Redesigning Equally's Accessibility Widget for Enhanced Usability
Role:
Sole Designer
Date:
2020
Timeline:
4 months
The Challenge
Equally AI, a company dedicated to accessibility across the web provides an addon widget essential for client websites to comply with WCAG and ADA standards. However, the existing widget had usability issues and had little engagement from end users. complaints from users. My job was to fix the usability issues, optimising design and increasing engagement among users
Research and Insights
The research, covering stakeholder conversations, user feedback and usability tests, identified the major issues causing disinterest and frustration. We realised that the interface was overloaded, causing users to struggle with the long vertical layout, making navigation overwhelming. Essential settings were often hidden, causing frustration when users needed to make changes.
Additionally, users complained about the limited control and visibility of settings for predefined disability profiles. Many users wanted more control over their experience, seeking the ability to tailor profiles and settings to better meet their individual needs. These insights informed our redesign process with a focus on decluttering, enhancing accessibility, and introducing more customization options to improve the overall user experience.
Design Process
Streamlining the user flow was essential to guide users effortlessly towards their desired settings, reducing friction. By refining the user journey, We wanted users to access and change settings in a few clicks. This approach focused on regrouping the settings under simplified categories intuitive to users. We prototyped and tested various layouts, iterating on feedback to refine the interface further.
This redesign was also an opportunity to update the widget to align with Equally's current brand. By introducing higher contrast colours, clear legible typography, and simplifying visual elements. We reduced visual clutter, improving the readability and accessibility of the widget
Introducing Tabs
To make the widget more intuitive, I redesigned the settings into a tabbed interface separating the two methods of making changes to the widget. By having separate tabs for more granular adjustments and profiles. I was able to reduce the length of settings visible at a time. Introducing new groups under adjustments according to how users grouped these settings made key options more accessible within one or two clicks. This reduced the cognitive load on users to focus on the tasks on websites, thus improving their efficiency.
Redesigned Profiles
To enhance user flexibility, I replaced rigid presets with customizable profiles, allowing users to tailor given settings to their specific needs. By introducing these profiles, users gained control over their experience, enabling them to modify settings within profiles easily.
Customisable profiles made key adjustments more accessible and transparent, as changes were visibly displayed, helping users understand exactly what adjustments had been made. This approach increased the feeling of personalisation
Impact
The redesigned widget had a significant positive impact, meeting our goals and exceeding expectations. Through user testing and stakeholder feedback, we achieved several key outcomes.
First, usability was greatly improved by streamlining navigation and reducing the steps required to access key settings, making the widget more intuitive and user-friendly. This led to increased engagement, with clients reporting more frequent use of the widget on their websites as users found it easier to interact with.
Additionally, the modern design strengthened Equally.ai’s branding, reinforcing its identity and commitment to accessibility, which resonated well with both users and stakeholders.