Background

In addition to my regular day-to-day as a content designer for Google One, I represented content design for the team’s Accessibility Champions program. As part of the Accessibility Champions for Google One, I took part in the annual accessibility audit, created educational and self-service resources, and regularly partnered with QA to solve launch-blocking accessibility issues.

Problem

Google One as a product achieved the highest level of conformance to Google’s internal accessibility standards (like WCAG). But in usability tests during our audit, we found that a significant portion of participants who used assistive technologies ran into issues when attempting basic tasks. For example, choosing and subscribing to a Google One plan.

Approach

1: Figure out what I don’t know

To learn how people navigated the current Google One experience using assistive tech, my team and I remotely observed participants as they worked on a pre-defined list of tasks guided by an external researcher.

Participants used a range of tools, including:

• Visual: Magnification tools

• Motor: Keyboard navigation

• Hearing: Screen readers

2: Find viable opportunities for improvement

From the audit, I was able to assess how we both were and weren’t meeting critical accessibility needs. For example, our approach to CTAs for comparison tables:

• Situation: Accessibility guidelines commonly state that UI elements with text don’t need labels, since screen readers announce written text by default.

• Challenge: When it comes to things like comparison tables, this approach can be short-sighted. For the CTAs on this page, a screen reader would only announce, “Get started,” “Get started,” “Get started,” as users tabbed through the buttons. With so much info to juggle, like storage options, price, and benefit details, relying on button text alone can heavily burden users to recall or backtrack to make informed decisions.

• Solution: To improve cognitive load, I established a guideline to add custom, informative labels for comparison tables and lists. For example, have the screen reader announce: “Get started, Basic plan, 100 GB, $1.99/month,” when the user selects the “Get started” CTA for the Basic plan. As opposed to only: “Get started.”

3: Plant the seeds for change

Based on my learnings, I created a one-stop-shop for content accessibility guidelines. I presented this work to Google One design, product, and engineering teams and got leadership buy-in to implement these guidelines as an embedded part of the design and build process. I also socialized this resource to content designers Google-wide to encourage knowledge sharing.

This resource is confidential due to NDA, but included:

• Universal copy patterns for labels, organized by component type

• Examples and case studies from past Google One products, annotated with rationale for each decision

• Contextual cross-links to more educational resources for those who needed extra help for specific components

Result

With my work, I was able to:

• Speed up hand-off from design to engineering when marking designs with accessibility notes

• Ensure consistency and quality across the user experience for assistive tech

• Help build confidence and independence within my fellow team members!