Tag: User Experience

Jan 2022 Update: 2021 was a lot

On By dhrutibcIn What I'm Working OnLeave a comment

So, I haven’t posted anything in about a year. It’s not uncommon given the state of the world, but I wanted to give a little update anyway. I am working on one last article in the accessibility in academic research series.

This past year was pretty hard, as it was for just about everyone. During the past year, I was frantically trying to find a new job because my now-husband (another thing that changed this past year) got a professor job in another region of the country. My old job wouldn’t let me live outside of Boston city limits. Anyway, I found a new job, got married, moved to another region of the country, and started a new job. Additionally, I became a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP). I joined the board of a library user experience journal. You may also notice I changed my last name too. All of this is to say that a lot happened in the past year and that’s why I never finished the series.

However, it’s on my list of things to get to. In my new position, I’ve been learning a lot. I’ve been learning more about document accessibility and using screen readers for testing. I also know that I will be learning a lot about user experience research and discovery systems so you can likely expect more posts about those topics in the future.

Hope to share more content soon!

Accessibility in Academic Research: Alternative Text for Images and Non-text Items

On By dhrutibcIn User ExperienceLeave a comment

This series focuses on a few main problems with accessibility in academic research, but by no means are they they only ones. My last post covered problems concerning graphs and how we can improve them to be more accessible to color blind individuals. If you’re curious about other accessibility considerations, take a look at Anne Gibson’s Alphabet of Accessibility on the Pastry Box Project; it’s fantastic.

Images, graphs and other non-text items in research

As I mentioned in my previous post, lots of scholarly research relies of graphs and charts to represent data and results. Additionally, researchers use images and other non-text items (such as equations) in research. However, without proper alternative text, these visual representations are meaningless to users with certain visual impairments.

Continue reading “Accessibility in Academic Research: Alternative Text for Images and Non-text Items” →

What does Reading Level have to do with Racism and Equity?

On By dhrutibcIn User ExperienceLeave a comment

As the Web Services Librarian, I play an important role in determining the standards for content on the Boston Public Library website. The blogs are some of the most important content I oversee. They’re important because they let library workers talk about things they and their patrons care about. I think that connection to the public is special and needs to be protected.

As a part of the annual training bloggers go through, I remind them to keep their posts to a 10th grade reading level or below (ideally 8th grade). The few exceptions are on a case-by-case basis. However, staff members come back to me and say that the requirement is too restrictive, and what’s the big deal anyway?

When you don’t consider the reading level of your content, you are shutting out people who don’t read at the same level as you. Those people will most likely include, but are not limited to:

  • People of color
  • People who are poor
  • People with learning disabilities
  • People who don’t speak English as their first language

TL;DR: The reading level of your content is a racism and equity issue. If you’re not thinking about the reading levels of your content, you are preventing large groups of disadvantaged people from reading it. About half of adults in the U.S. do not read above an eighth grade reading level, and you are excluding them. Use hemingwayapp.com to help you reduce the reading level of your content.

Continue reading “What does Reading Level have to do with Racism and Equity?” →

How to Do Usability Testing Without a Budget

On By dhrutibcIn User ExperienceLeave a comment
This post is about doing usability testing on a website for a public library, without a budget for usability testing, or any extra software beyond a simple survey tool and Google Analytics.
 
So, to start at the beginning, my team completely overhauled our old library website design, and for good reason(s):
 
  1. It looked very outdated, because it was basically a lightly modified version of the website we created in the early 2000s.

a. It was all static HTML pages for the most part.

 

2. The design wasn’t responsive, making it a headache for patrons on mobile or tablet devices, and for staff members trying to help users on mobile or tablet devices.

3. Certain parts of the website were not accessibility compliant.

 
Those are the biggest reasons for the switch, but as you can imagine, there were a lot of reasons to do it.

Continue reading “How to Do Usability Testing Without a Budget” →