Brief summary
The Web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been working on improving the accessibility (a11y) of Wikipedia interfaces through changes to typography and other interventions. The Wikimedia design team is interested in learning more about how reading preferences or reading themes could help to improve readability and accessibility for readers with different a11y needs.
This project will require proficiency in Figma or a willingness to learn Figma. This project will be self-directed with support from design managers and the designers on the Consumers Pod. The goal of this project is to create a series of prototypes developed with specific accessibility needs in mind that can be tested with real users from these audiences. The outcomes of this project will be used as inputs for future planning and internal communication.
Skills required
Specific technologies required
- Figma proficiency: Ability to navigate through Figma files including components, variables, tokens, and libraries.
Skills required
- Research and synthesis: Ability to read through best practices and perform desk research to determine what interventions would have the highest impact for different target audiences with different accessibility needs.
- Design systems: Experience utilizing design systems such as Material Design, the Human Interface Guidelines or internal design systems.
- Consistency and Standards: Ability to recognize and maintain consistency in design elements by adhering to design principles and standards.
- Testing: Ability to test and verify that proposed designs provide measurable improvements in readability and reading comfort for target audiences.
- Adaptability: Willingness and ability to continuously seek out opportunities to develop skills, learn from others.
- Documentation: Ability to clearly and efficiently document learnings throughout the process and share issues that arise in a timely manner.
- Time management: Think tactically about the best way to deliver the task at hand.
Learning outcomes
- Technical Skills Development: Mentee will gain hands-on experience with Figma, enhancing their proficiency in navigating and utilizing design components and libraries.
- Accessibility (a11y) Insights: The mentee will deepen their understanding of accessibility principles by researching and implementing design solutions tailored for readers with diverse accessibility needs. They will gain insights into various a11y considerations, and learn how to apply these insights to create more inclusive designs.
- Understanding of Design Systems: Mentee will gain knowledge and experience utilizing a design system and adhering to design systems to their work.
- Documentation and Communication: Mentee will improve their documentation and communication skills through creating documentation for
- Collaboration and Mentorship: Mentee will gain experience working with design managers and mentors, learning to effectively communicate and collaborate on design projects.
- Time Management and Task Prioritization: Mentee will develop their ability to manage time and prioritize tasks effectively with the support of design managers.
Possible mentor(s)
If you have questions about this project or the tasks below, please respond to this Phabricator ticket. Please do not email mentors, any questions emailed directly to mentors (via email or LinkedIn) will not be responded to. Having all the questions on Phabricator helps the mentors keep track of where help is needed and also benefits the other participants.
Project coordination and support from @cmadeo. Additional, design mentorship support from @JScherer-WMF
Microtasks
Designing with real users in mind
- Read through this story from the W3C about Stefan, a student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia and this interview with Simone, a dyslexic reader from gov.uk.
- Conduct additional research as needed to learn more about how to design better reading experiences for people who are dyslexic (potential starting points include W3C:WAI, gov.uk and the British Dyslexia Association's Style Guide). While the focus here is on designing for dyslexia, it is okay if you include additional general accessibility improvements or improvements for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Using Figma and the Codex Figma Kit, propose a redesign Wikipedia:Community_portal desktop page, NOT mobile with the needs of dyslexic readers in mind. Please do not edit the portal page on wiki, your designs should be presented in Figma.
- Annotate your file to explain the changes you've made and provide design rationale.
- Name your file (DyslexiaRedesign_YourFullName) and ensure that it is accessible to 'anyone.'
- Download a local copy of your Figma file.
Documenting your experience
Please denote if you utilize an AI tool (such as ChatGPT) to assist you with this task. Proofreading is the only permitted use for AI tools in completing this task.
- Write-up the steps you took to complete the microtask above.
- Share any insights you learned from your research.
Share your task
- Create a subtask from this ticket in Phabricator:
- Remove the Developer-Outreach project tag in the "Tags" field from your subtask, and remove all unrelated subscribers except for mentors.
- In the project description, include your .fig file along with your documentation. Feel free to link out to a document for your documentation or to use the description space in the ticket.
Microtask evaluation
- Quality of design assets: Is the final design adherent to best practices and respective of the broader Wikipedia.org ecosystem?
- Quality of Figma file: Is the file well organized and easy to use?
- Communication and creativity: Was documentation clear and easy to follow? Were creative approaches used to complete the task? AI tools (such as ChatGPT) should have only been used for proofreading.
As we will only provide one round of feedback for each applicant, we recommend submitting your task when you are fairly confident it is in a complete state. You will not be evaluated on the quality of your initial task, but rather how you adapt to the feedback so it's okay to have mistakes, etc., in your task in the initial review and you will not be penalized for that. If you would like to ensure that your task receives a round of feedback please submit it by end of day UTC on October 16.
If you have received feedback from the mentors, we recommend that you include information about the changes you made based on the feedback you received.
