Process for designing the Process

Background

This page is a consolidation of brainstorming ideas on creating a process to design Silver. This page answers the question:

How might we design a process for creating the next version of accessibility guidelines—one that will lead to a successful outcome?

This document is the list of options. From here, we will assemble three proposals to share with the WCAG WG.

Design Methods

• Design thinking: An approach to making that uses design methods and designer sensibilities to explore options that match up what people need with what is feasible and sustainable.
• Participatory design: A design approach that involves active user and stakeholder participation in research and design activities, and in decision-making.
• User-centered design: A design approach where user needs and preferences drive decision-making, as identified through research and inquiry.

Considerations

• Funding ($, $$, $$$)
• Keeping the process moving
• Transparency
• Follows W3C Process
• How to communicate work without causing concern
• How to keep people engaged and responding along the way
• How to address diversity in communication — e.g., language
• Time — How much time do we have to publish Silver
• Evolution — How can we support more frequent changes

Project Phases

Each phase has Objectives and Methods. The Methods are a variety of actions that will eventually be grouped into the thematically-organized option choices for the WCAG WG. Under the Methods section, there are sub-phases. Each option presented to the WCAG WG will have at least one Method for each phase and sub-phase. These phases directly feed into the subsequent phase, regardless of the methods used within:

1. Discovery (research)
2. Interpretation (analysis)
3. Ideation (creating ideas)
4. Experimentation (producing and testing prototypes)
5. Production (creating Silver)

Phase 1: Discovery

Understand needs, identify opportunities

Objectives

• Learn from people who use WCAG currently
  • As a design spec
  • As a technical standard
  • To measure compliance
  • To document compliance
  • To support laws and regulations
  • To teach accessibility
• Learn from people impacted directly or indirectly by WCAG currently
  • Web visitors
  • Web/mobile application users
  • Web/mobile content creators
  • Web/mobile application creators
  • IT Implementors/Support
  • People who create adaptations of WCAG
  • Others?

Various Methods that could be used to achieve the objectives

User research

Stakeholder map

• What: Consolidate and communicate constituents and relationships
• Why: Learn about stakeholders for Silver user research
• How: Brainstorming session (phone or in person)

Survey

• What: Administer a survey
• Why: Learn about experiences, perceptions of using WCAG
• How: Online survey

Stakeholder interviews

• What: Interview thought leaders, others on their use of WCAG
• Why: Learn about experiences, perceptions of using WCAG
• How: Could be done via phone

Self-reporting

• What: Combination of interviews and survey/reporting on use of WCAG
• Why: Learn about experiences, perceptions of using of WCAG
• How: Observe how people report using WCAG
• Could be done via phone and with self-reporting vehicle

Contextual inquiry interviews

• What: Combination of interviews and observation of use of WCAG
• Why: Learn about experiences, perceptions of using of WCAG
• How: Observe how people use WCAG
• Best done in person

Research

Secondary research

• Collect and synthesize existing information and data
• Learn about standards evolution from comparable efforts with more data/evidence (look at HTML5)
• Done through literature/article reviews and interviews

WCAG analysis

• Systematic examination of WCAG and its component parts, including the guidelines and the process of creating/maintaining WCAG
• Learn about the technical, cultural, and practical aspects of WCAG
• Done through inventory and analysis

Analysis of adaptations

• Systematic examination of secondary adaptations/interpretations/resources
• Learn about…
• Done through inventory and analysis

Literature/article review

• Systematic examination of articles about WCAG
• Learn about the technical, cultural, and practical aspects of WCAG
• Done through literature/article reviews and analysis

Phase 2: Interpretation

Transform data into insights

Objectives

• Synthesize data from discovery phase into actionable insights, considerations, recommendations, etc.
• Communicate insights via reports, blog articles, presentations

Methods

Synthesis

Case studies

• Articles that capture details about how people use WCAG

Personas

• Composite descriptions of people who use WCAG

User stories

• Short stories describing how personas use WCAG

Analysis

Analysis/inventory

• Identify themes/insights
• Choose key themes/insights to pursue

Grouping

• Affinity diagram
  • Note individual observations on post-its, create clusters and describe them
• Card sorting
  • Participatory design method for creating groupings

Communication

• Report of conclusions of the research and interpretations
• List of topics for the ideation workshop (10 weeks before workshop date)
• Key themes/insights
• Diagrams

Phase 3: Ideation

Build insights and opportunities into possibilities

Objectives

• Identify viable options for structure and substance of Silver
• Choose a subset of viable options to use for experimentation

Methods

Concept Generation

Design studio workshop (face-to-face meeting)

• Brainstorming: Take what we’ve learned about what’s needed and brainstorm a way forward for Silver
  • Generate ideas
  • Group ideas
  • Vote for ideas
  • Discuss results
• Sketch and refine: Take ideas and sketch/workshop them, refine them based on feedback
  • Describe core values of approach
  • Describe constraints
• Define approach

W3C Workshop

• Need 10 weeks between announcing workshop and workshop date
• Participants would need to write a paper on a specific topic to attend
• Could be Ideation on first day and Experimentation phase on 2nd day
• Workshops take a lot of preparation which can take at least a month
• need funding for travel for stakeholders who don't have corporate sponsors so that we do not filter out non-corporate input.

Online design workshop

• E.g., OpenIDEO: https://openideo.com/
  • Needs sponsor

Hybrid F2F and online

• could be Meet-up workshops or track in a conference (like A11yTO or A11yBos)

Surveys/questionnaires

• Structured activity on IG mailing list, WebAIM mailing list

Choosing

• Voting (as part of F2F meetings or workshop)
• Consensus decision by subgroup

Phase 4: Experimentation

Make possibilities tangible and testable and choose an approach

Objectives

• Build out options and test their viability
• Adjust options based on insights from feedback
• Choose an approach

Methods

Prototyping

• Create prototypes
  • Starting from sketches from the Workshop or Ideation
  • From minimal framework or components to in-depth experience
  • could be Day2 of a W3C Workshop where the ideas from Day1 are taken by teams and built into prototypes for Day 2. Workshop report includes prototypes and the pros and cons of each prototype.
• broad dissemination to WCAG users for comments
• follow-up with interviewees and survey participants with proposal

User research

• A/B testing
  • Compare two versions to see which works better for a given task

User journeys

• Put personas in motion and create user stories

Focus groups

• Presentations at conferences

Desirability Testing

• Positive, negative, neutral responses to different options

Refinement

• Refine prototypes
• Incorporate feedback

Choosing

• Voting
• Consensus decision by sub group

Phase 5: Production and Evolution

Create Silver

Objectives

• Mandatory step 1: Come up with a requirements document
  • Structure of Silver
  • Substance of Silver
• Create Silver

Methods

Resourcing

• Establish resources
• Creating
• Establish partnerships with key W3C Members donating Fellow time to WCAG
• Hiring an editor for the spec

Project Management

• Identify specific milestones for creation of Silver, based on requirements document
• Clarify and communicate the process of creating Silver
• Identify key positions and people who will fill them

Production

• Find a way to broadly crowdsource creation of the spec
• Hold workshop for people to work in small groups to craft the spec
  • Each small group would take a chunk, write it, reconvene
• Give individuals in the WG responsibilities for each section of the spec, managing them and holding them to writing it on a given timeline.

Design Process Resources

Design methods

• Participatory design: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/discovering-unmet-needs-new-solutions-through-participatory-design-tickets-26331199326
• Design thinking: https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge
• User-centered design: http://creativegood.com/experience-strategy/