq and maureen hogg) Clayton Lewis: Studies suggest that many barriers to cognitive accessibility are the same as usability problems for a general user audience… but more severe.
- Story about hot keys and documentation. Ask this as a question.
- Equitable UseThe design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. Flexibility in UseThe design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. Simple and Intuitive UseUse of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. Perceptible InformationThe design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities. Tolerance for ErrorThe design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. Low Physical EffortThe design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue. Size and Space for Approach and UseAppropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user's body size, posture, or mobility.
- Share a short case study. Open University – students used to be predominantly mid-career, improving their lot. Educating Rita. Uni looking for new audiences 18-year olds, people speaking ESL, older adults People we tested with: Missed basic facts about the OU Stumbled over educational terminology and concepts Completely baffled by words specific to the OU Needed to understand problem. Question posed by web coordinator was whether we needed separate sites for these audiences.
- We took direction from overall university strategy We looked for ideas, problems or requirements exposed in more than one research method Usability tests mixed open-ended exploration with evaluation of specific sites or prototypes We listened for surprised
- Meeting Miss Z story and transition into “true enquirer” research including enquirers, young students and widening participation
- “Teenagers on the Web” by Nielsen and Horlangerhttp://www.nngroup.com/reports/teens/
- Designing Web Sites for Older Adults by Redish and Chisnell for AARPhttp://www.aarp.org/olderwiserwired/
- “Work with low literacy web users” by Summers and Summershttp://www.stc.org/intercom/pdfs/2004/200406_19-23.pdf
- We had done a lot of work on IA, but not so much on content. When we looked more carefully at the actual pages, we realized we had a problem for each of these audiences.
- We used the rule of editing from Steve Krug’s book: cut half the words, and then cut them in half again. Look at the first three paragraphs. Actually, the first three sentences. “that’s just what I want to know”
- The point here is that we can only find out how we are alike if we actually get to know our audience. Sometimes this means that you don’t understand standards – Bob Goddard story about ALT text. Or it means that you miss an important use of standard functions – and create problems in design or documentation because you don’t understand - If you never meet someone who is blind, you will never understand how important keyboard shortcuts are. In fact, you never hear about any special needs. And you pick the wrong features for a product, or miss great ideas that are obvious once you understand.