Preliminary accessibility review of Exhibitions on iPhone

[E.J. Zufelt]

On 2-Feb-10, at 2:27 PM, James William Yoon wrote:

> Hi Everett,
>
> Thank you so much for your comments! This is very helpful to both  
> the designers and developers.
>
> I have a couple of questions about how to address some of the  
> concerns you enumerated. They're inline with your comments.
>
> 6. It is confusing to use a taxonomy (like a tab labeled "Upcoming")  
> to categorize the exhibits lower on the page when the exhibits  
> higher on the page are not categorized.  What category do the above  
> exhibits fit into?
>
> This is something we struggled with a bit. In the end, we concluded  
> that a user tapping on "Exhibitions" would expect a list of current  
> exhibitions foremost, and upcoming exhibitions to a much lesser  
> extent. Hence, we listed out the current exhibitions first, and put  
> upcoming exhibitions in a cabinet. If this inhibits accessibility,  
> we have two other good options: have no headers at all, and simply  
> list out the exhibitions all at the same level, but demarcate the  
> upcoming exhibition dates with "Coming up soon!" or something to  
> that effect. A second option is to give the header "Current  
> exhibitions" to the offending section (something we had in an  
> earlier design, but thought, perhaps incorrectly, it would be  
> redundant)
>
* I think that either of the two above approaches would make the  
information easier to understand to all users.

> 7. "Catalog 103" is not meaningful to me as a user.
>
> The number "103" after "Catalog" refers to the number of objects in  
> the catalog. We could certainly change "Catalog (103)" to "Catalog  
> (103 objects)", or remove the number entirely (whether or not to  
> have the number there was another point of discussion the designers  
> had). Thoughts here?
>
* Taking into consideration screen realestate issues, my only thought  
would be that I don't know what a catalog is as a first time user.   
Something that conveys the clear meaning of the data presented would  
improve overall user experience.

> 9. No understanding of what "Thermometer" and "Barometer" mean.
>
> "Thermometer" and "Barometer" on this page is the name of the object  
> above the said text. Any suggestions on how to make this more clear  
> would be welcome.
>
* If I understand correctly "thermometer" and "barometer" describe  
images.  I would use the alt attribute on the images and do something  
like alt="Thermometer thumbnail image".  And perhaps "Thermometer  
thumbnail image (click for ...)" depending on what the function of the  
link is.  It is important when labeling images that the image, and  
function of the link (if present) are described.  Doing this makes the  
words thermometer and barometer less important, users know they can  
skip past them because they already know the meaning of the text.


> Thanks again, Everett! Your observations are very astute and  
> valuable to us.
>
> Cheers,
> James