User Personas - ACE 3

ACE Level 1 - Essentials

PROGRAM

ACE Level 2 - Intermediate

PROGRAM

ACE Level 3

A project to understand accessibility opportunities for different roles across the organization.

What do different roles need to know about accessibility?

The Accessibility Champions Educations program (ACE) is an initiative by my team to help educate the rest of the company
about accessibility. There are two courses out currently called ACE 1 and ACE 2 which are beginner and intermediate courses
respectively.

The vision behind level 3 is to make it more role specific. Accessibility knowledge will be created depending on the process and needs of the person taking the course.

A11y Job Stories

When my team/ colleagues need to know why Accessibility is important, I want it to be made clear for everyone, so I can simply point them to the website.

When my team is working on a project, I want to see available tools and documentation so I can implement accessibility requirements quickly and easily.

When I'm planning implementation of a product or feature, I want to see clearly what Dell's official Accessibility requirements are, so I can create user stories and assign my team on it.

User Groups

Content Writers

Marketing

Procurement

Research Aims through Qualitative Interviews

Broadly we wanted to understand -

The scope of their role and what it entailed.
Their current work processes and tools that they use.
Their current level of Accessibility knowledge.
Any issues they have in their current workflow.
Their awareness of our team and whether they had ever approached us for support in the past.
Their awareness of Dell's Global Accessibility Policy.

With that being said, let's go talk to people!

Content Writers

Group 1

The generative content team works across four different domains - Buyer, APEX, Infrastructure Solutions Group (ISG) and the Dell Sales Experience (DSE)

I first spoke to the writing manager to get a general sense of what the team does and how their work is divided. I then drew up my questions and went forward with interviewing the writers. I spoke to at least one writer from every domain, and interviewed six of them in total.

Process and Findings

Key

Process

Problem Areas

Tools

The scope can change a lot so it is hard to follow a linear process.

Writing Guides

Too many writing guides to refer to..

Testing

Final Copy

Copy Drafting + Iterating

Scope and Details

Generative Content Intake Form

Directly through teams or working sessions

UX writing is not incorporated early enough in the process

The scope and details are often not fully fleshed out, so writers have to follow up for more details.

There is no formalized process

Figma, Word Documents, Excel Mapping, Miro Sheets

It's hard to get consistency with the writing styles if there are other teams working on the same experience

User Testing.com, Surveys, AB Testing

Not everyone will do testing.

Kushal

Content Writer

Works in the buyer domain

User persona - Content Writer

Goals

To produce writing that is clear, concise and useful - their three tenets.
To collaborate with designers and product managers to deliver user friendly copy.
To make sure that the writing makes sense across the whole flow of content and not just one page in isolation.

Needs

Formalized process with clear scope and requirements for each project.
To have clear guidelines about accessibility dos and don'ts to incorporate in their work.
Parity across accessibility guidance and general content standards.

Tools

Figma
Miro
Microsoft PowerPoint, Word and Excel mapping.
Adobe analytics.
Testing - Usertesting.com, Optimal Workshop, AB testing, surveys.
Readability checker
Writing Guides

Pain Points

Not having a formalized process with stakeholders which leads to a lack of clarity in scope, changing requirements and inconsistencies in processes across the team.
Lack of importance and awareness given to UX writing itself, so it is often not accounted for early enough in the process.
Too many writing guides, preventing unified styles in individual work and across other teams in the same domain.
Awareness of accessibility guidance; lack of parity with accessibility and other guides.
User testing and readability checks are not done consistently.
Relying on writers trained in accessibility, and no active collaboration or accessibility education.

Opportunity Areas for Content Writers

The writing guides, once unified could have an addendum for accessibility. Collaborate with an Accessibility CoE point of contact on ways to streamline documentation (including guides and SharePoint materials).
A formal and streamlined process in terms of consistency from scope to testing (including tools used) would help introduce accessibility in the process evenly across the team.
Accessibility checks could be introduced during testing, provided everyone tests their copy.
Better documentation of their work so that changes and difficulties are accounted for and can be called out.
If writers trained in accessibility are working on a project, there could be learning opportunities for the other writers by collaborating with these writers which helps reinforce any future training they might receive from ACE.
Any in built tool or plugin that can check for accessibility and can be used by the whole team.

