In a recent so OT podcast episode, Francisco Lasta mentioned the concept of User Experience (UX) and how this is receiving attention from OTs in the USA. This encouraged me to complete a LinkedIn learning course, UX Foundations: Accessibility, that has provided the inspiration and content for this blog article.
What is User Experience?
User Experience is about the interactions that users of a product or service have with that product or the company that provides it. The users can be customers, employees or suppliers. Interactions can include paperwork, packaging, marketing materials, or online interactions.
User Experience has developed from the corporate business world, where the experience of the customer is vital to ensure continued business and ultimately profit. It is recognised that every interaction or experience that all users have with the company affects their relationships. This may be through seeing visual advertising, the ease of using their website, or the look and feel of physical objects.
User Experience in health and social care
Thinking of the user as the patient, service user or client in a health or social care setting is a useful idea to see how the experiences of users of OT services are affected by every interaction or ‘touchpoint’ they have with the service. This in itself can influence their wellbeing and health, their attitude towards health services, and their motivation to engage with them.
In the recent local elections there was a news story in my city because the local city council had printed the polling cards on purple paper. Sight impairment organisations argued that this prevented many people from being able to read them, due to the lack of contrast. This is an example where the user experience hadn’t been considered from the perspective of all users.
User experience is applicable within health and social care settings in many ways. The experience of the patient is important so that they feel able to interact with the services easily and efficiently, whether online, face to face, through printed materials or on the telephone. These experiences need to be made easy and enjoyable to interact with, taking into consideration the diverse needs of the population.
The experience of the employee is also important- poor user interaction through badly designed web pages for example may deter potential candidates at the application stage. Throughout employment, having a streamlined and easily accessible way of everything from viewing payslips, recording notes and raising concerns may enhance staff wellbeing and retention. Further, through enhancing the user experience for suppliers, for everything from office stationary to community equipment, may help to secure lasting contracts and ensure that the service runs smoothly.
User Experience and Online Accessibility
Many people with disabilities struggle to access online resources through poorly designed webpages. Impairment with vision, hearing, upper limb movement and cognition can all impact abilities to navigate the online environment. This can include the visual design and ease of visual navigation, and also how the webpage is programmed to interact with keyboard controls and assistive technology. Some examples include: using colour alone shouldn’t be relied upon to highlight which tab a cursor is selecting, as many people struggle to recognise this; if clicking methodically through tab options, the order of flow should make sense according to the context, not necessarily left to right; autoplaying video or audio can be startling and can interfere with screen reading technology; inbuilt flexibility to rearrange pages into vertical stacks to help navigate when zoomed in can be useful; giving advance notice of how many steps an action will take can help with planning.
As OTs we often consider navigation of the physical environment. However, so many of our occupations are now discovered, organised and completed online, we should be supporting our clients not only to navigate the web, but we should also be aware of the wider design needs of the virtual environment and the processes behind this, including the digital platforms of our own employers.
Add comment
Comments