Adira Andlay and Jess Redmond, Senior Researchers at the Institute for Community Studies at The Young Foundation, reflect on accessibility in user-centred design, collaborating to create truly inclusive experiences.
In the world of data visualisation and impact assessment, design shapes how we perceive, understand, and connect various metrics. Ensuring accessibility isn’t just a ’nice to have’— it’s an imperative to create truly inclusive experiences. Yet, how might we prioritise accessibility without slowing down the rapid pace of a User Centred Design (UCD) approach? This was a key challenge as we wrapped up our workshop series with the user-testing group.
Workshop 3: Testing an early prototype of the dashboard
Workshop 3 focused on testing an early-stage iteration of the dashboard, built using Tableau software, so we could understand how effectively it responded to the needs (pain points) of civic university staff when using data to understand their universities’ civic impact. We did this by designing the workshop to include activities:
1. scoping the dashboard solution
2. running a live demo of Tableau prototype
3. reflection on accessibility in UCD
Scoping the dashboard solution
Figure 1: Table explaining the role of the dashboard in HEI user journey
As identified in our previous blog, for the dashboard to be effective it must be targeted towards solving a clearly defined set of issues. Although the temptation is to solve every problem we have identified, the dashboard must be targeted in its scope and not end up unwieldy by taking on too many needs at once.
To communicate this with the user testing group, we presented a table (Figure 1) explaining where we felt the dashboard could address pain points in an HEI staff member’s user journey when seeking to evaluate civic impact. This consolidated our reflections from the previous blog to present back to our users. We also discussed how other pain points could be addressed through other parts of the NCIA project.
The group affirmed a clear scope for the dashboard: to address the challenge of benchmarking against other universities and use external data to understand the impact of their university. HESA data allows for a direct comparison from university to university, as demonstrated by the civic impact index. Other data used in the dashboard, mostly based on geographic areas rather than specific institutional activity, is less useful for direct comparison but can provide useful contextual data to evaluate impact.
The live demo
Figure 2: Screenshots of the Tableau prototype
We then presented via a live demonstration and screenshots the prototype dashboard with:
- a landing page to explain the purpose of the dashboard and the challenges it is trying to address.
- screens that allow users to select their university and their geographic area of interest (currently Local Authority District level only).
- a function that allows users to select data to compare their university and area’s trends over time against benchmarked universities and their places.
The user testing group provided positive feedback on the progress of the dashboard so far, and provided some helpful insights, focused on:
- combining different university data to reflect where a consortium of universities have agreed to sign a joint civic agreement and act in collaboration.
- provide clearer legends, glossaries and metadata to provide context and data literacy support for users.
- overlays for the benchmarking page that can help users identify suitable benchmark universities – such as post/pre 1992 founding dates.
Reflections on accessibility in UCD
- Feedback from the user testing group indicated that we had been able to respond to user group feedback around the main priorities and constraints for this output within the constraints of the workstream for this project. This included dashboard features within both data and design realms that were viewed as good work, with incredible support from the group.
- A challenge with our approach (and the additional factor of time constraints) has been that general questions on accessibility have often been overshadowed at the cost of more technically oriented questions about data and evaluation support. A challenge with the user testing group we brought in remained that their pre-existing expertise, and primary focus on data, meant they struggled to situate themselves as ‘laypeople’. In this context, the focus on accessibility required further introductory workshops that could have primed the user group to provide guidance and information on the importance of inclusive and accessible digital design and then allocate time with them to reflect on these principles in terms of the dashboard.
- The next phase of the development will involve releasing the dashboard online so a wider group can access it – and now we begin to shift gears to strategically plan for how we can ensure accessibility is given its due at this stage by including various tracking and measurable analytics, as well as feedback forms based on the user interface journey. Moreover, in our commitment to accessibility we plan to also to do an internal testing session with the wider team at The Young Foundation.
