Ways to use Fable

Welcome to Fable! Not sure where to start? Fable makes it easy to collect feedback from assistive technology users when you need it, regardless of where you are in your product development cycle.

Check out some common use cases below, and recommended ways to start engaging testers through Fable right away.

Illustration of brunette woman wearing a yellow t-shirt.

Amber Knabl, Customer Success @ Fable

Have questions about any of the recommendations below? Reach out to your Customer Success Manager or book time in Fable’s support hours

Assistive technology education

Learn about assistive technology from the experts! Plan these sessions with the purpose of learning about each assistive technology type. How they work, common pain points when navigating online, and other user preferences.
 
Build an internal resource library, sharing the video recordings with your colleagues. This will help educate and spread accessibility awareness within your organization!

Get started with this recommended request combination: 

  • A User Interview with a screen reader user
  • A User Interview with a screen magnification user
  • A User Interview with an alternative navigation user

This article on planning your User Interview might also help!

Establish baseline

Not sure how accessible your products currently are? A good place to start is to identify 3-5 key task flows and capture a baseline understanding of accessibility and usability for each. This is also a great way to start thinking about benchmarking your accessibility efforts over time. 
A common combination for this might look like:
  • A Compatibility Test with key task flow #1
  • 2-3 Self-Guided Tasks with key task flow #1 
  • Repeat as needed for subsequent flows!  

Development and QA

Prioritize accessibility pre and post launch by uncovering any compatibility issues that may exist between assistive technologies, browsers and devices.
Follow up on the feedback you receive by engaging 1:1 with an expert screen reader user. Discuss any issues in more detail, and get technical suggestions on how to improve the experience!
Get started with this recommended request combination:
  • Compatibility Test to uncover any a11y issues
  • QA Session to explore issues identified in Compatibility Tests, and discuss remediation tactics
  • Compatibility Test to validate fixes

Research

Integrate inclusive design principles into your research practice! Learn about assistive technology users, and get feedback on both accessibility and usability. Whether you are going through a live product or want to discuss user preferences at a higher level - always spend some time learning more about the user, their needs, and challenges.

Get started with this recommended request combination if you are working with a live product:

  • A User Interview with a screen reader user
  • A User Interview with a screen magnification user
  • A User Interview with an alternative navigation user

Consider identifying a task, and observe the tester go through the user journey sharing feedback on things like:

  • Layout and structure
  • Does the tester know what they need to do to complete the task?
  • Is complex problem solving required?
  • Can the task be easily completed with their preferred configuration? 

Design

Integrate inclusive design principles into practice. Even if you are working with a prototype, you can still get valuable feedback by engaging assistive technology users. When working with a prototype, you can easily validate design decisions, and get feedback from assistive technology users on things like colours, layout, UI, typography and more! 

Get started with this recommended request combination if you are working with a prototype:

  • A Prototype Review with a screen magnification user
  • A Prototype Review with an alternative navigation user

Identify a task, and share your screen with the tester (unfortunately, the nature of many prototyping tools is not compatible with assistive technology). Have them direct you, or think out loud, gathering feedback on things like:

  • Layout and structure
  • How would a tester naturally explore your product using their preferred configuration?
  • What they would need to do to complete a certain task?
  • Would complex problem solving be required?
  • Can the user share experiences with similar tasks or UI/UX?