How can you ensure IT solutions are user-friendly and accessible to all users?

The first step to ensuring IT solutions are user-friendly and accessible is to understand the diverse needs of your users, including those with disabilities. This involves recognizing the importance of inclusive design and accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It’s essential to conduct regular testing with assistive technologies and gather feedback from individuals with disabilities to identify and address accessibility issues promptly. By doing so, you can improve the user experience for everyone.

Let's reframe the question, what business activity or people action are we trying to optimise or fix? Who are the people that are struggling and how can we use IT to solve their challenges? With this mindset the end user is front and centre of any IT solution, BTW there is no such thing as an IT solution, else all you have is a catalog filled with unused code.

In hospitality management consulting, ensuring that IT solutions are user-friendly and accessible to all users is paramount for delivering exceptional guest experiences. Drawing from personal experiences, I've encountered situations where complex IT systems created friction for staff and guests alike. To address this, a multidimensional approach is key. Firstly, involving end-users, such as hotel staff and guests, in the design and testing phases ensures that their needs and preferences are considered from the outset. This participatory approach fosters a sense of ownership and buy-in, increasing the likelihood of successful adoption.

An Enterprise, when modeled as a system, comprises three parts: Business Model, Operating Model and Ecosystem Model. For Technology Solutions, in this context, there are two types of users: Internal users that enables the Operating Model and External users that the enterprise is servicing or being serviced as part of the Ecosystem Model. For both, you are enabling/improving the capabilities of either the user or a capability that a user is a part of. Understanding the current capability in terms of its effectiveness, efficacy and efficiency will help design a quantifiably-improved capability. This involves identifying the user/usage varieties and designing their current and target experiences and thus understanding and designing for them.

Put yourself in the shoes in the user. What is it that you would change in how you access your services? Is it less clicks, one-window solution, the time it takes for someone to get back to you, easy solution without putting the onus back on you as the user?

We often neglect to test internal systems and processes, but by making time for research and testing we can save time and money in the long run. Speak to people using the existing solutions: what's frustrating about them, that could be fixed? What's good, that you should try to retain? Test your ideas for improvement, or new tools you might be thinking of procuring, before committing to them.

To ensure IT solutions are user-friendly and accessible to all users, employ user-centric design principles, incorporating feedback from diverse user groups throughout the development process. Conduct thorough usability testing to identify and address potential accessibility barriers. Implement accessibility standards such as WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) to ensure compatibility with assistive technologies. Provide training and support to promote user understanding and engagement. Regularly update and refine the interface based on user feedback to continuously improve accessibility and usability.

A continuing improvement User-Centric Design framework can help on this. Leveraging the 'Golden Triangle' pillars: PEOPLE: At the heart and pivotal of this transformation lies the cultivation of a user-centric mindset within your team and partner network. PROCESS: Transformative change necessitates a thorough understanding of "your customer", market dynamics and industry best practices. This entails a holistic reevaluation of workflows spanning the business-to-IT continuum, + digital capabilities delivery. TOOLS: The implementation of appropriate tools are instrumental in driving tangible outcomes. Central to this endeavor are measurement tools designed to illuminate the user experience landscape through data-driven insights.

Understanding users and crafting fitting solutions can be likened to building a house – one needs to know who will be living there and what they need. User personas are akin to imagining different types of people who might reside in your house, based on what you've learned about them. User journey mapping helps you visualize the path people take through your house, indicating where they might encounter obstacles or frustrations. Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) is about comprehending the genuine reasons people desire a house – not solely a shelter, but what they aspire for it to provide. These tools, along with others like design thinking and usability testing, aid in understanding users' perspectives and creating products they will enjoy using.

Establish SLAs and communicate them with your users. As long as your audience is aware of your standards, they will work with you.

Frameworks and best practices for standards should enable accessibility and not control it. This is the maturity and evolution from controlling to enabling which is very powerful. Only apply in context to maintain the value of what you build. Stakeholders should have a champion from the community, whom you advise, as they take ownership of the standards to enable a enriched solution.

It is a very important question. This is what we do to make the users feel it is all about them and show them the value 1. User journey: understand the user personas, who are they, what they do etc. 2. Pain & gain: understand pain points, where they are facing issues, what they would like to fix/improve, what value they are looking for both implicit and explicit etc. 3. Rapid prototypes: build prototypes, continuously review, make changes, repeat and rinse till it is ready 4. Inclusive design: accessibility, inclusivity, usability, alternate text, user friendly messages etc. 5. Demos: frequent demos, collect feedback, continuous improvement 6. Analytics: sentiment analysis, service usability, improvement areas etc.

