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  • About DS Learn
  • Tutorials
    • ¶ Digital Exhibits
      • Getting Started with Digital Exhibits
        • Considerations
        • Basic Steps
          • Site Organization
          • Usability & Accessibility
        • Platforms
    • ¶ Digital Storytelling
      • Introduction to ArcGIS StoryMaps
        • Getting Started
        • Using Content Blocks
        • Importing Maps from David Rumsey
      • Introduction to KnightLab StoryMap JS
      • TimelineJS
    • ¶ 3D Modeling & Immersive Technology
      • Adding 3D Models in Omeka
      • Intro to Photo Processing with Agisoft Metashape for 3D Model Making
      • Tips and Tricks for Taking Photos for 3D Model Creation
      • An Introduction to Apple's Reality Composer AR
      • Importing SketchFab Models into AR for the iPad or iPhone
      • Creating Basic 3D Objects for AR in Blender
      • Introduction to Meshlab
    • ¶ Data Visualization
      • Introduction to Tableau
        • Download and Install Tableau
        • Using Tableau to Visualize COVID-19 Data
        • Tableau DH
        • Resources
      • Beyond Simple Chart in Tableau
        • Beyond Simple chart Examples
      • Google Colab
        • Get Started
        • Data Import
        • Data Wangling
        • Visualization
        • Results Export
      • Out of Box Data Visualization Tools
        • How to use Google Data Studio with Google Sheets
        • Google Data Studio Interface
        • Creating Visualizations in Google Data Studio
    • ¶ Mapping
      • Tiling High-Resolution Images for Knightlab StoryMapJS
      • Hosting and Displaying Zoomable Images on Your Webpage
      • Georectifying Historical Maps using MapWarper
      • Making a Starter Map using Leaflet
    • ¶ REST API
      • How does REST API work?
      • JSON File
      • Get Started with Google Sheets Script Editor
      • Example 1: Extract Data by One Cell
      • Example 2: Extract Data by A Cell Range
    • ¶ Text Analysis
      • Introduction to Text Analysis
        • Step 1: Exercise One
        • Step 2: What is Text Analysis?
        • Step 3: Important Considerations
        • Step 4: Why Voyant and Lexos?
        • Step 5: Exercise Two
      • Text Repositories
      • Text Analysis in JSTOR
        • Overview of Constellate
        • Build A Dataset
        • Create A Stopwords List
        • Word Frequency
  • Digital Scholarship Incubator
    • Schedule
    • Getting Started
    • People
    • Project Guidelines
    • Topics
      • 3D Modeling and Immersive Technologies
        • Part 1: 3D Photogrammetry & Laser Scanning
          • Exercise: Experiment with 3D creation tools
        • Part 2: An Introduction to Apple's Reality Composer AR
          • Exercise: Experiment with Apple RealityComposer AR
      • Anatomy of a DS Project
        • Parts of a DS Project
        • Some DS Project Examples
        • Exercise: Evaluating a DS Project
      • Pedagogy
      • Data and Data Visualization
        • Introduction to Data
        • Introduction to Data Visualization
        • Introduction to Tableau
          • Download and Install Tableau
        • Introduction to Network Visualization
      • Digital Exhibits
        • Exercise 1: Exploring Exhibits
        • Exercise 2: Exhibit.so
      • DS Intro & Methodologies
      • User Experience
        • Usability Exercise
      • Mapping and GIS
        • An Introduction to Mapping, GIS and Vector Data
          • Workshop: Exploring and Creating Vector Data
          • Quick Review: Spatial Data
        • An Introduction to Raster Data and Georeferencing Historical Maps
          • Workshop: Finding and Georeferencing an Historical Map
          • Tutorial: Georectifying Historical Maps using MapWarper
        • Presentation + Workshop: Putting it together in ArcGIS Online
        • Workshop: A Brief Introduction to QGIS
          • Adding Base-maps and Raster Data
          • Adding and Creating Basic Vector Data
          • Styling your data and preparing it for exporting
      • Story Maps
        • Story Map Exercise
      • Text Analysis
        • Exercise 1: Voyant
        • Exercise 2: Python
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  • Key Basics
  • Resources

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  1. Tutorials
  2. ¶ Digital Exhibits
  3. Getting Started with Digital Exhibits
  4. Basic Steps

Usability & Accessibility

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Last updated 2 years ago

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In addition to the design and structuring of the exhibit site, usability and accessibility are also necessary aspects to consider when building your project.

  • Usability means how effectively users can interact with and navigate a site.

  • Accessibility means how effectively users with disabilities or technological disadvantages (e.g., slow internet access) can use a site and how equivalent their experience is with the experience of users who do not have such challenges. Often steps taken to better serve the disabled also serve those who are technologically disadvantaged, e.g., video transcripts can serve the hearing impaired and those who do not have the internet bandwidth to play a video.

Key Basics

Visual Design - A good rule to follow is to keep it simple. A lot of different colors, decorative elements, and busy layouts can make the exhibit more difficult to navigate and the information more difficult to process. This is especially true for those with disabilities.

Page Organization and Layout - Breaking up the text into logical sections makes it easier to read. (Avoid having a "wall" of text.)

Headers - Use headers and subheaders to help logically break up the content on a page and to introduce/frame the information to come. This will make the page more readable and easier for screen readers to navigate.

Contrast - There needs to be strong contrast between the background and text. This means the colors need to have enough difference between them (both in intensity and hue) and that text is not on top of an image that makes it difficult to read. (There are s for checking contrast.)

Fonts - Avoid using ornate and difficult to read fonts and avoid using all caps.

Alt Text - Images should have alt text. Read more:

Captions - Videos should have captions.

Transcripts - Audio files (e.g., podcasts) should have transcripts; having transcripts for videos is also helpful and necessary if captions are not possible.

Resources

The following resources provide more helpful information on accessibility:

()

for checking accessibility, e.g., contrast and screen reader functionality

browser extension
Web Accessibility Initiative
Harvard Digital Accessibility Guidelines
Essential Components of Web Accessibility
full guidelines
"Usability" from the Interaction Design Foundation
Usability.gov
Web browser extensions list