Design Sprint: KKV Kampus
Accessibility auditing for an online learning environment
KKV Kampus is a learning platform maintained by the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority, where you can take online courses related to, among other things, the rights and obligations of consumers and sellers. The FCCA commissioned theses from Laurea University of Applied Sciences regarding the renewal of the KKV Kampus and improving usability and accessibility. These issues were examined during a week-long Design Sprint.
Me and four other students set out to investigate the accessibility of KKV Kampus Osaamo through user testing and expert assessment based on the WGAC 2.1 accessibility criteria. Out of the four principles of accessibility, we decided to focus on preceivability and understandability.
Insights through expert assessment
In this case, we acted as experts ourselves, and we set out to test the features and appearance of the application. We used WCAG cards, where each criterion was on its own card and what the accessibility requirements were for different levels. In addition to the cards, we also used other tools to study accessibility, such as the WAVE plugin and the PageSpeed Insights service.
We compiled all our accessibility-related observations, both positive and negative, on a Miro board. We then grouped our observations into different categories.
Understanding through user testing
Based on the findings found during the expert assessment, we created a user test with a total of five tasks related to KKV Kampus features whose ease of use was not self-evident. The user test questions were as follows:
- Change the language of the app from finnish to english
- Search the app for a course called “Basic Seller Liability Course”
- Zoom the resolution to 200% and try to find a page called "Materials for teachers"
- Find the course “Understanding Choice Situations and Environments” in the app and click to open the course. Find an image related to the consumer’s purchasing path and read its content.
- Find a section in the app where you can get instructions on how to use the app
We had two people as the subjects of the user testing: one teacher and one student. The testing was recorded, for which permission was also asked from the test subjects. The time spent on each task was also recorded. We informed the test subjects that the test results would only be used for working on the thesis, so out of respect for that, I will not share the exact results of the test here, but we did gain valuable insights from this user testing.
From results to new ideas
Based on the results of the expert assessment and user testing, we started to consider on the Miro board what concrete improvement suggestions we could give to the KKV Kampus. Our suggestions focused mostly on the technical features of the application.
Prototype
We prototyped a collection of improvement suggestions for the KKV Kampus, which were presented along with the Pitch presentation. We illustrated our suggestions with screenshots and image edits, and showed which WCAG criterion each suggestion is based on. Below are screenshots of the suggestions that I made and illustrated.
KKV was pleased with our findings and suggestions, and their developer partner Mediamaisteri was interested in our observations. They especially stressed on the importance of the applications mobile version's performance, and how they should improve on that immediately.
