Accessibility Improvements
Supporting all writing instructors and students
September 2022–February 2023
Design methods, research, and project management
I researched and designed groundbreaking accessibility improvements for a writing instruction tool.
The Problem
Feedback experience in a student writing application did not meet accessibility standards.
The Work
Audit with an accessibility focus group
Ideation
Internal reviews and critiques with accessibility focus group
High-fidelity designing
Working with engineers to bring designs to fruition
The Solution
High-fidelity concepts and prototypes that are fully accessible visually, cognitively, and for screen readers. Deployed for Fall of 2023.
An educational technology suite of tools includes a writing product for higher-education instructors and students. It is a robust platform on which students can write essays, receive feedback from instructors and peers, and revise in multiple drafts.
An audit by the company’s accessibility partners revealed that the feedback elements and functionality were inaccessible for several different cohorts of users. I led the team that redesigned the feedback experience to be accessible for all users.
Deliverables
Wireframes
High-fidelity screens
Figma prototypes
Users and audience
College and university writing instructors and professors
Undergraduate and graduate writing students
Roles and responsibilities
Workshop Moderation
Stakeholder Management
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
Pen and paper, Figma, FigJam, Stark Contrast & Accessibility Tools
Discover
Common practices
We reviewed common practices in competing and analogous products.
And we reviewed the detailed audit by our accessibility partners.
Design
Solution ideation
We completed several rounds of idea generation, review, and analysis.
We identified several different approaches based on our ideation process.
Screen A
Issue: The only indication that a passage of text has an associated comment is through color.
Solution:
1. Dashed underline
Issue: There is no connection between the highlighted text and the comment in the sidebar.
Solutions:
2. Putting both student and instructor text in same box
3. Pointer Lines
Screen B
Issue: The only indication that a passage of text has an associated comment is through color.
Solutions:
1. Dashed underline
2. Invert on active state
Issue: There is no connection between the highlighted text and the comment in the sidebar.
Solutions:
3. Putting both student and instructor text in same box
4. Number indicators
Validate
Internal Reviews
We reviewed our final designs several times with a multidisciplinary team and our accessibility partners.
Development Planning
We worked closely and regularly with our engineering partners.
Input from all stakeholders was valuable for design improvements.
Some elements of the proposed solutions required engineering research and discussion.
Stakeholder Management
Known Issues
We raised areas that needed further research.
Future work
Design elements and outstanding questions became the subject of further work.
Outcomes
Deliverables
We worked closely with designers, researchers, engineers, and accessibility experts to design an effective and accessible writing feedback tool.
At the end of this project, we delivered:
Detailed and focused competitor research
Documented design process
Wireframes
High-fidelity screens
Next steps
We generated a backlog of research to be done, including monitoring plans and engineering and user research. The research is ongoing!
Lessons & insights
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Pulling the threads of design concerns early in the process avoids difficult conversations about priorities at the end.
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Leave room for questions from stakeholders early in the process.
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Regular reviews with accessibility experts help keep accessibility a priority.