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Persona names

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Shawn Lawton Henry (fka slhenry) edited this page Sep 20, 2021 · 11 revisions

Persona Names for What's New in WCAG 2.1 and 2.2

On this page:

  • Background
  • Proposed Roles

Background

Proposal

Use roles not names.

  • Where we don't have an existing persona, change "person" to a role. For example:

change:

Person with limited movement in fingers:
Problem: "I can't move my fingers like that. I need another way to zoom in the map."

to:

Delivery driver with limited movement in fingers:
Problem: "I can't move my fingers like that. I need another way to zoom in the map."

  • Where we have an existing persona, delete the name and start with the role. For example:

change:

Yun, retiree with low contrast sensitivity:

to:

Retiree with low contrast sensitivity:

Pro: All will be consistent.

Pro: Role is probably more humanizing/relate-able than just a name in this case where we're using just a short bit with limited context (versus personas used throughout a design project).

Con: Roles might change later when we work on all personas big picture and make sure we have good coverage of different roles, regional names, sexes, etc.

Other options:

  • Take off all names and roles.
    Con: Boring. Less relate-able. Not persona-like.
  • Add just names (not roles) for those we don't have.
    Con: Role is probably more humanizing/relate-able than just a name in this case where we're using just a short bit with limited context.
    Con: Roles might change later when we work on all personas big picture and make sure we have good coverage of different issues.
  • Add names and roles for those we don't have.
    Con: Names would be one more thing to do now, and that might change later when we work on all personas big picture and make sure we have good coverage of different regional names, sexes, etc.

Proposed Roles

We want to have a wide range of roles and situations. The table below helps manage that.

Notes:

  • Use the same "persona" throughout this page where relevant. That is, if one persona can do multiple quotes, then don't create separate personas for those quotes.

  • We do not want to overlap with the other roles in Stories of Web Users: online shopper, online student, reporter (below), accountant at insurance company (below), middle school student (below), retiree (below), supermarket assistant (below).

  • Below currently adds: parent, teacher, artist, politician, school playground aid, comic, gamer

    quote activity

    role

    		  

    any (tablet on wheelchair)

    Comic with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair:

    ### 1.3.4 Orientation (Level AA)
    Person who uses a wheelchair:
    Problem: "I can't rotate my tablet — it's attached to my wheelchair."
    Works well: "The application works whether I attach my tablet horizontally or vertically."

    many (typing address)

    supermarket assistant – existing story

    ### 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (AA)
    Luis, supermarket assistant with dyslexia and dyscalculia:
    Problem: "My address is so complicated. There's lots of numbers and long words. It's hard to type it all without making mistakes."
    Works well: "I love websites that can automatically fill it all in for me. Then I don't have to work so hard to get the numbers and spelling right."
    Note: This works because the fields use autocomplete.

    many (website nav)

    Gamer with language processing disability:

    ### 1.3.6 Identify Purpose (AAA)
    Person with cognitive disability:
    Problem and Works well: "I have software that changes the words in the navigation into symbols. It works pretty good with some websites, and not at all with other websites."

    many (reading)

    Parent with low vision – 20/500:

    ### 1.4.10 Reflow (AA)
    Person with low vision:
    Problem: "It's nearly impossible to read text if I have to scroll right and left to read each line. It's disorienting and I lose my place. It makes it hard to understand what I'm reading."
    Works well: "I increase the text size 400% and it reflowed within the width of the window. I can read it easily without scrolling back and forth."

    many (order form)

    retiree – existing story

    ### 1.4.11 Non-Text Contrast (AA)
    Yun, retiree with low contrast sensitivity:
    Problem: "I couldn't use the "Order Form" — there were no text boxes. After a long call with customer service, I learned there were text box borders that were too light for me to see.
    Works well: "It's easy for me to see all the icons and buttons and everything — even in the sunlight."

    many (reading)

    student; retiree – existing stories

    ### 1.4.12 Text Spacing (AA)
    Preety, student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia:
    and Yun, retiree with low vision:
    Problem: "Most text is hard to read. It's so cluttered I can't keep my focus. Just increasing the space between lines makes all the difference. When I'm really tired, I also increase the space between words."
    Works well: "OK, I know I'm a bit of a geek, but I've perfected a user style sheet to make text spacing just right for me. It's a relief when websites work with my CSS."

    any (popup)

    Teacher with low vision who uses screen magnification software:

    ### 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus (AA)
    Person with low vision who uses screen magnification software:
    Problem: "I was moving my mouse around to track what I was looking at on a web page. It helps me keep focused. Then -boom- this little box popped up. It covered what I was trying to read and I couldn't get it to go away."
    Works well: "I hovered over a word and a box popped up with the definition, but it was mostly off the screen with my magnification. I moved my mouse pointer to the definition box and scrolled the magnified area over to the definition box and it stayed popped up so I could read it."

    mail app, spreadsheet

    reporter – existing story

    ### 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts (A)
    Alex, reporter with repetitive stress injury who uses voice recognition software:
    Problem: "When I was using my mail app with voice commands, it kept deleting the messages instead of opening them."
    Note: There was a shortcut key for delete that was triggered by something he was saying, and no way to turn off the shortcut keys.
    Works well: "In my spreadsheet application, there's a setting to turn off or modify character key shortcuts."

    employee benefits

    School playground aide with cognitive disabilities:

    ### 2.2.6 Timeouts (AAA)
    Person with cognitive disabilities who takes frequent breaks when completing complex forms:
    Problem: "I was selecting my Employee Benefits and was comparing the different plans. When I went back to select the Health Plan, it had timed out and lost all the information I had already entered."
    Works well: "When I started the Employee Benefits app, it told me how many minutes I had to complete the forms."

    online tax app

    Artist with vestibular disorder:

    ### 2.3.3 Animation from Interactions (AAA)
    Person with vestibular disorder:
    Problem: "In the online tax app, as I move my mouse around or tab to different fields, this little bubble with the current balance follows me around the screen. Makes me dizzy and nauseous."
    Works well: "I was so glad there was an option to turn off animations."

    many (motion actuation)

    Comic with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair:

    ### 2.4.1 Motion Actuation (A)
    Person with cerebral palsy who uses a wheelchair:
    Problem: "I can't shake my phone; it's connected to my wheelchair. So there needs to be another way to activate that feature, like a button."
    Problem: "I have tremors, so I need to turn off motion activation — and then be able to do stuff without motion actuation."
    Works well: "My friend has this cool application that looks like a physical spin lock. She rotates the phone to turn to the combination. I can use the same application by typing the numbers directly."

    zoom map

    Comic with cerebral palsy who has limited movement in fingers:

    ### 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures (A)
    Person with limited movement in fingers:
    Problem: "I can't move my fingers like that. I need another way to zoom in the map."
    Works well: "Good thing there are buttons to zoom in and out."

    mute, end call, web conferencing

    Politician with motor disabilities and low vision:

    ### 2.5.2 Pointer Cancellation (A)
    Person with motor disabilities and low vision:
    Problem: "I went to hit the "Mute" button and accidentally touched the "End Call" button instead. It hung up immediately."
    Works well: "In another web conferencing application, if I accidentally touch the "End Call" button, I can just slide my finger off the "End Call" button and it won't end the call."

    many (send button)

    reporter – existing story

    ### 2.5.3 Label in Name (A)
    Alex, reporter with repetitive stress injury who uses voice recognition software:
    Problem: "It understood most of my voice commands until I got to the Send button. I kept saying 'Send' and it didn't work."
    Note: It was visually labelled 'send' but the 'name' in the code was 'submit'. It would have worked if the 'name' started with 'send'.

    many (small buttons, Cancel, Submit)

    retiree – existing story

    ### 2.5.5 Target Size (AAA)
    Yun, retiree with hand tremor (and big fingers):
    Problem: "The buttons are so small, I hit "Cancel" when going for "Submit". Then I have to start all over again."
    Works well: "This website buttons are big enough that I don't hit the wrong button even when I'm riding on the bumpy bus."

    any

    reporter – existing story

    ### 2.5.6 Concurrent Input Mechanisms (AAA)
    Alex, reporter with repetitive stress injury (RSI):
    Problem: "When my RSI acts up, I switch back and forth a lot between keyboard, mouse, stylus, voice. This application doesn't let me use the stylus when I have a keyboard plugged in."

    scheduling conference call & meetings

    accountant – existing story

    ### 4.1.3 Status Messages (AA)
    Ilya, who is blind and uses a screen reader:
    Problem: "I selected a class for the conference, but I can't tell if it got added to my schedule."
    Works well: "When I add a meeting to my calendar, I hear a confirmation."
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