Think about how you personally use websites and read content online. Normally, you are trying to complete a specific task. You might look for a chocolate chip cookie recipe and close several that have too much narrative or won’t let you jump to the recipe. Information fatigue and poor information architecture can affect continuation rates. For learners using adaptive technologies, they can stop a person in their tracks. Can content be designed in a way that reduces time on task and helps all users?
Good user experience is an interaction between a person and a system that is easy, productive, enjoyable, engaging, and satisfying.
“The vast majority of web users would rather finish their tasks as fast as possible with the minimum amount of effort” (Pernice, 2017). What you design on the screen — how easy it is to use and how useful it is — encompasses a good user experience.
User experience encourages you to design, test with your users, incorporate feedback, redesign, and test again. This iterative process helps surface what is usable. In testing those designs, we can also be inclusive toward the people we ask to test them: what works for one user may stop someone using adaptive technologies cold.
In this express workshop, small groups evaluate sample text blocks from various sources and revise them to be more user-friendly and accessible, then put the principles into practice with their peers. Participants leave understanding some of the differences between user experience, universal design, usability, and accessible design — and where those areas overlap.