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Overview User research is a broader term that includes any type of research that involves users, such as usability testing, user testing, market research, surveys, interviews and focus groups. Before further progress, there is a need to differentiate between user research and user experience (UX) research. Both are closely related; however, they differ in their quests to understand the needs, preferences, and behaviours of users. For the sake of this writing, the focus will only be on the discovery stage of user research and will be guided by this outline: User research and UX research Discovery What is PMP? Outcomes vs outputs Benefits and features Cobbler and awl User research methods in discovery stage Field Studies User Interviews Stakeholder interviews Requirements or constraints Competitor audit Summary 1. User research and UX research The main difference between user research and user experience research ...

Overview Writing about universal design implies tracing back to the origin of the concept. In the 1970s, architect Ron Mace came up with the idea of universal design. Taking from his lived experience, as a wheelchair user, he understood the difficulties faced by people with disabilities as they try to move around buildings, roads, and public transport systems to mention but a few. He came up with the term “universal design” to characterize the importance of creating products and services that are beautiful, usable, and enjoyable by everyone, regardless of ability, age, or status in life. To continue his work, in 1997, The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University expanded Mace’s vision of the importance of designing inclusive environments for everyone. Universal design aims to create inclusive and equal access to resources, technology, or spaces for all users. How inclusive is universal design? To answer this question, we must examine the overall effect of...

Overview Have you ever thought about any design strategy that lifts the lid? A well-thought-out design strategy can remove or eliminate accessibility barriers for everyone. This strategy can be described as a concurrence of fundamental notions of design, principles of design, the 10 commandments of design, and design elements. The question now becomes: how does a designer implement this strategy? To explore this, these contents will be examined: Fundamental Notions of Design Design Principles Nielsen’s 10 Commandments of Design Elements of Design Design is an interesting discipline that brings together imagination and reality. It imagines the interaction between an individual and the man-made environment as it interprets and considers factors, such as society, aesthetics, function, context, experience, and culture. Any design aims to create useful arrangements of elements that will benefit the user to achieve identified goals. Some fundamental notions of desi...

Introduction Situational disability is often described as a context-dependent limitation that affects someone’s ability to perform a task or activity. It is not a permanent disability nor is it chronic, nevertheless, it can be risky if the context does not warrant the person to access such a device or means of communication. Why do we bring in the concept of risk while describing situational disability? Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines risk as ‘one or more uncertain events that can either have a positive or negative impact on a business process.’ From the above definition of risk, the terms ‘uncertain’, ‘positive’, and ‘negative’ are important to understanding the adversarial implications of situational disabilities. Because we tend to associate risk with everything we do; hence there is a need for proper risk assessment of every activity. An uncertain event that has a positive outcome is regarded as an ‘opportunity’ while that with a ‘negative’...

Overview An imaginary organization, we call it Daily Ability Institute, recently bought new office chairs for its twenty employees. After three months of employees using the chairs, the management requested reviews from them about the chairs. Below are their comments: Employee 1 : I cannot imagine anybody using this type of chair in this stone age. It is stiff, hard, and immobile. Employee 2 : I like the chair because it is a change from what was. At least, it is clean and strong. It will help my back pain. Employee 3 : It is a change, but the color is awful. Purple! It makes me feel cheap like in ‘Sales.’ Employee 4 : It has no wheels; moving it around will be difficult. Again, my body cannot even fit into it. Employee 5 : I like it. It is perfect. I can see myself doing my job comfortably. We experience things differently. We feel them; they are strong or durable. We love them; they are beautiful or pleasing. We dislike them; they are unattractive or uncomfo...

Overview The catchphrase “essential for some, useful for all” has become identical to the concept of accessibility. It depicts accessibility as essential for everyone regardless of their abilities; and as very useful for everyone in different situations. For example, Narrator, the Windows built-in screen reader reads out text and describes on-screen elements. Different people use it for different reasons: For blind users, it is a necessary assistance. For partially sighted users, it is an important tool. For people with reading problems, it is a helpful tool. For many other users, it is a convenient tool to read out web pages, documents (Word, PDF), and other files as well as help you learn about different interface components. So, the Narrator is one tool that every person finds a reason to use regardless of their abilities. It is one of the Windows accessibility features designed for inclusive and accessible use. To explore further “essential for some, usef...