Special Accommodations for Visitors of the Weis Center
By: James Capone
Tags: UX

In our “Design For Others” sprint, we designed a prototype of the Weis Center for the Performing Arts website for users who need special accommodations. Our goal was to reimagine the website on our users’ mobile phones to specifically cater to their needs and preferences. The main accommodations we took into account for our users were visual, hearing, and handicap issues, and we then analyzed what features those specific users would need. One feature was having larger text size for the site. We also chose to highlight handicap parking spots and handicap seating in the Weis Center theatre.

After learning our problem to be solved, our team started out with visiting the Weis Center website, finding where all the relevant information for our clients were, and how straightforward (or not) it would be to find that information. We listed out some of our initial ideas for features we’d want to access. These were recorded in various sketches as well as on our google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZSZdtY6TkSTRXoWvGRICwcn0PkaS2nAYlKQoQUYITcU/edit

We determined that the features our users would most want to access are parking information, the seating chart, audio and visual accommodations, and the related phone numbers to call if they wanted to inquire more information.

Next, we brainstormed and analyzed how we wanted this information to be displayed. We drew rough sketches and jotted down notes of all our ideas for the layout. We discussed an overlay page, a floating navbar, a bottom navigation bar, and hamburger menus, among others.

In the end, the pages from the current website we decided to redesign and add were the homepage, parking page, wheelchair accessibility page, adding an overlay, and having a hamburger bar option to access all the other resources and information offered on the current Weis Center homepage. Since we were redesigning for only users with disabilities, we catered only specifically to their needs but still wanted to include all the available information. These initial designs were then put into more detailed sketches.

Color schemes were researched, and we found a palette that conveys a warm and open spirit which should leave our users feeling welcomed and in good hands. In this palette, the primary colors are several hues of blue, gray, and white. Blue is used to represent calmness and responsibility, and is often associated with people with disabilities. Gray is easily distinguishable and neutral for people with visual problems. White keeps the layout simple and stops the colors from overwhelming a viewer needing special accommodations.

This color pallette can be seen in detail at the following link: https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/colors/

Our webpage was designed in Invision, but freehand was utilized for the editing process. We would comment on what we liked and didn’t like in the design. This process was iterative, and the design would be changed incrementally to keep improving upon it.

We also used this to show how our app would move through certain screens.

After we had created the backbone for this mobile website, we needed to add in specifics. We had imported all relevant material from the original site, but some new features needed created to meet the needs of our users. We needed to create an easier to understand parking map as well highlight the handicapped seating.

These features were implemented into the app and the final product was released with the following link: https://projects.invisionapp.com/prototype/Design-For-Others-cjrrv9yrw00srep01vxv56slo/play/08ae79ae

When our app was demoed we had some mixed reviews. People liked how simple and clean the design was. They thought that it was obviously intended for people that need special accommodations. Our testers enjoyed our uses of images and thought that navigation was very easy. They also thought that it matched the feel of the original Weis Center website which made it feel consistent. There were certain areas that users did not like, however.

One comment was that the page seemed less usable for people not needing special accommodations. While this advice was relevant, we did not change anything since we assumed our site will only be used by people needing accommodations. Another complaint was on changing the color scheme for people with visual impairments, but we had checked and it appeared that our chosen colors would be usable for people with visual impairments.

We also had complaints that were on areas we wanted to implement. The first was on the larger text option. Our design features a small and large font option, but only the smaller font option was created for the demo. If the timescale for the app was larger, this feature would definitely be included. The next feature was for an audio option to go with the text. While this would be useful for users with poor eyesight, it was a feature that we did not know how to create using Invision. Given more time and different resources, we would try to create this feature.

Our site went through many changes throughout the design process. We had to decide what main features we wanted to include, such as wheelchair accessible options, and how to implement these. We had many features that we had to chose to ignore because they would take too much time to implement or were less relevant to our users. The quick design process made us focus on what our goals truly were and forced us to work solely on these. We tried to keep as much as possible from the original website to create a feeling of consistency. We needed to change some components to better fit our users, however, such as the handicap parking and seating maps. We created different features so that users could test out different sections without creating every single aspect of these. While this created positive feelings, some testers wishes we had created other features like our large text option. Overall, we were able to make many changes to our design and created a product that accomplished our goal of helping users needing special accommodations.