A FinTech client asked us:
How can we determine if our user portal is accessible to screen reader and screen magnifier users?
The WebAIM Million 2024 report, which analyzed over a million homepages, found that a staggering 95.9% had detectable accessibility errors. This shocking percentage shows the critical need for more thoughtful and accessible product design processes.
One of our long-term clients came to us for help conducting accessibility research on user journeys. They wanted to ensure that users with vision impairments could successfully navigate and complete the desktop journey while utilizing screen readers and magnifiers.
Our research objectives included:
- Determine if screen reader and screen magnifier users can successfully complete the user journey within the portal
- Identify any pain points and accessibility issues that prevented screen reader and magnifier users from successfully completing the user journey
Accessibility research enables us to build better, more inclusive products by ensuring they’re usable by all people regardless of age or ability.
We answered:
Our research team designed a remote study with 1:1 in-depth individual interviews with participants who were screen reader or screen magnifier users. We asked the participants to perform various actions in the portal while we probed into accessibility user experiences to better understand how these affected their experiences.
Conducting research on logged-in experiences can be challenging and complex, from navigating concerns around personally identifiable information (PII) to tricky session logistics. People are often uneasy sharing their account information and personal data during a research session, and conducting these studies requires an intentional, careful approach.
>> Learn more about how to conduct research to understand your customers’ logged-in experiences.
When conducting an accessibility study, some of the key aspects and features to evaluate include:
- Focus order and heading structure
- Text size and weight
- Scrolling horizontally
- Zooming in/out
- Layout of pages
- Icons
- Button/CTA placement
- Progress bars
- Language simplification
For vision-impaired users, a journey that requires lots of zooming and scrolling, exiting and re-entering sessions, can be nauseating, disorienting, and cause eye fatigue. When designing your webpage or user portal, you want to proactively consider how to create a seamless experience for all users.
>> Get the Complete Guide to Accessibility UX Research to access resources, tools, and tips to build your accessibility research roadmap
Outcome:
Our UX Researchers uncovered many accessibility issues that our client’s automated accessibility checks missed, especially when it came to headers, CTAs, and page layout.
Our findings included:
- Perspectives on how screen reader users employ shortcuts and workarounds to familiarize themselves with webpages
- A comprehensive overview of both positive and negative experiences unearthed through the 1:1 interviews
- A prioritized list of pain points that caused frustration, confusion, and fatigue
- Recommendations to not only improve the user experience for vision-impaired users but also adhere more generally to the new web content accessibility guidelines
Through UX research, our client was able to prioritize recommendations for improvement, helping them build a more accessible and inclusive logged-in experience.
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Every time you update a website, launch a new section of a portal, or add additional content, your accessibility is at risk. Ongoing accessibility testing can solve critical usability concerns before they arise. Learn how AnswerLab’s accessibility and benchmarking research can help you meet your marketing goals.
