Aditya Kumar Verma_18352002_Universal Usibility
- 2. Ben Shneiderman, defines universal usability as “enabling all citizens to succeed using communication and information technology in their tasks.” He also defined it as, “having more than 90% of all households as successful users of information and communications services at least once a week.” A research field that studies the adequacy of user interfaces and information to all users, regardless of their characteristics, knowledge, or mean of interaction. Universal Usability is the design of things such that they are useful to as many people as possible. The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
- 3. Usability Accessibility Universal Usability
- 5. Today technology is available and accessible for all, even then its usage is limited. This limit in usage may be due to a simple reason i.e. not usable to all. It may be due to physical or mental disabilities of user. Cultural differences, diversity of users, work styles of users, motivation of user, etc. Other than these factors we may need to consider the age, gender, type of user, and many other “seem to be minor“ details into account while designing a user interface. Universal usability should be thought as a goal and not an outcome, designers need to make sure that their designs “support a wide range of technologies, to accommodate diverse users, and to help users bridge the gap between what they know and what they need to know.”
- 6. There isn't any general rule to make a design universally usable , but a designer can follow certain steps to achieve this goal. Moving beyond the “typical” user The first step toward the goal of universal usability is to discard the notion that we are designing for a “typical” user. Universal usability accounts for users of all ages, experience levels, and physical or sensory limitations. Users also vary widely in their technical circumstances: in screen size, network speed, browser versions, and specialized software such as screen readers for the visually impaired. A broad user definition that includes the full range of user needs and contexts is the first step in producing universally usable designs. Supporting adaptation Next we need a design approach that will accommodate the diversity of our user base. On the web, universal usability is achieved through adaptive design, where documents transform to accommodate different user needs and contexts. Adaptive design is the means by which we support a wide range of technologies and diverse users.
- 7. Flexibility Digital documents can adapt to different access devices and user needs based on the requirements of the context. For example, displaying the page visually in the browser, but because of the nature of the web, the same page can be accessed on a cell phone, using a screen reader, or printed on paper. The success of this adaptation depends on whether the page design supports flexibility. When considering universal usability, we need to anticipate diversity and build flexible pages that adapt gracefully to a wide variety of displays and user needs.
- 8. User control In the web environment, users have control over their environment. Users can manipulate browser settings to display text at a size that they find comfortable for reading. Flexibility paired with user control allows users to take control of their web experience and shape it into a form that works within their use context.
- 9. Keyboard functionality Universal usability is not just about access to information. Another crucial component is interaction, in which users navigate and interact with links, forms, and other elements of the web interface. For universal usability, these actionable elements must be workable from the keyboard. Many users cannot use a mouse, and many devices do not support point-and-click interaction. So designers need to make actionable elements workable via the keyboard to ensure that the interactivity of the web is accessible to the broadest spectrum of users. Here is an example of YouTube providing keyboard controls to “exit full screen mode”.
- 10. Text equivalents Text is universally accessible. (Whether text is universally comprehensible is another discussion!) Unlike images and media, text is readable by software and can be rendered in different formats and acted upon by software. When information is presented in a format other than text, such as visually using images or video or audibly using spoken audio, the information is potentially lost on users who cannot see or hear. Web technology anticipates format- related access issues and supplies methods for providing equivalent text. With equivalent text, the information contained in the media is also available as text, such as a text transcript or captions along with spoken audio. Text equivalents allow universal usability to exist in a media-rich environment by carrying information to users who cannot access information in a given format.
- 11. User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project.