To continue learning with us, subscribe to this blog and follow @icstudiesuk
Adira Andlay and Jess Redmond, Senior Researchers at the Institute for Community Studies at The Young Foundation, reflect on accessibility in user-centred design, collaborating to create truly inclusive experiences.
In the world of data visualisation and impact assessment, design shapes how we perceive, understand, and connect various metrics. Ensuring accessibility isn’t just a ’nice to have’— it’s an imperative to create truly inclusive experiences. Yet, how might we prioritise accessibility without slowing down the rapid pace of a User Centred Design (UCD) approach? This was a key challenge as we wrapped up our workshop series with the user-testing group.
Workshop 3: Testing an early prototype of the dashboard
Workshop 3 focused on testing an early-stage iteration of the dashboard, built using Tableau software, so we could understand how effectively it responded to the needs (pain points) of civic university staff when using data to understand their universities’ civic impact. We did this by designing the workshop to include activities:
1. scoping the dashboard solution
2. running a live demo of Tableau prototype
3. reflection on accessibility in UCD
Scoping the dashboard solution
Figure 1: Table explaining the role of the dashboard in HEI user journey
As identified in our previous blog, for the dashboard to be effective it must be targeted towards solving a clearly defined set of issues. Although the temptation is to solve every problem we have identified, the dashboard must be targeted in its scope and not end up unwieldy by taking on too many needs at once.
To communicate this with the user testing group, we presented a table (Figure 1) explaining where we felt the dashboard could address pain points in an HEI staff member’s user journey when seeking to evaluate civic impact. This consolidated our reflections from the previous blog to present back to our users. We also discussed how other pain points could be addressed through other parts of the NCIA project.
The group affirmed a clear scope for the dashboard: to address the challenge of benchmarking against other universities and use external data to understand the impact of their university. HESA data allows for a direct comparison from university to university, as demonstrated by the civic impact index. Other data used in the dashboard, mostly based on geographic areas rather than specific institutional activity, is less useful for direct comparison but can provide useful contextual data to evaluate impact.
The live demo
Figure 2: Screenshots of the Tableau prototype
We then presented via a live demonstration and screenshots the prototype dashboard with:
- a landing page to explain the purpose of the dashboard and the challenges it is trying to address.
- screens that allow users to select their university and their geographic area of interest (currently Local Authority District level only).
- a function that allows users to select data to compare their university and area’s trends over time against benchmarked universities and their places.
The user testing group provided positive feedback on the progress of the dashboard so far, and provided some helpful insights, focused on:
- combining different university data to reflect where a consortium of universities have agreed to sign a joint civic agreement and act in collaboration.
- provide clearer legends, glossaries and metadata to provide context and data literacy support for users.
- overlays for the benchmarking page that can help users identify suitable benchmark universities – such as post/pre 1992 founding dates.
Reflections on accessibility in UCD
- Feedback from the user testing group indicated that we had been able to respond to user group feedback around the main priorities and constraints for this output within the constraints of the workstream for this project. This included dashboard features within both data and design realms that were viewed as good work, with incredible support from the group.
- A challenge with our approach (and the additional factor of time constraints) has been that general questions on accessibility have often been overshadowed at the cost of more technically oriented questions about data and evaluation support. A challenge with the user testing group we brought in remained that their pre-existing expertise, and primary focus on data, meant they struggled to situate themselves as ‘laypeople’. In this context, the focus on accessibility required further introductory workshops that could have primed the user group to provide guidance and information on the importance of inclusive and accessible digital design and then allocate time with them to reflect on these principles in terms of the dashboard.
- The next phase of the development will involve releasing the dashboard online so a wider group can access it – and now we begin to shift gears to strategically plan for how we can ensure accessibility is given its due at this stage by including various tracking and measurable analytics, as well as feedback forms based on the user interface journey. Moreover, in our commitment to accessibility we plan to also to do an internal testing session with the wider team at The Young Foundation.
To continue learning with us, subscribe to this blog and follow @icstudiesuk
