Planning/Information Architecture

The activities and information on this page relates to the development of the Dynamic guide for planning resource.

Task Sorting Activity

Aim

This activity aims to explore how planning tasks might be grouped together for presentation and what terms could be used for those groups. This activity uses Card Sorting, which helps understand participant mental models and better enable them to find gaps in the content. More information on this technique can be found at the Wikipedia Card Sorting article.

Instructions

As part of the dynamic planning guide we are looking at having a task lead information presentation. In order to better understand how the planning tasks might be grouped we are looking to run a quick card sorting activity.

Important note: There is no right way or wrong way to do this !

Instructions:

• Create groups of tasks that you think are related
• Each group must contain more than one item
• Give each group any title you choose for that group
• You don't have to sort all the items - if something doesn't fit, it doesn't fit
• If you think of additional tasks for any of your groups, suggest the new task via email
• If you think a task should be named something different, suggest the change via email - although bear in mind we will return to task names later

In order to facilitate this, we have used an online card sorting tool. This can be found at:

http://tinyurl.com/o8923h7

If possible, please use this tool as it helps considerably with analysis of the results.

Now, we know that this isn’t accessible so we have provided an alternative approach. A file has been provided (File:Tasks.docx) contains all the tasks; one per line. Just edit the file and rearrange the tasks however you feel they should be grouped together. Put a blank line in between each group and then a name for the group at the start of the group.

So for example, if the file contains:

Banana
Toast
Waffle
Apple
Hat
Orange
Words
Muffin (English)
Foot

You might sort it as:

Group: Fruits
Banana
Apple
Orange

Group: Talkie Toaster Titbits
Toast
Waffle
Muffin (English)

Group: Try not to eat your
Hat
Words
Foot

Then just save that file and send it back to Kevin.

This task should take about 40-60 minutes to complete.

Tasks to be sorted

The following tasks are saved in a Word document for you to download and sort: File:Tasks.docx.

If you have ideas for tasks not present here, or tasks that don't fit, or any other ideas related to this, please feel free to send them to Kevin

The tasks to be sorted come from the Planning Persons and from the Strategic Planning for Web Accessibility key actions. Where a task was too vague or overlapped it was removed. Some task text was modified to reduce the length. The order of tasks is random.

ID1     Identify web authoring tools and review how well they support your accessibility goals
ID2     Create a design briefing incorporating accessibility for design agency
ID3     Prepare and communicate an introduction to accessibility resource
ID4     Identify and prioritize accessibility issues
ID5     Create a plan for regular checks and audits
ID6     Consider creating an organization wide accessibility monitoring and reporting framework
ID7     Identify the key reasons for accessibility
ID8     Review organizational design and development resources
ID9     Understand the broad impact of accessibility and legal responsibilities
ID10    Report to stakeholders the project accessibility successes and difficulties
ID11    Assign responsibility to other organizational areas that impact on accessibility websites
ID12    Understand what to do when some web content isn't accessible
ID13    Learn how to check for accessibility to confirm developer claims
ID14    Consider the potential need to recruit personnel with specific accessibility expertise
ID15    Research lessons learned from the development of other websites within the organization
ID16    Budget and plan general awareness raising and targeted skills building training for team members
ID17    Assess expertise and motivation of key project personnel
ID18    Implement a public feedback process for accessibility issues
ID19    Learn how content should be managed to ensure it stays accessible
ID20    Ensure any third-party providers are aware of your accessibility requirements and your expectations
ID21    Update publication process to include accessibility checks
ID22    Include accessibility requirements as standard criteria in the recruitment process
ID23    Identify and assign responsibilities within the team
ID24    Find out what questions to ask developers to ensure they are able to deliver an accessible website
ID25    Evaluate all project design assets
ID26    Develop a knowledge sharing process to spread accessibility throughout organization
ID27    Modify brand guidelines to build accessibility in
ID28    Work with technical, design, and content teams to develop better understanding of accessibility
ID29    Work with legal department to ensure accessibility is part of purchasing process
ID30    Review related policies and procedures to incorporate the accessibility policy throughout
ID31    Evaluate throughout the project and ensure a comprehensive evaluation on completed website
ID32    Assess and track accessibility requirements
ID33    Create a policy to address accessibility of internal systems and tools
ID34    Report design and technical achievements and knowledge to other website teams
ID35    Identify external sources of accessible information and examples
ID36    Identify and document the project accessibility goals
ID37    Schedule regular reviews and updates of policies and processes
ID38    Find out more about what accessibility actually is
ID39    Identify any existing policies related to accessibility
ID40    Plan for a reasonable gap between completion and go-live to address any final barriers
ID41    Improve existing project management process to bake in accessibility
ID42    Explore organization's current approach, understanding, and view of accessibility
ID43    Prepare a business case for management highlighting the value accessibility brings
ID44    Communicate within the project and organization who the responsible parties are
ID45    Communicate accessibility aims and value to wider organization
ID46    Produce accessibility training materials for technical team
ID47    Communicate and promote the policy across relevant parts of the organization
ID48    Create and track metrics on accessibility improvements
ID49    Identify roles and assign responsibilities across different areas of the project
ID50    Understand what the legal risks are associated with accessibility

