Unit 1 · Lesson 3 of 20
Design a route more people can complete
Find barriers in a task and give patients equivalent ways to finish it.
01 / Learn
Learn the method
Fictional case
The clinic lobby has bright windows, background announcements, a standing-height kiosk, and a staffed reception desk.
Terms for this lesson
- Barrier
- A feature of an experience that makes a task harder for a person in a given setting.
- Assistive technology
- A tool that helps someone perceive, operate, or understand a digital service.
- Equivalent route
- Another usable path to the same service outcome.
Accessibility begins with the task a person needs to complete. A patient may read the kiosk in glare, operate it while seated, listen through background noise, use a screen reader, or ask for help in another language. Each condition changes how the same check-in flow works in practice.
Review a task through four questions: how does the person perceive the information, operate the controls, understand the response, and complete the next step? These questions reveal specific barriers. For example, a color-only status can obscure whether an arrival was received. Text alongside color carries the status across more situations.
An equivalent route reaches the same service outcome. Reception can complete check-in when the kiosk route becomes difficult, provided staff can access the appointment record and give the patient a clear confirmation. The route also needs to protect personal information in a shared lobby.
Access needs vary across people and settings. Test the kiosk and reception route with patients who use relevant assistive technologies and with people in the actual lobby. Record the barrier, the route used, and the result of the full check-in task.
Use the method
- Walk through the task in the actual environment.
- Check how each step can be perceived, operated, understood, and completed.
- Test alternative routes with people who use them.
Accessibility describes successful task completion across different abilities, devices, and environments.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: Introduction to Web Accessibility ↗Define access by whether people can perceive, understand, navigate, and act.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: Stories of Web Users ↗Concrete variation in people, tools, and barriers; pair these illustrations with testing.
- GOV.UK Service Manual: Provide a joined up experience across all channels ↗Coordinate digital, phone, paper, and face-to-face help as needed by users.
02 / See the reasoning
Worked example
The team observes a seated patient reaching for a high control while the screen reflects sunlight. They lower the interactive area, increase text clarity, and place a visible reception-help instruction at the start. They test whether the patient can enter the code, understand the receipt message, and reach the waiting area. The full task gives the team a stronger measure than a control inventory alone.
Try a decision →03 / Decide
Guided decision
The kiosk shows a green light for receipt and plays an automatic spoken message in the busy lobby. Which revision gives patients the strongest starting route?
Feedback on your choice
What could change the answer: A lobby with private audio stations can support a richer spoken route while preserving the same check-in outcome.
Use this feedback to examine your choice and written reasoning.
Build your case file →04 / Build the case
Your case file
Fictional case update
A patient who uses a wheelchair and a screen reader arrives during a busy morning session.
Evidence and constraints
- Fictional setting: the kiosk stands near a bright window and background announcements play in the lobby.
- Fictional operations detail: reception can look up an appointment code and confirm arrival.
- Fictional service detail: the appointment service issues a receipt when it accepts check-in.
Map two usable ways for this patient to confirm arrival. Include the controls, status message, staff action, and privacy consideration for each route.
Create: A barrier-and-route map covering perception, operation, understanding, and completion.
The routes reach the same appointment outcome and give the patient a clear confirmation in the lobby setting.
- The map names a specific barrier at each relevant step.
- Each route reaches a confirmed arrival.
- Privacy and the real lobby conditions shape the proposed cues.
The clinic can offer more than one route. The next lesson examines the promises each route makes to patients.
Lesson complete
You added to your case file.
You studied the method, practiced a decision, and added an artifact to your case file. Carry that reasoning into the next lesson.
05 / Keep working