Today we worked with accessibility in dashboard week. The main reason that we incorporate accessibility in dashboards is to ensure that as many people as possible can interpret and use them.
This fits in with the notion of universal design. Universal design refers to making one single dashboard design that most people can use without adaptation.
Our task was to take an existing dashboard and retrofit its design to fit a neurodiverse audience, specifically an audience with dyscalculia.
The symptoms of dyscalculia include:
- Difficulty counting and recognising numbers
- Difficulty with mathematical concepts and tasks, such as adding and subtracting
- Difficulty interpreting graphs and charts
- Inability to calculate without using a calculator
The main changes that we made to our dashboard were:
- Abbreviating 000's to K's and M's to make numbers shorter and clearer to read
- Replacing a numerical table with a bar chart
- Reducing the number of lines on a line chart to only show relevant information
- Reorganised the dashboard to be less crowded and overwhelming
- Added buttons to switch between different charts