Establish clear, measurable criteria for what constitutes user-friendly and accessible design. Refer to international standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and incorporate principles from frameworks like Design Thinking. Your standards should cover a range of aspects including usability, readability, navigation, and compatibility with assistive technologies, ensuring they are adaptable to users' varied needs and preferences.

I found the following approaches and techniques effective ways of involving the users in the design process: 1. Co-design workshops: Facilitate collaborative workshops where users and the design team work together to generate ideas, co-create prototypes, and iterate on design concepts. Co-design workshops promote active participation, creativity, and shared ownership of the solution. 2. User journey mapping: again using a workshop setting to work with key stakeholders to visualise users' end-to-end experiences across various touchpoints and channels. User journey mapping helps identify key moments of interaction, pain points, and opportunities for improvement from the users' perspective.

Whose solutions are they? Once you are clear on this, and if you treat the solutions like the users and not yours, you automatically get to a different way of working, engaging and outcome. If you treat them like yours, there is a risk that you feel precious when users suggest changes to what you perceive are “your solutions”. For example, you’ll be more likely to involve them early, involve them consistently and continuously, involve them properly, and genuinely listen to them, not treat their contributions as a rubber stamp.

Aqui difero, se debe mas bien involucrar a los diseñadores con el usuario final, entender su perfil, motivaciones, experiencia con aplicativos similares, que significa para el que sea facil de usar un aplicativo etc... Existen herramientas tecnologicas, estandares de desarrollo, buenas practicas corporativas, etc... pero no existe un usuario estandar, de modo que es parte importante tener algun tipo de aproximacion con el usuario final para mejorar nuestro diseño

Engage with users from throughout the design process. Use co-design sessions, prototypes, and feedback loops to involve users directly, ensuring their voices and needs shape the design and development. This approach fosters solutions that are genuinely user-centered, as it allows for real-time adjustments based on user input, enhancing both usability and accessibility.

One of the best ways to gain credibility and ensure adoption is to identify champions or strong advocates whom others recognize as people they admire and who are leaders (official or unofficial). They should be integral to the change and will be a key success factor for a successful implementation.

I usually start with google sprints, no matter the maturity of the product, and design the results. The easiest way how to find out the user-friendliness is laying between 2 questions: what do you see here? and what do you understand? Then I just check that during each next step of the CJM persons can reach their goals without hesitation and any help.And only after that I check devices, test solutions and do integrations.

Apply the standards and insights gathered to develop solutions that are intuitive, easy to navigate, and compatible with assistive technologies. Ensure the content is understandable by the intended audience, interfaces are consistent, and information is easily accessible. Test your solutions in diverse environments and with a broad range of devices and assistive tools to ensure broad accessibility.

Never forget to go talk to your helpdesk team. They know a lot and should always be interviewed before anyone else (in my opinion) !

Continuously assess the effectiveness of IT solutions through user feedback, usability testing, and accessibility audits. Use these evaluations to identify areas for enhancement, making iterative improvements. Foster an ongoing dialogue with users to keep refining the user experience and accessibility, adapting to emerging needs and technologies.

Promoting is nice (and most often fun). Making it the "default option" for the organisation is, I think, better because then, you cannot avoid it. What does that mean concretely? It means the whole organisation is set to look in that direction and has embraced the most important principles of user centred & accessible design. Getting there is not easy and is certainly a long way, especially if it's not originally part of your company's DNA. However, I don't see any good reason not to aim for that !

Prototype your solution and show the user how it would work in real life before the actual development. Prototypes are always easier to digest than unwieldy process flow diagrams.

Additionally, prioritizing simplicity and intuitiveness in the user interface design streamlines navigation and reduces the learning curve for users of varying technical proficiencies. Furthermore, incorporating accessibility features, such as screen readers and keyboard navigation accommodates individuals with disabilities and enhances inclusivity Regular feedback loops and iterative improvements based on user insights and analytics further refine the usability and accessibility of IT solutions over time. By combining user-centric design principles with ongoing engagement and refinement hospitality businesses can optimize IT solutions to meet the diverse needs of their staff and guests ultimately enhancing overall satisfaction and loyalty.

Understand the client's journey and have a clear view of the outcome.. Outcome-based solutions are the best way to ensure that the client gets the required support and solutions.. Many projects stumble because the focus is on implementing IT solutions without considering whether it is actually required to achieve the end result/outcome..

Let the user engage and interact with the solutions early and often as it evolves eg a proof of concept; this will make a positive contribution to change adoption