Results

As of 29th January 2015, 10 participants completed the exercise.

A report of the complete results is available. The similarity matrix and group list are available for download as an Excel file (File:Matrix analysis and responses.xlsx). Key results items include:

Hierarchy

Hierarchy — an SVG showing how the tasks cluster together. There are six clusters emerging:

• Cluster 1:
  • Communicate and promote the policy across relevant parts of the organization
  • Communicate accessibility aims and value to wider organization
  • Prepare and communicate an introduction to accessibility resource
  • Communicate within the project and organization who the responsible parties are
  • Report design and technical achievements and knowledge to other website teams
  • Develop a knowledge sharing process to spread accessibility throughout organization
  • Ensure any third-party providers are aware of your accessibility requirements and your expectations
• Cluster 2:
  • Create a policy to address accessibility of internal systems and tools
  • Review related policies and procedures to incorporate the accessibility policy throughout
  • Modify brand guidelines to build accessibility in
  • Work with legal department to ensure accessibility is part of purchasing process
  • Update publication process to include accessibility checks
  • Create a design briefing incorporating accessibility for design agency
• Cluster 3:
  • Schedule regular reviews and updates of policies and processes
  • Create a plan for regular checks and audits
  • Report to stakeholders the project accessibility successes and difficulties
  • Consider creating an organization wide accessibility monitoring and reporting framework
• Cluster 4:
  • Evaluate throughout the project and ensure a comprehensive evaluation on completed website
  • Plan for a reasonable gap between completion and go-live to address any final barriers
  • Evaluate all project design assets
  • Create and track metrics on accessibility improvements
  • Assess and track accessibility requirements
  • Improve existing project management process to bake in accessibility
• Cluster 5:
  • Budget and plan general awareness raising and targeted skills building training for team members
  • Assign responsibility to other organizational areas that impact on accessibility websites
  • Identify and assign responsibilities within the team
  • Identify and document the project accessibility goals
  • Identify roles and assign responsibilities across different areas of the project
  • Consider the potential need to recruit personnel with specific accessibility expertise
  • Identify and prioritize accessibility issues
  • Assess expertise and motivation of key project personnel
  • Include accessibility requirements as standard criteria in the recruitment process
• Cluster 6:
  • Learn how content should be managed to ensure it stays accessible
  • Learn how to check for accessibility to confirm developer claims
  • Understand what to do when some web content isn't accessible
  • Find out what questions to ask developers to ensure they are able to deliver an accessible website
  • Produce accessibility training materials for technical team
  • Work with technical, design, and content teams to develop better understanding of accessibility
• Cluster 7:
  • Understand the broad impact of accessibility and legal responsibilities
  • Understand what the legal risks are associated with accessibility
  • Find out more about what accessibility actually is
  • Identify the key reasons for accessibility
  • Explore organization's current approach, understanding, and view of accessibility
  • Identify any existing policies related to accessibility
  • Identify external sources of accessible information and examples
  • Research lessons learned from the development of other websites within the organization
  • Identify web authoring tools and review how well they support your accessibility goals
  • Review organizational design and development resources
  • Prepare a business case for management highlighting the value accessibility brings
  • Implement a public feedback process for accessibility issues

