Accessibility

Here at Foviance we’re always looking to strike new partnerships with innovative technology providers that are able to bring new ideas and perspectives to online customer experience. Tealeaf is very much a company that fits that billing.

Tealeaf’s aim is to enable businesses with busy online channels to see and understand their customers’ actual online experiences, analyse their motivations and gain greater insight in to why those customers do what they do while engaging with the site. We’ve been aware of Tealeaf’s talents for some time, and were keen to embark on any project that allowed us to add mutual value to customer experience management and measurement.

Read more…

Clients who think that their online forms are too long may consider putting 2 or more fields (e.g. text fields, dropdown menus) next to each other in one line. Is this a good idea? Read more…

By Lis Shorten

There is a distinct difference between ‘accessibility compliance’ and ‘an accessible experience’. Read more…

In times of a recession, online fraud increases (CIFAS ‘Fraud trends and recession go hand in hand’) but most online users, although aware of Internet threats, have a gap in understanding them. Read more…

By Lis Shorten

Keyboard accessibility is one of the most important aspects of web accessibility. There are a whole host of reasons why certain users will find mouse usage difficult or impossible. Some users may have no use or limited use of their hands or arms and rely on the keyboard or alternative input devices to navigate websites. Blind people using screen reading software almost exclusively rely on keyboard navigation. Read more…

By Lucy Carruthers

Every time I complete a form online, be it purchasing a concert ticket, subscribing to a magazine, or signing up to a retail web site, there is a different means of opting in to marketing communications. For me, this is somewhat irksome and often it’s overcomplicated. Radio buttons and check boxes, opt-in or opt-out, whole paragraphs of marketing talk that bedazzle me and that I have to read again and again until I can decipher whether I should be ticking the box or not.

Surely the same rules should apply here as for the rest of the form; keep it simple.

Language should be short and easy to understand, avoiding all marketing jargon. Get the legal information across but make sure the choice the user needs to make is obvious and does not get lost in all the text. My preference is to have opt-out as the default requiring the user to physically opt in and thereby giving them control, but there are no rules on this so long as the user is given the choice. If the user opts in then ask them by what means (e.g., post, SMS, email etc), but if they want to opt out asking them by what means is a waste of their time. Radio buttons and checkboxes should, according to accessibility guidelines, be placed to the left of the label. Checkboxes are the convention, with a tick denoting the user is opting-in, but radio buttons are fine if it makes the options clear and they are used consistently. The use of other writing for the web guidelines may also help, such as the use of white space and bolding of key words – ‘I would like to be contacted…’ or ‘I do not want to be contacted’. These are just some basic guidelines that, if followed, would make it far simpler for the users to make the right choice, quickly.

Foviance is evaluator of choice in usability and accessibility for the entries to The New Media Age Effectiveness Awards.

Judges are looking for the best work in interactive media; the work that has delivered the most impressive results and the best return on investment. Vertical sectors are represented by two categories; businesses or projects using interactive media to deliver products and services, and marketing campaigns using interactive channels to communicate with consumers.

The winners were announced at the Awards Ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London on 25th June.

London, UK, 2 February 2009 – Foviance, the expert in customer experience, has been selected by East Sussex County Council to test their website and provide usability recommendations. As part of ongoing improvements to online services, this study aims to make their information more accessible to East Sussex residents and other web visitors.Childcare services and help for older people are amongst the key areas of the Council’s website, receiving over 1.5 million visitors a year, which will benefit from the research. Read more…