Accessibility Study: GOJO website – Part 1

Cimex conducted accessibility user testing sessions on GOJO, a new website which aimed to get more young people using public transport. Read the outcome of the research, conducted on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC).

Cimex was commissioned by the social change communications consultancy Forster on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) to develop a new website to encourage more young people to use public transport.

The current report contains the summary results of the accessibility user testing sessions, carried out by Cimex on the newly built GOJO website, in order to identify the real user requirements and needs. The purpose of this report is to present the findings of the accessibility testing and provide actionable recommendations for improving the user experience of the GOJO website.

1. Aims and Objectives

This study aimed to evaluate how easily users with different disabilities and who use various assistive technologies can access the GOJO website and find what they are looking for.

The main objectives were to examine if:

• the structure of the website was logical and intuitive
• the layout of the pages helped the users find what they are looking for
• the information was easy to read and understand
• the website was engaging and provided a pleasant user experience

2. About GOJO campaign

GOJO is the first nationwide campaign aimed at increasing young disabled people’s confidence using public transport. The campaign was launched in response to the DRC’s research findings, revealing that twice as many young disabled people say they lack confidence using public transport than their non-disabled peers.

3. Methodology

For the purpose of this study, the qualified User Experience team at Cimex carried out five individual user testing sessions, which took place at the Cimex dedicated usability labs in Central London. Each session lasted one hour and consisted of the following areas:

Pre-session interview
This section aimed to get insights of the participants’ previous experience of using similar websites (e.g. transport websites for people with disabilities), see how their expectations have been influenced by the websites they have used in the past, and capture their preferences and dislikes. Then the users were asked to customise their assistive software and the computer was set up to their individual needs.

Pre-test questionnaire
A short pre-test questionnaire was completed where the participant answered questions about themselves and the websites they use to access information about transportation.

Task performance
The task-performance section prompted the participants to complete representative tasks mainly using the browse based facilities of the website. The users were asked to navigate through the GOJO website and talk through the process of completing each task, explaining whether they found the information and features provided accessible and easy to use.

Post-session interview
The post-session interview aimed to explore the users’ overall impressions for the accessibility of the GOJO website and identify the key areas that need to be improved to better meet their needs. The importance of the site for the users was also determined, for example, how motivated would they be to actually use the website or recommend it to others.

Post test questionnaire
At the end of the session, a series of questions followed which aimed to distil the participant’s overall impression of the website.

4. Participants

A representative sample of five users with visual and motor impairments took part in the current study. The sample included both male and female users, aged between 22 to 60 years old, and with different levels of computer experience and internet usage.

Read the second part of this study

Published: 07 Nov 2008

Tags: Customer insight