Similarity

Similarity — this an alternative representation of the clustering. It is a table with each card in the first column and then each subsequent column showing the percentage of times that it was placed with each other card. The table in the report is inaccessible, an accessible version has been created in the wiki. WARNING: This is an extremely large table and is provided for completeness only. This results summary should be more useful.

Group names

Group Names — provides the frequency of key words used as group names. Note these are not the complete group names. All group names have been categorized and are included below in the analysis section.

Analysis

Group Names

Group represent the overarching activities that tasks are part of. Knowing how users might think about these tasks allow for a structure that should better support how users might approach or seek the information.

Group names were reviewed and related names grouped together. These 16 groups will be reduced further to reduce the number of high level categories.

Activity based groups

• About accessibility, accessibility basics, Raise Awareness on Accessibility
• Assessment, Assessment, Evaluate, Evaluating Accessibility, Measure & Analysis, QA, qa, Remediation, Review, test
• Closing, Closing and BAU, Rollout & Closeout, Post-Implementation, Deliver
• Collaborate and Communicate, Communicate, communication, Communication Tasks, communications, L&D/Communication, org communication
• Discovery, discovery, Exploratory Planning, Initiating, Project Initiation
• Implement, Implementation, Implementation, Implementation, implementation, implementation, Implementation/Integration, Development and Implementation, Web accessibility implementation, Project implementation and review
• Legal, Legal/Risk
• monitor, Monitoring & Controlling, Monitoring/maintenance, Ongoing Maintenance & Operations, Maintenance, Proj. Mntr & Ctrl, Reporting, reporting, reporting and feedback
• Outreach, Outreach, Outreach, Ensure commitment, Identify Need & Develop Sponsorship
• Personal Development, Personnel, Personnel, Management & Hiring, Recruitment, Human Resources, Team management
• Plan, plan, Plan the project, Planning, Planning, Planning, Proj. Planning, Project Planning, Work/Project management, Development management, Including Accessibility in Project Management
• Policy, policy, Policy and process, Policy Preparation, create policy, Accessibility policy, A11y Statement/Policy
• Process Improvement, Your Accessibility Framework, Methodology, Internal Accessibility Process, Framework to Sustain Accessibility, Strategy to Implement Accessibility, Structure/leadership
• Procurement, Procurement, Procurement Tasks, Purchasing, Purchasing, 3rd-party vendors, Working with developers
• Project Management, Project Management, Project Managment, Project delivery, Your accessibility Project, scheduling
• Training, Internal Training, Training, Training, training, Training & Outreach, Training Tasks, skills & training, team education/tools, Build skills, Building Accessibility Skills, eductation, Build capacities

Role based groups

• Administrative Tasks
• Content management
• Devs
• Everyone
• Project Owner
• Project team
• Scrum Master

Purpose of group unclear

Participants who might recognize a group that they created are welcome to add a note to explain their rationale.

• accessibility functions
• Accessibility in your org
• Accessibility Initiative Planning
• Accessibility Resources
• Configuaration Mgmt
• Create/Edit
• Design & Build
• Documentation
• Executing
• Information on results
• Involve
• Preparation, Prepare
• Req. Mgmt, requirement gathering, Requirements, Requirements Analysis, Research, Research, Research and Planning
• Resource ID, Resource planning, Resources and Information
• Tools for implementation

Group overly focused

• Business Case for Accessibility
• Ideas
• Identify
• Publicly Reveal Intent
• Web Development Tasks

Cluster names and suggested content

This information is also provided, and explored further in Planning Categories.

This is a suggestion at what each of the clusters identified might refer to. The key tasks for each section indicate the best category for those tasks. Also included is the level that these activities might ideally be considered; organizational or project.

