On the first day of DS37's dashboard week, we were tasked with incorporating more accessible features into pre-existing dashboards. In my case, this meant examining some of TIL's software sales dashboard, and remodeling it to better reflect the needs of those with dyscalculia. Any other accessible features that could be added would also be welcome.
For those who are as naïve as I was, dyscalculia is the numerical cousin of dyslexia. Those who have dyscalculia can find themselves struggling with comparisons between two numbers, interpretation of longer numbers and mathematical operations like addition and subtraction. Like dyslexia, dyscalculia is not a reflection of intelligence, academic or technical ability, but a difference in how a dyscalculic mind interprets numbers.
As such, it's important to shorten numbers, reducing decimal points and representing numbers in the thousands or millions. The dashboard also had a number of KPIs and other visible numbers, which could be difficult to interpret for someone with dyscalculia. Converting as many of these numbers into charts will make it more accessible, so long as the original trends can be preserved. Finally, using string-formatted dates should improve the experience, as comparing number-formatted dates can be a significant challenge for those with dyscalculia.
Overall the dashboard alterations I made were well received, however it left a few key areas to explore further.
- Currencies were not fully accounted for on my dashboard. Sales were made across three currencies and often amounts were unlabeled due to the complexity of dividing up aggregated sales.
- The summary of the last 5 orders was not significantly changed, leaving 5 numbers near each-other that could easily be confused. Offering each of those orders individually may have helped the user avoid confusion.
Additionally, steps could have been taken to improve accessibility more broadly. While the colour palette selected was colour-blind-friendly, the focus order was not examined, leaving keyboard-only users with a potentially difficult dashboard navigation. Additionally, I did not manage to solve the issue of adding alt-text to a dynamic image, leaving users without a clear description of the logos in the top left corner. I could not find a solution to it this afternoon, but I would be interested to see if someone could resolve this, when the image is more consequential to the design.
I would like to think that I've started the week well, but there's a long way to go. Here's looking forward to the rest of dashboard week!