A Usability Case Study and Recommendations
Coursera is a popular Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform that offers 7,000+ courses. For this project, I worked with a team of four other students to explore the usability of Coursera for individuals with vision impairments and screen reader users.
I proposed focusing our research on MOOC platforms, and led the team throughout our project. I helped design testing materials to fit our unique audience, conducted live usability testing, and formed research insights and recommendations presented in our final report.
User Research
Project Planning
UX Strategy
Research Writing
Accessibility Review
User Testing
NVDA Screen Reader
Wave by WebAIM
For screen reader users, critical components of online learning are not accessible, reducing their chances of gaining benefits.
Research shows MOOCs are inaccessible to visually impaired users. The pandemic's shift to remote learning emphasized the need for accessible online education.
Previous studies identify problems in content presentation, navigation, and visual alternatives, highlighting persistent accessibility issues for visually impaired learners in online education.
As lead researcher, my primary focus was developing a tailored usability testing guide to align with our users' context. As such, I recommended adapting the Standard Usability Scale (SUS) to assess the perceived usability of Coursera for blind and visually impaired users.
We conducted 5 remote sessions, which included a brief interview to gather participants’ prior experience with online courses. Each participant was asked to:
Find and enroll in a course
Watch a video lecture
Complete a course quiz
After identifying the core user flows, we focused on obtaining key performance metrics:
“Are the users able to complete their task?”
“How long does it take them to complete their task?”
“What kinds of barriers are they encountering?”
"How do users feel about using Coursera?"
“How intuitive do they find the website?”
“Do they feel confident while using the website?”
Screen reader users encountered challenging site navigation, inadequate context, and vague, unpredictable outcomes.
Observing how users with blindness and vision impairments used Coursera helped us gain a better understanding of their experience using online learning platforms. As a result, we outline 4 major insights from our study:
The inconsistent navigation structure on the course results page confused participants, with three unable to find courses to enroll in.
Excessive filters hindered course discovery, leading participants to assume courses were hidden.
The lack of system feedback caused submission errors. Source code analysis showed improper use of ARIA labels, hampering accessibility.
Pop-ups disrupted tasks and required user re-orientation. Participants also missed call-to-action buttons due to unclear link labels.
Lack of transcriptions and visual aids hindered audio interpretation. Incorrect ARIA labeling made transcript controls inaccessible, with users perceiving them as keyboard traps.
MOOCs must ensure visual content has text or audio alternatives, use clear language, and improve error handling.
Observing how users with blindness and vision impairments used Coursera helped us gain a better understanding of their experience using online learning platforms. As a result, we outline 4 major insights from our study:
Taking the following actions would drastically improve user satisfaction and platform accessibility
Provide audio or text alternatives for visual content
Rename links and buttons for clarity to minimize reliance on surrounding text
Minimize number of repetitive links and headers
Provide clear feedback to confirm user input
Addressing these issues would enhance the overall user experience and make navigation more intuitive
Update heading hierarchy to help users easily differentiate between sections of the website
Allow learning goals and time zone settings to be set contextually, not in a popup
Provide appropriate alternative “alt” text for icons and images
Taking the following actions would drastically improve user satisfaction and platform accessibility
Simplify course filters for consistency and clarity
Improve global search flexibility to auto-correct search input
Minimize number of repetitive links and headers
Use consistent language and labeling across the site, such as “Week 1” vs. “Section 1”
Engaging users with diverse abilities throughout the design process leads to more inclusive and accessible solutions.
This inclusive approach not only ensures that the final product is usable for a broader audience but also enhances the overall user experience, making the design more intuitive and user-friendly for everyone.
By measuring metrics such as time on task across both groups, we can identify more areas where the website may unintentionally hinder user performance.
This dual approach ensures that our solutions are not only accessible but also efficient and effective for a wider audience