There are two amazing sites with a similar setup, created by Richard Littauer.
theuserisdrunk.com is a service he offered, where he'd get drunk, and then review a site's design.
theuserismymom.com is a similar service, where his mom would use a website, and review it.
I thought it'd be cool to do a similar thing on a smaller scale on dev.to.
I'm visually impaired. On the desktop, I use a screen magnifier, and on my iPhone, I use VoiceOver, the built-in screen reader. Using these tools, I'll test out your web sites/applications, and record myself using them. This would be an informal accessibility review where I just look see how usable it is for me. I'm also open to doing this with IOS apps.
For now, I'm doing this for free, as I don't know how much valuable feedback I'll be able to give.
So post a link to a site/app, and I'll give it a try.
For the next month, I'm committing to doing one of these a week, I may do more.
A couple of rules/notes
- No porn or gambling sites, and no site containing otherwise explicit content. Use your own judgement here.
- I reserve the right not to try a site/app, or not to provide the service.
- If your app/site requires payment, I'm willing to test out the checkout flow if the amount is under $50, and you pay me the amount of the purchase in advance.
- The content of the site/app should preferably be in English. I'm a native Dutch speaker, so I'll take Dutch submissions as well, but English ones will be easier for others when watching the video.
- All videos of reviews will be made public.
Post your link
When posting your link, feel free to add a number of tasks you want me to perform on your site/app
Top comments (6)
This is great, Frederik. Of course, you're always welcome to post a meta #meta thread about our site, as you have in the past. So that's my submission.
I'd definitely encourage others to take this up. It's hard to know what you don't know. Accessibility audits or rules of thumb are not enough to really know how usable something is.
I'll bring up any issues I encounter on dev.to, as I've done in the past, but I'm not sure how effective a video review would be, as I'm already familiar with the site, so I know where to look for things. I think capturing the first-time user experience is most valuable here, especially regarding the screen magnifier use;
Yep makes sense. Definitely more of a service for first-time stuff.
Hey, I'd love your feedback on serenenotes.hominidsoftware.com
You might want to dig up a text or Markdown file of some old notes first, or a self-contained HTML file.
Alright, thanks! I'll make a recording ASAP
We’re making a11y the focus of our new app and I’d love to get your feedback! It’s not open to the public yet, but if you email me I can get you access.
ashleigh at Neovation dot com