Evidence 01. Accessibility testing
About the test:
- Objective: test the accessibility of the site
- 5 users tested, visually impaired and dyslexic
- UK nationals with UK documents and experience of working abroad and/or future plans to work abroad
- Asked to legalise their birth certificate
- A mixture of standard applications and business applications
- Tests conducted at users own computers, using their everyday computer setup of assistive devices
Key findings:
- One, left column design pattern works well overall for linear page reading
- Tabbed navigation worked well on form pages
- When design deviates from one column pattern, some right hand screen content missed
- Linear content experience and ability to only see small part of screen at a time threw up a few content sequencing issues
About:
- Visually impaired user
- Uses a screen magnifier: Magic version 11.0, magnifying screen so that often only one or two words are shown on screen at any time.
Findings:
Get your Document Legalised:
- No problems, clicked 'start now'
Choose a Service:
- No issues. Chose 'Start a standard application'
Check if Documents can be legalised:
- Clicked 'Check your documents' before he saw option 'skip this check'
General comments at this stage:
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Text does not distort too much when magnified, good.
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Likes the in page 'back' link at top left, so he knows he can go back and change things if necessary.
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Likes that the pages follow the same format of layout and design, so he knows generally how to navigate / interact with a page
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Likes that the design runs down the page in one column – later mentions the design out to the right which was unexpected.
Select your documents:
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Search input field - no issues. Clicked on the 'birth certificate' when it appeared in the instant results section below
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Attempts to click continue before Add.
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Questioned the add button. Felt as though he had already selected the document and that this was unecessary. After considering this for a while he guessed that perhaps its because multiple documents could be legalised, but felt this wasn't explained [the instructional text at page top does state 'Search for your documents then select the ones you want legalised'].
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After he clicked 'add' he did not see the box on the right titled “Selected documents”. At his level of high magnification he expected content to continue in one column down the left side of the page, as per the previous pages.
Confirm your document format:
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No issues Your details:
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Input fields worked well. No problems. He appreciates that the form is short.
Return address details:
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Postcode – missed the 'find UK address' button first time, and instead clicked the 'continue' button below.
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After an error message was returned, he re- examined the area around the postcode input field, zooming out slightly and saw the 'find UK postcode' button.
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Then proceeded without any issues.
Return address if we can't legalise your documents:
- Appreciates the time saving design of 'same address as before'
Number of documents:
- Understood this could be used to legalise more than one birth certificate
Sending us your documents:
- No issues
Returning your documents:
- No issues
Additional information:
- Does not see a reason to enter a reference - leaves blank
Check your answers before paying for an application:
- Almost missed the change link to the far right. As most of site is one column design, he follows that pattern initially. He suggests it would be useful to have instructional text under the page heading or move the change buttons across to the left
Declaration:
- Appreciates the large box surrounding the checkbox so that that he can click anywhere within it. This makes it easier, providing less of a dexterity challenge than a small checkbox alone.
Pay for your application:
- No issues
Step 1: Please select your payment method:
- No issues
Step 2: Enter your payment details:
- On submission, the interstitial 'in progress' message caused confusion. As he is zoomed in to a high level of magnification, just the outside edge of the message was fleetingly visible. He was unable to perceive the message. As it was red he reacted by wondering if he had thrown an error. After it had dissapeared he considered that a payment error had occurred.
Step 3: Please review and complete your payment:
- On submission, the red interstitial message on this page was not visible at his level of magnification, so did not see it.
What to do next:
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Would have liked a print option at the top of the page as felt had to search whole page before finding the button at the bottom of the page.
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Afterwards the page returned to the print page. To him there appeared to be no exit or continue option. He was unsure if this was the end of the process. After considering for a while he decided it must be. He would have appreciated a conclusive message communicating that this was the end of the process. He wanted a 'next' prompt or 'return to start' option for example.
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Post test reflections:
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generally intuitive
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information clearly presented
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Did not know if process had ended - a finish prompt / button would be good.
About:
- Visually impaired user
- Supernova screen reader combined with screen magnifier
Get your document legalised:
- Questions the sequence of information. Questioned why 'What it costs' is written after the 'start now' button. He reads the page linearly and would want to know the cost before clicking 'start now'.
Choose a service:
- No issues
Check if documents can be legalised:
- No issues
Select your documents:
-
Top searches list is useful. He tries clicking on 'birth certificate' under Top searches but the link is not working for this test.
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He suggests placing the top searches list above the input field as it would be useful to encounter them before the open search input field. But this did not prevent him from noticing it before clicking in the input field
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Questions 'Actions'. As there is only 'add' showing suggests it should say'Action' singular.
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Suggests 'click to add' rather than 'add' to make the description more demonstrative
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Took a few moments to notice the 'add'. He suggests it is a bit far to the right, would prefer it further to the left so it is not missed.
