Digital accessibility of low-income housing Julia Couch, Ben Kozlowski,

Shannon Li, Madeleine Singh

aid for marginalized user groups UM School of Information

We worked with the Ferndale Housing Commission to make its website more usable for its prospective UX Design Capstone 2021-2022
and current residents. These users belong to a lower income bracket and encounter usability challenges
as a result of low literacy, English as a second language, and physical and mental disabilities.

OVERVIEW THE PROCESS OUR SOLUTION IMPACT

01 The Client 01 User Research 01 Resource Organization 01 Increased customer

FHC is a housing authority
that provides low-income
housing to Michigan
families and citizens.
satisfaction
We spoke to existing FHC We separated the FHC
residents to hear about their website into resources for According to user feedback,
experiences with the website, Applicants, Section 8 CSAT increased 1.2 points

as well as their frustrations. Residents, and Public between the existing design
Housing residents.

and our redesign.

Its website is used to list
program information and
serve as a resource for
current and potential
residents.
02 The Problem
FHC’s website lacked visual
hierarchy, which makes it
harder to use. Resident and
applicant resources were
relatively unorganized.
03 The Goal
03 Accessibility Aids
Make the FHC website
accessible to the most
users, regardless of their
literacy level or technical
expertise; Simplify common
processes; Reduce
abandonment rate.
tested via moderated testing.
02 Design Requirements
We used research insights to
create a list of design
requirements, which included
organizational and visual
improvements.
03 High-Fi Designs
Two sets of designs (mobile
and desktop) were produced
with Figma according to the
design specifications.
04 Evaluation
New designs were tested with
users in the target
demographic via UserBrain;
secondary iterations were
the site’s web developer.
This way, users won’t need
to process information that
isn’t relevant to their needs.
02 Improved Hierarchy
By using a variety of visual
formatting, text sizing, and
iconography, we were able
to make information more
digestible.
To ensure that the FHC site
is friendly to all users, we
also found accessibility aids
such as browser-enabled
language translation and
text-to-speech. These
findings were passed onto
after the project is complete.
02 Discoverability
According to testing data,
users are able to find
information more easily on
the redesigned pages.
03 Improved Aesthetic
Users felt that our redesign
“brought the website into
the 21st century.”
04 Future Iterations
By including design rationale
with our final set of designs,
our client and her developer
will be able to continue
ensuring accessibility even