Description

At Unity Technologies, I worked on defining accessibility for Unity Hub, an onboarding platform that sought to unify creator workflows using the world’s largest gaming engine. The vision was a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the customer, from template creation to 3D assets management.

Product Discovery

Working closely with the UX research organization, I deployed both quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the onboarding needs of customers ranging from small indie game studios to larger AAA customers. The key focus was on identifying the platform’s biggest accessibility needs and pain points, and mapping them to industry standards of digital accessibility. I carried out Kano Model surveys and user interviews, and in conjunction with user analytics from Looker and Heap mapped out a “Good-Better-Best” product strategy:

Good:

Following industry standards e.g. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 AA simultaneously meets European Union Standards and US’s Section 508. We would begin by looking at the feasibility of integrating some third-party tools our component library management tool, Storybook addon runs an accessibility testing engine against all existing components.

Better:

Accessibility standards according to mapped user needs. From interviewing a blind deaf user, the research study compiled focused on visual disabilities and we hypothesized most of our users’ current accessibility needs would be visual.

Furthermore, there is a case to be made that inclusive design means more than just hacking an app or product so that people with disabilities can use it. It’s something that benefits everyone. Autocomplete and voice control are two technologies we take for granted now that started as features aimed at helping disabled users use computers. This is called the curb cut effect, ramps were made for wheelchairs, but we now use them for bikes, suitcases, baby strollers.

For example cognitive disabilities needs often call for clear, predictable functionality, interaction, navigation structure. By rethinking Hub’s usability requirements for clear and simple navigation structure, we optimise for Onboarding for first time users and Workflow optimisation, raising the bar of cognitive disabilities needs beyond that of WCAG 2.1 AA. As we aspire to be a company of consequence, we begin defining accessibility tailored to the Creator and the Creator experience to ensure that all Unity users can leverage our products and platforms effectively.

Best:

Accessibility by Unity ecosystem, as we are not a standalone product by design, we are a gateway leading to other products and services. We are the one that sets the expectations for accessibility in the Unity ecosystem, if your screen reader works here, you can expect to work everywhere else.