Use_and_Access

Student: Chris Kimmelshue Class: WGD229 Topic: Usability and Accessibility Experience with Simulations: The Screen Reader – I really didn’t know what to expect going into this simulation. I got to the simulation and just saw a black screen with buttons on it. When I started hearing the voice, right there told me I was going to have to hear my way through this simulation. I will admit that it was not the easiest way of getting around a site, especially the length of the site. The navigation system was done horribly and it was too long. It would definitely get frustrating real fast having to navigate through something like that when you can’t see where you’re going. And being that you would have to memorize most of what you heard to remember how to get where, that would be the most frustrating part. The one thing that I would say the designer made more challenging for this site, was the layout. The layout for this site was very scattered and it made it at times difficult to move on to something else, especially following the screen reader. *I don’t know if we need to add this or not, but here are the answers to the first simulations tasks. 1. Find the last name of the president of U of A: Frederick Coldman 2. Find the Number to U of A: 1-800-576-2653 3. Find the current enrollment for the Bio 250 Class: 13 Low Vision – For the low vision simulation, my expectations were that everything was going to be blurry and I would have to find my way around like in the screen reader. But, I was close enough. This simulation is a great exercise to keep yourself reminded that when you’re designing know what type of text and images you are using in your designing. According to what I learned in this simulation, it’s best to always use Real Text than bitmap text for when a user has to zoom in and enlarge everything to read it. This way, everything stays clear and legible and does not pixelate and go blurry. I would have to say that the designer made it more challenging for the user because he used a fixed table layout, giving it a more consistent look across the browser, but failed to realize that this would make it more difficult for a user to use if they were to use a screen magnifier. It’s best to use a relative sizing method to make the screen more flexible and so that the table size will adjust as the screen size changes. Distractibility Simulation – I kind of knew what would be coming my way on this simulation, distractibility said it all. I knew that they were going to be trying to come up with something to get me to be distracted, and I was right. They definitely met my expectations on this one. I will not lie though it was definitely a challenge that was fun to try. I jumped right into the hard one right off the bat with not knowing I had to do the easy one also. I will admit though, I could see how it could get frustrating and irritating for things to be like that 24/7 for someone who has a disability such as being cognitively impaired. The animation did throw me for a loop in some parts, having to move the little charter up and down with keys that are laid out left and right and while trying to keep up with the spinning and twisting of the animated boxes moving everywhere. When making a site, it needs to be kept simple, what the designer did in this one to make it more challenging was they put too much animation into it. Too much of that can be too distracting and misleading which lead to frustrated and lost users. Role of Navigation and Visual Media: There were a few things in all three simulations that really caught my attention in the navigation bar area, but some of it was already discussed a little in each section just written above. As mentioned before, the worst part of navigation in these simulations was how everything was blurry, especially the text. The reason for the blurriness was because bitmaps were used to take the place of text. A bitmap text is when real text is converted to a rasterized image and thus being able to be manipulated easier when it comes to doing more designing on them. Keeping the text true and real will allow for more clarity and legibleness for the user on the site, especially if they use a screen magnifier a lot. Another thing is keeping the animation down. It’s ok to have a flash, a video, or something else that is able to move, but do not override the layout of the site with too much of any of it. When you start getting into too much and not keeping it simple is when distraction really takes over. So keep it simple and maybe use one animation that won’t be distracting and/or use one video that could be easily non- distracting. Changing your Project Plans: Going through these simulations, I could definitely see where I could make a lot of changes for my site. Starting with the navigation buttons, right now, I have bitmaps with real text on them and I feel that if I zoom in to how it is now, the blurriness of the bitmap may over power the text. I think I could take out the bit map behind the text and just make the text more readable on its own without the bitmap. Also, I think I will add a search bar feature to the top right corner of the site maybe. One last thing I could add is having alt-text for all of my images and graphics that I will use in my site. I am glad already that I do not have anything animation wise going into this site. I think my layout is simple yet colorful and wouldn’t be too much of a distraction for some users. Relationship between Accessibility and Usability: Accessibility - is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is accessible by as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access." In design, Usability is the study of the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. From what I have seen and read, there really isn’t much difference between the two and they overlap in many ways. In conclusion to this step in the report, I will use a quote that I found on the web that pertains to this topic. *“All things that apply to making a site usable apply to making a site accessible.” And also this one as well, “accessibility is just usability but marketed to a particular segment of the population”. *http://snook.ca/archives/accessibility_and_usability/what_does_accessibility_mean