How can you design accessible navigation for users with spatial or orientation challenges?

Some users may have difficulty navigating a website or app due to spatial or orientation challenges, such as visual impairments, cognitive disabilities, or vestibular disorders. These challenges can affect how users perceive and interact with the layout, structure, and movement of the interface. To design accessible navigation for these users, you need to follow some principles and guidelines that can enhance their experience and reduce their frustration.

1 Use clear and consistent labels

One of the most important aspects of accessible navigation is to use clear and consistent labels for your links, buttons, menus, and headings. Labels should describe the purpose and destination of the navigation element, not just its appearance or location. For example, use "Contact Us" instead of "Click Here" or "Bottom Right Corner". Consistent labels also help users to recognize and remember the navigation options across different pages and sections.

Add your perspective

Rahul Kumar Gupta

Senior UI UX DESIGNER @ coforge | 3 + Years Experienced | Interaction Designer | Product Designer | #Top 100 Designers | 2 Design Patent Holder | Solution Designer
Report contribution
Creating accessible navigation for users with spatial challenges involves a clear and organized design. Prioritize a straightforward information hierarchy, simplifying the user journey. Use descriptive labels and concise menu options to enhance clarity. Provide alternative navigation methods, such as search functionalities or skip-to-content links. Regularly test and gather feedback from users with spatial challenges to refine and optimize the navigation for a more inclusive experience.

Like

2 Provide multiple ways to navigate

Users with spatial or orientation challenges may prefer different ways to navigate your website or app, depending on their needs and preferences. Some may use keyboard shortcuts, voice commands, or screen readers, while others may rely on visual cues, touch gestures, or mouse clicks. To accommodate these diverse methods, you should provide multiple ways to navigate, such as a search function, a site map, a breadcrumb trail, a skip link, or a back button. You should also ensure that your navigation elements are keyboard accessible, focus visible, and screen reader friendly.

Add your perspective

3 Avoid unnecessary or unexpected movement

Movement can be a useful way to attract attention, create engagement, or provide feedback, but it can also cause problems for users with spatial or orientation challenges. Movement can make it harder to focus, read, or click on the content, and it can also trigger dizziness, nausea, or headaches for some users. To avoid these issues, you should avoid unnecessary or unexpected movement, such as auto-playing videos, animations, carousels, or parallax effects. You should also provide options to pause, stop, or hide the movement, or to reduce the speed or intensity.

Add your perspective

4 Use contrast and hierarchy

Contrast and hierarchy are essential for creating a clear and readable interface, especially for users with low vision or color blindness. Contrast refers to the difference between the foreground and background colors, while hierarchy refers to the order and importance of the elements. To use contrast and hierarchy effectively, you should choose colors that have enough contrast ratio, use headings and subheadings to structure your content, and use size, weight, and spacing to emphasize the key information.

Add your perspective

5 Test and validate your design

The final step to design accessible navigation for users with spatial or orientation challenges is to test and validate your design with real users and tools. Testing with real users can help you to understand their needs, preferences, and pain points, and to get feedback on your design. Testing with tools can help you to check your design against accessibility standards and guidelines, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) or the Android Accessibility Scanner. By testing and validating your design, you can identify and fix any issues or errors that may affect your users' experience.

Add your perspective

Andrea Villegas, Ph.D.

Data-Driven Innovator in HealthTech
Report contribution
This step is arguably the most important to ensure the design team is not making any assumptions as to a person's needs and abilities. From personal experience, watching a person using your product delivers rich information about the steps required to deliver an action and areas where the person may be getting "stuck" unnecessarily. A few years ago, this became pivotal when designing environments in virtual reality where we discovered that corners in a room needed to be rounded to ensure the user (with special needs) would be able to successfully navigate the room to complete the stated goal of the learning simulation.

Like

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

Add your perspective

How can you design accessible navigation for users with spatial or orientation challenges?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use clear and consistent labels

2 Provide multiple ways to navigate

3 Avoid unnecessary or unexpected movement

4 Use contrast and hierarchy

5 Test and validate your design

6 Here’s what else to consider

User Experience

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

More articles on User Experience

More relevant reading

How can you design accessible navigation for users with spatial or orientation challenges?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use clear and consistent labels

2 Provide multiple ways to navigate

3 Avoid unnecessary or unexpected movement

4 Use contrast and hierarchy

5 Test and validate your design

6 Here’s what else to consider

User Experience

Rate this article

Thanks for your feedback

Explore Other Skills