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'Update quantity' – not sure what that means
Confirm your document format:
- No issues
Your details:
- No issues. Remarks that tabbing between fields works well.
Return address details:
- Missed the Pick an address drop down first time round.
Return address if we can't legalise your documents:
- Appreciated this time saving feature
Number of documents:
- Incorrectly assumes 2 would mean 2 of the exact same document - I only have one birth certificate!
Sending us your documents:
- "'within' the uk would be better than 'from the uk' – that sounds like I'm sending it out of the uk."
Returning your documents:
- No issues
Additional information:
- No issues
Check your answers before paying for your application:
- Finds it awkward to digest the page because of the horizontally spaced design. Would prefer less horizontal spacing
Declaration:
- No issues
Pay for your application:
- No issues
Step 1: please select your payment method
- No issues
Step 2: Enter your payment details
- Card Expiry date. year column too long - goes up to 2040. Had to scroll a long way to the top. This added effort, and provoked a sigh - "no card expires in 2040!"
Step 3: Please review and complete your payment:
- No issues
What to do next:
- Pulled up the fact that at start he was advised he would need a printer yet this page suggests a printer is not really needed.
On reflection:
- 'Generally its pretty good'
- 'It looks straight forward, there are no pictures which is good'
- 'There were a few things that could be restructured '
- 'I tend to go down the left hand side so if there is something on the right hand side I could well miss it'
About:
- Dyslexic user
- "Sometimes the fonts on websites are not good to read, the best being something close to aerial 12 in black typeface."
- "I mainly rely on setting my internet up to allow me to override the fonts, via the accessibility features, this does change the look of the sites. For this test I am using Read and Write 10 Gold"
Findings:
1 - Standard application
- Completed the application
- Expected to be able to open the cover sheet as PDF and/or save it, rather than find a printable web page. Expressed a personal preference for PDF
- Thought the coloured block around the Print link "looked over powering, some may be happy with it". And in contrast, that the other parts of the page seem a little small and possibly be seen as insignificant.
- Help text was already open on this page, using IE9. Commented on this "‘what to do if you don’t have a printer’ looks like a link and the text is already below it"
2 - Signed in standard application and account edits
- Finished the application, no problems encountered
- First thought when it came to signing in: the sign in link is "in the usual place but seems very remote from other parts of the page"
- Thought that as a first time user after setting up an account it might not be so obvious to visually impaired users, suggested considering a link in the starting text or within the choose a service section
- Read and Write did read the whole page when the cursor was at the bottom of the page.
3 - Signed in business drop-off application
- Finished application
- Commented on this option bi-passing the need to enter addresses etc
- "Very fast and useful if doing this for a business and able to spare the time to come in."
On reflection:
- "Overall it is OK the screen is not too overcrowded and therefore not of putting, with Magic it may take a little navigating of the screen but I should think it will be fine."
Ratings:
Based on what you have seen in this task alone, how do you rate how accessible this site is on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “Very inaccessible” and 10 is “Very accessible”?
Task 1: 10
Task 2: 9
Task 3: 10
About:
- Dyslexic user
- Using Read&Write 10 Gold
- Test on own office computer
Findings:
1 - Standard application
- Read&Write worked by double clicking on words
- Postcode lookup didn't work, had to enter the address manually to continue.
- Check your answers page – thought that when changing the return address, it would have been helpful to have the information on one page rather than stepping through over each page individually.
2 - Signed in standard application and account edits
- Found this a little more difficult to complete, more thought required
- As above, wanted fewer pages
3 - Signed in business drop-off application
- Completed fine
- Described it as "extremely accessible" referring to fact that once all data completed you just sign in and then fast application flow
On reflection:
- Good – the form was easy to complete, overall easy to follow, very easy to use
- Bad – too many pages, "want to complete the form in one go and not go from one page to another"
Ratings:
Based on what you have seen in this task alone, how do you rate how accessible this site is on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “Very inaccessible” and 10 is “Very accessible”?
Task 1: 8
Task 2: 8
Task 3: 8
About:
- Partially sighted user
- Magnified screen, using IE9
Findings:
1 - Standard application
- Questioned the text about 'access to a printer', suggesting if you don't have to have one then amend wording
- Eligibility checker: Select link not that clear for this user
- Check your answers page: good "a bit like Amazon"
- Completed application successfully
2 - Signed in standard application and account edits
- Liked the remembering of card details, and compared to Amazon again
- Completed successfully
- Thought this part was very good
3 - Signed in business drop-off application
- Was primarily concerned with the physical office location restriction, "What if you are in Newcastle?"
- Was interested from POV of smaller businesses, to understand eligibility criteria for being invited to use the service
- Completed successfully
On reflection:
- "pretty good", " like using Amazon"
Ratings:
Based on what you have seen in this task alone, how do you rate how accessible this site is on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is “Very inaccessible” and 10 is “Very accessible”?
Task 1: 8
Task 2: 8
Task 3: 8