Usability and Accessibility

Question 1

What is usability?

Answer 1

How easy a design’s user interface is to use and how functional a product or design is.

Question 2

What are the 3 aspects of usability?

Answer 2

1. Users should find it easy and become proficient when using a design interface
2. They should be able to achieve their goal easily through that design
3. They should be able to learn the interface easily so that return visits are just as, if not more, easy

Question 3

What is the difference between usability and UX?

Answer 3

• Usability is a sub-discipline of UX
• UX involves:
  a. Usability: measure of user’s ability to arrive on a site, use it easily, and complete desired task
  b. Useful content: site should include enough info in an easily digestible format so users can make informed decisions
  c. Desirable/pleasurable content: best UX comes when user can form emotional bond with product or website
  d. Accessibility: set of accessibility standards sites should conform to in order to be used by ppl with disabilities
  e. Credibility: trust (levels of security and privacy) that a website provides for users

Question 4

What is user-centered design?

Answer 4

• Puts user at center of every stage in the design & development process
• Purpose is to ensure target audience can use product/service and provide better UX
• Involves user from the beginning and through design & dev
• Taking an iterative approach and conducting testing after each stage
• Conducting user testing for accessibility in iterative cycles

Question 5

What are the commonalities between usability & accessibility?

Answer 5

• Accessibility focuses on how usable and satisfying a product is to people with disabilities
• Accessibility increases usability and chances of more people being able to use the product
• Usability and accessibility – usability for everyone, including people with disabilities (e.g. using high contrast colors helps people with low vision but also people using devices in bright sun)

Question 6

What are the differences between usability and accessibility?

Answer 6

• Usability issues affect every user
• Accessibility issues occur when people with disabilities encounter difficulties
• Remediating accessibility issues may cause usability issues (e.g. if all images had long alt text, images may be accessible but long alt text causes usability issues)
• Balance between making sure accessibility remediations don’t cause usability issues, and vice versa