Expanding market access with accessibility improvements
Product: SeekOut Grow (0-1 product, AI-driven career development platform)
From MVP to market success
I audited and optimized our initial MVP content to comply with WCAG standards and best practices. This was essential to meet the needs of our target customers, including enterprise companies and government agencies, who have strict accessibility standards. This work directly influenced the transition of the product from 0-to-1 stage to securing multiple customers.
My role: Sole content designer, user interviews & testing.
Product context
SeekOut Grow is a career development platform that helps employees explore career paths and develop new skills. Using AI, it provides personalized career recommendations, identifies skill gaps, and suggests learning opportunities, supporting employee growth and retention.
Challenge: Urgent need for accessibility compliance to meet market demands
At launch, SeekOut Grow prioritized speed to market over accessibility. The content, created by multiple team members, lacked accessibility consideration and required thorough optimization. This oversight hindered sales and marketing efforts, as our target customers had strict accessibility requirements, prompting rapid improvements.
Solution: Implementing WCAG standards and best practices for broad accessibility
Apply WCAG standards and best practices for content accessibility to ensure product content is accessible to the widest possible audience.
How I helped
User research: Conducted interviews with users of assistive technology to identify navigation challenges within the product.
Accessibility audit: Collaborated with engineers and product designers to audit the product for accessibility barriers.
Content optimization: Reviewed and refined copy for improved readability and scannability. Applied WCAG standards and best practices to placeholder text, forms, alt text, navigation tabs, and heading structure.
Cross-functional collaboration: Worked cross-functionally to embed accessibility planning and testing into daily workflows.
Audit to identify accessibility barriers
The comprehensive audit involved testing each product page with a screen reader to identify accessibility barriers and applying WCAG standards to all content elements to pinpoint areas for improvement.
Simplifying content for clarity and accessibility
Introducing plain language aimed at an average literacy level and a functional structure made the content easier to navigate, scan, and understand. This maximized readability.
Previous design limitations
Low readability score: Misses the target reading age.
Not scannable: Difficult to pick out key information.
Assistive technology concerns: Harder for screen readers to navigate.
Time-consuming: Requires more effort to read and comprehend, especially challenging for people with ADHD or cognitive challenges.
New design improvements
Meets reading age target: Easy to understand quickly.
Scannable: Key information is easy to find.
Improves accessibility: Easier for screen readers.
Respects users' time: Requires less effort to read.
Replacing tooltips with value-focused copy
Replacing repetitive tooltips with value-focused, on-screen copy communicated information directly, saving time, reducing reading effort, and improving accessibility for keyboard and touchscreen users.
Previous design limitations
Accessibility: Tooltip content that appears on hover is inaccessible to touchscreen users and can be challenging for keyboard users.
Content design: Repetitive tooltips are redundant and distracting, obscuring the screen and requiring effort to read.
Mobile: Creates a poor mobile experience.
New design improvements
Communicated value directly: Eliminated the need for tooltips.
Enhanced accessibility: Ensured important information is always visible.
Optimized mobile experience: Removed distractions for a cleaner interface.
Improving form accessibility
Reworked full-page scrollable forms with excessive fields, misused placeholder text, and unhelpful error messages. Grouped relevant information, shortened forms, added progress indicators, and improved placeholder text and error messages to enhance accessibility and user experience.
Misused placeholder text
Disappears after entry: Relies on user memory for corrections.
Unhelpful: Offers no guidance after initial input.
Inaccessible: Inaccessible to many screen readers.
Solution: Helper text is placed above the field.
’Always visible: Provides continuous guidance.
High contrast: Easier to read than grayed-out placeholder text.
Screen reader accessibility: More reliably announced by screen readers.
Error reduction: Helps prevent errors by keeping instructions visible
Unhelpful error messages
Vague: Doesn't specify what is needed.
Unhelpful: Offers no guidance on how to correct the input.
Inaccessible: Screen readers read “Required” without any other context
Specific: Clearly states what to include.
Helpful: Guides users to provide the correct information.
Accessible: Screen readers convey the complete instruction
Learning and impact:
° Expanded market appeal by meeting accessibility requirements, attracting enterprise companies and government agencies with tens of thousands of employees (end users).
° Shifted the product team's mindset to a proactive approach: "Why fix later what we can build better now?"
° Implemented workflows to ensure accessibility is integrated from the start, preventing future issues.
° Demonstrated that accessibility improvements enhance the user experience for all users, not just those with disabilities.