All aboard: an inclusive transport app

THE COMPANY

Our client is a United States company with more than 20 years of experience in transport administration for health, school, and transit verticals. With its secure and reliable transportation supplier network, technological platform, and 24/7 operational centers, this company guarantees high quality and punctual service.

THE CHALLENGE

Our client was looking for a strategic partner for a key project: the development of an app for reserving transport for persons who mostly needed it for medical reasons. Given the type of user the application was meant to serve, it had to meet the AA standards for accessibility and qualify for VPAT certification by Deque.

THE SOLUTION

Our expert digital product development teams approached this project with a deep sense of commitment when they began work on a first version. The result of their efforts, however, did not measure up to expectations: together with Baufest, the client´s testing teams found that this version did not meet the required standards, and it was evident that what was needed was a radical concept of accessibility based from its inception on empathy with the users.  

This led up to the decision to incorporate the customer experience team into the project. Specialists in this group who were certified in accessibility applied good practices in color contrast, indications, and the order of elements to achieve correct navigation while the development area made all the necessary adjustments in the code.

On top of this, we got in touch with Tiflonexos, an organization for the visually impaired, to recruit participants for usability tests. This gave rise to a before and after in both the project and the mindset of the team, because it was an opportunity to see how a blind or visually impaired person really used the device and to discover that there were many problems or difficulties that we had not thought of and needed and, more importantly, wanted to solve.

This second version was our chance to satisfy the client. It not only offered optimized navigation flows and new functionalities, but also reflected the participation of the CX area in the design while addressing the accessibility parameters in the code.  After presenting the application to the Duque team, we were happy to read in their report that ”This is probably one of the best mobile assessments I have ever seen…”and “Congratulations on having no show stopping bugs.”

BENEFITS

• a better user experience for the disabled
• new functionalities and flows developed on the basis of feedback from disabled persons
• VPAT certification and the ability to meet standards of accessibility
• a team with greater knowledge of accessibility and a mindset focused on the experience of the users.