Center for User Experience

We can meet with you one-on-one to help you implement digital accessibility best practices and create usable experiences for people with disabilities in the UW–‍Madison community. We also offer weekly office hours sessions. These services are available free of charge to UW–‍Madison students, faculty, and staff.

The Digital Accessibility Program provides accessibility evaluation and consulting services for university-created content and vendor products. Accessible digital resources are usable by people with disabilities and/or who use assistive technology.

The Center for User Experience can evaluate any digital experience, including websites, web applications, software being considered for procurement, multimedia assets, documents, PDFs, and presentations.

You will:

• Learn how accessible a digital resource is 
• Understand how to make your digital resource more accessible 
• Receive an evaluation report that describes any barriers found and a copy to share with vendors (if applicable)

We can evaluate the accessibility of digital technology for free. Complete our contact form to request an evaluation.

The Digital Accessibility Program provides accessibility evaluation of vendor products being considered for procurement by the university. The Digital Accessibility Program provides RFP, RFB, and other procurement evaluation groups with a high-level assessment of a vendor’s product. 

You will:

• Learn how accessible a vendor product is before procurement 
• Understand how to consider accessibility needs in your procurement process
• Get access to contract language to help advocate for accessibility with vendors following procurement (see our Purchasing accessible technology guide)
• Receive an evaluation report that describes any barriers found and a copy to share with vendors

What we need from you:

• Access to an instance of the digital resource to be evaluated and representative data to test with.
• Access to the vendor name, product name, and vendor contact information.
• Product VPAT, link to accessibility features and product information.
• Access to the current or prospective Service Owner (name, department, division/school/college, and contact info).
• University use cases and task flows for how the university is using or intends to use the digital resource to be evaluated.

At the Center for User Experience, we can review your digital experiences (websites, web applications, software or digital tools under consideration for procurement, etc.) using established interface design guidelines from Nielsen Norman. From this review, we can offer recommendations to help you focus on priority improvements.

What to expect from an expert review:

• An intake interview, done with the person (or people) who can best explain the goals of the website or app
• A report of findings and recommendations
• Supplemental resources for you to make the most of our recommendations
• A meeting to review recommendations and answer your questions

How we review:

• Our team uses a robust version of the Nielsen Norman usability heuristics (guidelines), to which we’ve added a basic accessibility check. For a full accessibility review, consider the Digital accessibility evaluation service.
• We limit the review to top pages and tasks. Typical ranges for the total cost run $1,500-$2,500.

A more effective website or app can help your users access the information they need and complete important tasks. It can also reduce the time and effort required to correct issues and provide support. Using proven research methods, we can identify pain points and learn what your users want. Our research can give you the data you need to make informed decisions about your website, app, or service.

What to expect from design research:

• Intake interviews with your stakeholders (the people who can best explain the goals of the website, app, or service) and your end users (the people who interact with your website or service and can provide feedback on their experience)
• A research plan that outlines the goals of the research and the best research methods
• A report of findings and recommendations
• A meeting to review recommendations and answer your questions

Options:

• Heuristic evaluation, also called an expert review, of a website based on best practices
• Usability testing and recommendations
• Learn about student, faculty, and/or staff feelings or expectations on a topic through discovery research
• Other research methods, which vary depending on the project goals

Our design strategy service helps you lay a strong foundation for effective, user-centered digital experiences. We can help you identify your users and their needs, and collaborate with you to create a digital experience that enables your users to navigate and engage with your app or website effectively, while also supporting your business goals.

What to expect from design strategy:

• Collaborative discovery sessions to understand your goals, audiences, and challenges
• User research to identify who your users are, what they need, and how they interact with your digital tools
• UX recommendations that align with your goals and enhance usability
• Support and consultation throughout the project to ensure the strategy stays aligned with evolving needs

Options:

• Digital strategy
• Ideation and design session facilitation
• UX design deliverables, including wireframes and prototypes