How to design cognitively accessible digital design patterns for booking tickets: A participative study with Easy-to-Read users.

Paper Title

How to design cognitively accessible digital design patterns for booking tickets: A participative study with Easy-to-Read users.

Publication Info

• Topic area: Cognitive accessibility in digital design for people with intellectual disabilities.
• Keywords: Cognitive accessibility, Easy-to-Read (ETR) users, participatory design, user experience (UX), design patterns, ticket booking, accessibility guidelines, digital inclusion, usability testing, sociotechnical issues.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Current digital services and design patterns often fail to meet the needs of Easy-to-Read (ETR) users, a subgroup of people with intellectual disabilities. Existing accessibility guidelines are vague, and there is limited research and testing involving this group.
• Significance: Improving digital accessibility for ETR users is critical for their inclusion in digital society, especially as online services become increasingly essential for daily activities like booking tickets.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has shown that ETR users benefit from simplified language, clear typography, and reduced cognitive load. However, most studies lack participatory design approaches, real-world testing, and focus on ETR-specific needs. This study addresses these gaps by involving ETR users and UX experts in the design and testing process.

Solution

• Proposed approach: A UX-enhanced participatory design (PD) process to create and test cognitively accessible design patterns for ticket booking.
• Novelty:
  1. Integration of professional UX expertise into participatory design workshops.
  2. Development of high-fidelity prototypes with real-world ecological validity.
  3. Systematic evaluation of design patterns for ETR users in a ticket booking use case.
  4. Identification of sociotechnical barriers and user types for tailoring digital services.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted three participatory design workshops with four ETR co-researchers and a UX expert.
  • Developed and tested three design pattern variants for ticket selection and ordering processes.
  • Used quantitative (task success rates) and qualitative (user feedback) methods to evaluate usability.
  • Analyzed sociotechnical barriers and user behaviors to inform design recommendations.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Success rates for selecting events ranged from 70% to 86% for different design variants.
  • Variant C (text on images and enriched lists) performed best, with 79% success in complex tasks.
  • 100% of participants successfully used buttons designed with abundant visual and textual cues.
  • Sociotechnical barriers, such as lack of payment methods and fear of mistakes, hindered task completion.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Improved usability for ETR users compared to existing guidelines and tools.
  • Control group also appreciated the designs, highlighting their universal applicability.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Conducted with 43 ETR users and 12 control participants.
  • Tested three design variants for event selection, date selection, and two ordering processes.
  • Used Figma prototypes on Samsung Galaxy A12 devices.
  • Measured task success, user preferences, and qualitative feedback.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Prototype functionality was limited (e.g., no search or autofill).
  • Small sample size limits generalizability.
  • Future work should involve fully functional prototypes, larger test groups, and integration with AI tools for personalization.

Summary

This study presents a novel UX-enhanced participatory design process to create cognitively accessible digital design patterns for ETR users. Testing with 43 ETR users and 12 control participants demonstrated that optimized design patterns, such as text on images and abundant visual cues, significantly improve usability. Sociotechnical barriers, including payment methods and user fears, were identified as critical factors beyond usability. The findings provide evidence-based recommendations for expanding accessibility guidelines and highlight the potential for universal design benefits. Future work should explore AI integration and personalized solutions to address the diverse needs of ETR users.