Draft requirements for user involvement page

Under "Address a few of the most serious common problems or cautions..."  
We could mention including experienced users of assistive technology.  
Obviously these will normally be disabled but they don't have to be. Their  
disability isn't always the reason for involving them. For example, with a  
screen reader, a blind user will simply be more adept at using it. Things  
that seem difficult to the web designer using a screen reader are  
sometimes easy for the blind user, while real problems go unnoticed.

* Disabled users know best how to use their assistive technology.
* They reveal problems non-diabled users miss.

The second reason is obvious, but the first often is not.

Mention tasks and expected outcomes. Don't just sit the user down and say  
"what do you think of that?" This sounds like common sense but people  
often do approach it wrongly. Just mention it, to point people in the  
right direction. These could be labelled as "tips" or "common mistakes"  
(or "gotchas"? :-)) rather than detailed instructions. Another one would  
be that a user will learn to navigate a site and remember next time, so  
the test may not be valid.

It might be useful to reference the document on how people with  
disabilities use the web, to give an idea of the problems each group faces.

As it is part of evaluation, perhaps we could give some guidance on how to  
include the results in a report. It may be apparent that the user couldn't  
use the site, but for a non-expert it could be difficult to put it down in  
writing.

Audience: "usability professionals might also "land" on this page
open issue: how much do we address this audience???". These people will be  
looking not for the user testing aspect, but the disability aspect. It  
could give helpful information about how to find and "deal with" disabled  
users. So yes, it could be useful even for usability experts.

best regards,




Alan Chuter
Fundosa Teleservicios
achuter@teleservicios.es
Tel. +34 91 1210335



> 2. Draft requirements for user involvement page for evaluation resource  
> suite:
> - http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/changelogs/cl-eval-ut
> Additional questions for discussion:
> * What are the key points to be made in this document?
> * What is the background of the target audience? What misconceptions do  
> they have?
> * What should be included in the scope as the most important points?
> * What should be excluded from the scope in order to keep it from  
> getting too big?
>

Received on Friday, 19 August 2005 11:12:54 UTC