Portfolio 〉Accessibility
Auditing Vroom for AccessibilityIdentifying issues and setting standards
Product:
The Vroom website - an e-commerce used vehicle platformUsers:
Customers looking to purchase a used vehicle online who may be using assistive technologyGoal:
Revise the site to meet accessibility standards to fulfill legal requirements and customer needs
Design Challenge
The Vroom e-commerce website had scaled very quickly out of necessity. As the company transitioned from a small startup to a major e-commerce site for consumers seeking used vehicles, the code base needed to be brought up to modern code and design accessibility standards in order to meet both customer needs and legal requirements.
Process, Findings & Insights
- Organized Design team to conduct initial assessment, in order to get buy-in for engineering resources
- Drafted baseline accessibility goals and worked with departments to start implementing best practices
- Collaborated with engineering to build an understanding of user impact and set priorities for fixes
- Gave cross-company presentations on what accessibility is, why it's important and how to improve it, in order to establish a shared goal
Getting a handle on how widespread the accessibility concerns were was my first priority. The team lacked automated testing and assessment tools initially and needed to understand the scope of the concerns before laying claim to any engineering time.
I first worked to organize the design team to "hand audit" the website using keyboard navigation to help identify major navigation flaws for screenreader users. From the notes taken by the design team I developed a comprehensive list of areas that could not be navigated with the keyboard or a screenreader and the team worked to file these concerns directly as bugs with engineering.
As this audit was being conducted, I also drafted "Baseline Accessibility Goals" for the company and began circulating these standards across engineering, QA, and design. This helped to begin establishing best practices across our teams as well as acceptance criteria for any new features being built.
With the audit complete, I worked with engineering to begin prioritizing fixes that would bring the site up to a new legal and modern standard.
Finally, to build buy-in across the company for the new standards, I gave multiple presentations about the importance and impact of accessibility, how Vroom was currently doing in regards to those standards, and how the entire team could contribute to building a more accessible customer experience for everyone.
A slide from my company wide presentation on what accessibility is, how it impacts everyone, how accessible the company currently was, and what the next steps needed to be.
Solution & Outcomes
- Non-accessible websites updated into legal compliance
- Code and Design accessibility standards documented and established across the company
- Company wide presentations spread awareness of what accessibility is and why it matters
Accessibility is never "done" - there are always improvements that can be made. I established baseline standards, built a consensus across the teams about how important accessibility was moving forward for the company, and worked closely with design, engineering, product, and QA to ensure teams were knowledgeable and excited to implement better practices across the Vroom site.
Why I Liked This Project
Ensuring an accessible experience for as many users as possible is one of the most important and rewarding aspects of working in UX. Throughout this process I got to set design and code standards as well as educate teams across the company on the impact of accessibility and why it matters morally, legally, and financially for a business.