Supporting the Redesign of BBC Ouch!

Introducing Ouch!

Ouch! is a website from the BBC that reflects the lives and experiences of disabled people.  The team behind Ouch! believes that coverage of disability on mainstream TV and in mainstream publications can be a bit dull, because it often seizes on the wrong things as being important or interesting.  Ouch! aims to report on how rich and varied the lives of disabled people are, through the eyes of people within the disability community.

The site features regular columns, features, quizzes, a monthly podcast, blogs and a community messageboard.  You can see the site for yourself at www.bbc.co.uk/ouch.

What was it all about?

The Ouch! website is in the process of a redesign.  The development team are taking the opportunity to improve the usability and accessibility of the site and are keen to understand and improve the Ouch! user experience.  System Concepts has worked closely with the team at Ouch! to gather user feedback on the design and content of the website and elicit user requirements for the redesign. 

How we went about it

User testing of the site enabled us to identify usability and accessibility issues that needed to be addressed within the redesign.  Following this, we ran focus group sessions to explore potential design ideas and concepts for the future of Ouch!

Fourteen users, or potential users, of the site were recruited to take part in the sessions.  All of the participants had a link to the disability community, including people with disabilities (visual, motor or cognitive impairments), through to carers and youth workers.

The sessions were designed to be engaging, interactive, inclusive and fun.  Each session involved discussion, demonstrations, rating activities and creative exercises.

The sessions explored users’ stories and needs for disability information on the web, as well as their desires for how this information should be written, presented and communicated.  We gathered opinions on some new features that are being considered for the site, and also explored different concepts for the overall look and feel, including how the site should interact with assistive technologies. 
Throughout the sessions, we encouraged participants to develop and share their own design ideas.  The aim was to gain a better understanding of Ouch!’s target audience; their likes and dislikes of the current website and what they would like to see from the redesign.

What was the outcome?

We presented the Ouch! team with information about potential users of their site and the different contexts in which it might be used in a variety of ways including:

• A high level report
• Prioritised user requirements
• A set of persona cards describing some core users of the site 
• Screen mockups demonstrating how the recommendations could be applied
• DVD recordings showing users

The client experience

 We were impressed with the way in which System Concepts led a group of very diverse individuals, enabling their discussions, appreciating their varied access needs, and guiding them through the complex ideas not only of Ouch's current proposition, but also the ideas we have for future developments. The results of the focus group have been invaluable in influencing the direction of the project.  Vaughan Simons, Assistant Content Producer, Ouch!

The participant experience

I just wanted to say thank you for making my first experience of participating in a focus group so enjoyable.  I hope the information you got from us was useful in your study and that you will be able to progress the project including the feedback produced.  It was also interesting to share other people’s perspective on accessibility issues. Jean 

If you are interested in finding out more about how accessible your website is and learning more about improving the user experience, please contact us.