Think about how you personally use websites and read content online. Normally, you are trying to complete a specific task. You may try to find a recipe for chocolate chip cookies and close out of several that have too much narrative or don’t allow you to jump to the recipe. In general, information fatigue and poor information architecture can affect continuation rates. For learners using adaptabile technologies the risk of information fatigue and poor information architecture can stop them in their tracks. Can content be designed in a way that helps reduce that time on task and helps all users?

Good User Experience (UX) is an interaction between a person and a system that is easy, productive, enjoyable, engaging, and satisfying. “The vast majority of the 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, encompases a good user experience.

User Experience encourages you to design, test with your users, incorporate feedback, redesign and test again. This iterative design process encourages finding usable items. In testing those designs we can also be inclusive to those we ask to test our designs. What may work for one user may cause someone using adaptive technologies to be stopped in their tracks.

In this express workshop small groups will be tasked with evaluating sample text blocks from various sources and fixing it to make it more user friendly and accessible. They will then get the chance to work with their peers and put principles into practice. Learners will walk away from this presentation understanding some of the differences between User Experience, Universal Design, Usability, and Accessible Design. Areas of overlap will also be explored.

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