Creating usable websites for people with learning disabilities

Exploring methods to test usability of web
interfaces for people with learning
disabilities

Peter Williams Painless Introduction to DH
UCL 2 March 2011
With thanks to Andy Minnion and Ian Rowlands

Plan of talk
★Background, context, aims etc.

★Study Part One: Eliciting the (usability)
issues

★ Methods; individual studies; findings

★Study Part Two: Comparing websites

★ Introducing ‘trade-off’ analysis

Introduction: definition of LD
“a state of arrested or incomplete development of mind”
 Intellectual impairment
 Social or adaptive dysfunction
 Early onset (WHO, 2006)

 Classified into ‘Mild’, ‘Moderate’, ‘Profound (and multiple)’

Background
‘The Road Ahead: Information for young people with learning
difficulties, their families and supporters at transition’
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)

Problem statement
 Lack of appropriate information (Tarleton, 2004)
 Much is inaccessible (Tarleton, 2004)
 Even ‘accessible’ information hard to access (Davis et al, 2001; Minnion et
al, 2008)

 ICT lauded as possible answer (Florian & Hegarty 2004)
 But, little research on the most effective interfaces (Bohman, 2007)

Aims and scope
Aim
✦To determine which Web page interface factors facilitate
success in information retrieval by people with LD
Scope
 Participants
 Technology/platform
 Focus (IR)

Stages/steps
PART ONE
 Explore contextual factors
 Develop usability set-tasks
 Elicit the factors affecting information retrieval
 Test methods of capturing user preferences (I’ll tell you about that later!)

PART TWO
 Construct various different ‘accessible’ websites
 Compare - performance and preference
 Determine the optimum websites for different user groups

Part One:
Eliciting the issues

The projects ....

Text

p ple
jec t@
Pro

s yr ead
m Ea
ew ha
N

Factors affecting use of ICT: contextual

 Massive enthusiasm
BUT
 Competing agendas
 Time constraints
 Lack of learning materials
 Lack of training / support

Factors affecting use of ICT: terminal
Issue elicited Resolution

Understanding of Single actions only
tasks
Idiosyncratic ‘Experimental’ v naturalistic
behaviour behaviour
Motivation •Set context
•Used meaningful material
•Emphasised engagement

Individual studies
 Study one: Effectiveness of images (in game playing)
 Study two: Navigation
 Study three: Information retrieval
 Study four: Capturing preference data (I’ll tell you later!)

Methods:
 Observation
 Think aloud protocol (where possible)
 Informal interview

Study one: Understanding images
Aims:
 examine understanding of images
 test appropriateness and ease of use of
various games.
Participants:
Had moderate LD:
•Fair/good receptive language
•Poor or no literacy

Study one: Understanding images (Task 1)

Study one: Understanding images (Task 2)

Study two: Navigation
Aims:
To determine
 Whether websites can be navigated effectively by
people with very low literacy skills
 If usability tests can be effective with such a
community
Participants:
 Again, had ‘moderate’ LD

Procedure:
 Hunt the treasure!
• (‘Find the man in the black hat...
• click!…’
• ‘Now find the box of treasure’
• ‘write down the letter on the
box…’)

Results - Usability difficulties:
 Iconography
 Page-scrolling
 Horizontal v vertical menu

Results - Methodological issues:
 Role of the supporter

Study three: Information retrieval (IR)

Aims:
 To examine navigation, scrolling and IR.
 to elicit any methodological issues
Paricipants:
 Mild LD
Tasks:
 Where will you find information about money? (scroll)
 How to you get the sound to play? (icon recognition)
 Can you go back to the previous page? (navigation)

Results
 Audio / text issue
 Text size v scrolling
 Menu bar position
From the results we can ask ... for example:
✦ What is more important - large text or minimising
scrolling? Do images help?

Part two:
compare and contrast …

Part two: comparing and optimising web interfaces

e- off
etrad
som is
one alys
’s l an
Pete

Method (1):
First, imagine 3 mobile phones …
 Which do you prefer?

Then whiz the results through a Conjoint Analysis

Method (2):
Now imagine various web page designs:
 Absence or presence of images
 Menu position
 Text size

And in addition to preferences, performance

Example (Horizontal menu; with images; large text)

Measures:
✦ Time on task
✦ Task success
✦ Preference evaluations

By the end of my study …
… I should be able to reveal the optimum website
interface!!

Thanks for listening!

References
Merson E, Hatton, C (2008) Estimating Future Need for Adult Social Care for People with Learning
Disabilities in England Project report, Centre for Disability Reserach, Lancaster University,
Lancaster.

Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities (2007) Statistics about people with learning
disabilities Available online at: http://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/information/learning-
disabilities-statistics/

Disability Rights Commission (2006) Equal Treatment: Closing the Gap London: Disability Rights
Commission

Tarleton, B. (2004), The Road Ahead? Information for Young People with Learning Difficulties, Their
Families and Supporters at Transition, Norah Fry Research Centre, University of Bristol,
Bristol.

WHO (World Health Organisation) (2006)A Need Assessment of Health and Welfare among the
Disabled for Community Based Rehabilitation in Jeju Available online at: http://
www.wpro.who.int/internet/resources.ashx/HSE/occupational_health/jeju_CBR_2006_rep.pdf

Creating usable websites for people with learning disabilities

More Related Content

What's hot

Viewers also liked

Similar to Creating usable websites for people with learning disabilities

Creating usable websites for people with learning disabilities