• Cluster 1 — Communication or Outreach (organizational)
  • Find out more about what accessibility actually is
  • Identify the key reasons for accessibility
  • Explore organization's current approach, understanding, and view of accessibility
  • Communicate accessibility aims and value to wider organization
  • Communicate within the project and organization who the responsible parties are
  • Report design and technical achievements and knowledge to other website teams
  • Develop a knowledge sharing process to spread accessibility throughout organization
  • Prepare a business case for management highlighting the value accessibility brings
• Cluster 2 — Process Improvement (organizational)
  • Ensure any third-party providers are aware of your accessibility requirements and your expectations
  • Modify brand guidelines to build accessibility in
  • Work with legal department to ensure accessibility is part of purchasing process
  • Update publication process to include accessibility checks
  • Create a design briefing incorporating accessibility for design agency
  • Improve existing project management process to bake in accessibility
  • Assign responsibility to other organizational areas that impact on accessibility websites
  • Include accessibility requirements as standard criteria in the recruitment process
  • Identify web authoring tools and review how well they support your accessibility goals
  • Review organizational design and development resources
• Cluster 3 — Maintenance or Monitoring (organizational)
  • Create a plan for regular checks and audits
  • Report to stakeholders the project accessibility successes and difficulties
  • Consider creating an organization wide accessibility monitoring and reporting framework
  • Implement a public feedback process for accessibility issues
• Cluster 4 — Reporting (organizational)
  • Create and track metrics on accessibility improvements
  • Assess and track accessibility requirements
• Cluster 5 — Project Management (project)
  • Evaluate throughout the project and ensure a comprehensive evaluation on completed website
  • Plan for a reasonable gap between completion and go-live to address any final barriers
  • Evaluate all project design assets
  • Identify and assign responsibilities within the team
  • Identify and document the project accessibility goals
  • Identify roles and assign responsibilities across different areas of the project
  • Identify and prioritize accessibility issues
  • Assess expertise and motivation of key project personnel
  • Research lessons learned from the development of other websites within the organization
• Cluster 6 — Training (organizational, project)
  • Prepare and communicate an introduction to accessibility resource
  • Budget and plan general awareness raising and targeted skills building training for team members
  • Consider the potential need to recruit personnel with specific accessibility expertise
  • Learn how content should be managed to ensure it stays accessible
  • Learn how to check for accessibility to confirm developer claims
  • Understand what to do when some web content isn't accessible
  • Find out what questions to ask developers to ensure they are able to deliver an accessible website
  • Produce accessibility training materials for technical team
  • Work with technical, design, and content teams to develop better understanding of accessibility
  • Identify external sources of accessible information and examples
• Cluster 7 — Policy (organizational, project)
  • Communicate and promote the policy across relevant parts of the organization
  • Create a policy to address accessibility of internal systems and tools
  • Review related policies and procedures to incorporate the accessibility policy throughout
  • Schedule regular reviews and updates of policies and processes
  • Understand the broad impact of accessibility and legal responsibilities
  • Understand what the legal risks are associated with accessibility
  • Identify any existing policies related to accessibility

Additional tasks

Identified tasks have come from many areas, some from personas, and some from work on other documents, e.g. Strategic Planning. The following additional tasks have been identified for consideration. The title is used to identify their provenance.

Review of Redundant Use Cases

• Budgetary planning for accessibility
• Dealing with inaccessible features post go-live
• Planning for running face-to-face accessibility testing
• Developing processes for on-going accessibility - e.g. how to maintain accessible content, what to do when new features are implemented
• Managing accessibility complaints

Considerations from working organizations

This tries to capture activities or approaches that successful organizations might have benefited from.

• Sharing and building on tested assets - e.g. HTML components or CSS
• Reviewing shared design assets, such as design or brand guidelines, and baking accessibility in
• Inviting members of other teams to attend face-to-face testing sessions
• Reading previous accessibility reports
• Knowledge sharing platforms
• For larger organizations, is accessibility better handled via a single department or as a distributed activity. What challenges are apparent in each situation?