Social Media

Group 2

Social Media is handled by Dell's internal advertising agency called "Dell Blue". There are several roles besides the creatives who all work together to bring about the final product. As I kept interviewing people I realized that this team was bigger that we initially thought. While there was no proper organization chart to refer to, the teams were roughly divided into four departments - the creative services team, the experiential marketing team, a production team for assets and another for multimedia creation.

Role Summary

ACCOUNT MANAGERS

They act as liasons between the creative team and the partners/stakeholders. They receive the projects from the partners and assign it to the creatives based on bandwidth and skillset.

STRATEGISTS

They will receive the creative brief from the partners and focus on strengthening it with supplementary research so that the creatives have a clearer brief to look at.

This role is very new and at present most of the creatives have not had a chance to work with the strategists.

ART DIRECTORS

Art directors work on the creative concept of the project and will work with creatives in all roles to build out the assets and deliver the final product.

CREATIVE DIRECTORS

Creative directors will be in charge of the direction of a campaign commercial. They will oversee all processes from conception to filming to editing. They are in charge of directing the shoot itself.

VIDEO EDITORS

Editors will be in charge of the post production of a project. They will receive the footage, edit the footage.

Dell Blue - Teams

CREATIVE SERVICES

This team has a mix of all types of creatives that will work on campaigns for dell. They will produce assets such as infographs, short videos etc. that will be published across all dell social media platforms.

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING

This team has graphic designers that will work on non - traditional, experimental media. They will work on branding, events and sponsorships etc. It is conceptual work that is built from scratch.

PRODUCTION (CREATION)

This team is in charge of image and video production and editing. It includes directors and editors. They will work on projects such as TV commercials, campaign brands, brand ID videos etc.

PRODUCTION (ASSETS)

They work on creating assets that do not require creative conception and need mass production. They use templates and have a quick turnaround time of about 3-5 days.

Examples of their assets include - banners, guards, creative and social media toolkits, video localization.

Processes

Creative Services Process

Environmental Social Governance (ESGs)

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Partners/ Stakeholders

Creative Brief

Kickoff Meeting

Creative Team

Initial Concepts

Feedback with the creative director

Feedback with the executive creative director

Feedback with VP

Client Feedback

Final Version

Account Manager

Stakeholders

Publicly released

Account Managers

Strategists

Add insights and strengthen brief

Separate deck for creative team

Few iterations

Experiential Marketing Process

Partners/ Stakeholders

Account Managers

Team Lead

Creative Director

Kickoff Meeting

Internal Meeting

Asset Building

Production (if required)

Review Rounds

Final Version

Production (Creation) process

Partners/ Stakeholders

Account Managers

Brief

Creative Director

Conception

Storyboard Artist

Post Production (editing)

Production (Shooting)

Review Rounds (Directors and partners)

Asset Building

Final Version

Maya

Social Media

A creative in Dell Blue

User persona - Social Media

Goals

To fulfill the requests of the client.
To make sure the content resonates with the audience.
To communicate the clearest story about Dell Technologies as a great place to work.
To tell the clearest story about Dell and its successes with partnerships and with products they make.
To keep up with current trends and produce the best quality of work.

Needs

To learn how to account for accessibility in every project.
To have accessibility built into the creative process.
Work with accessible templates.
To gain knowledge about accessibility guidelines and requirements.
To understand how to create accessible multimedia (video and audio).
Education on event accessibility for the Experiential Team.

Tools

Adobe Suite - Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premier Pro
DaVinci Resolve for color grading.
Adobe Workfront - management system

Pain Points

Unrealistic timelines where team members should have been brought into the project earlier.
Creatives are not scoped to cover accessibility. For example, creatives accounted for accessibility during events like the International Day of Disabilities, but did not continue with these processes.
Team members believe they are accounting for accessibility in certain areas, and will guess on how to fix issues, rather than seek guidance or check using recommended tools.
Inconsistency in captioning of videos; copywriters provide voiceover scripts that need to be implemented.
Partners can sometimes have a clear, set idea for requests, and can be resistant to change.
Inconsistencies among templates for production, and incorrect dimensions.
Finding a central hub for assets between Box, the DAM, and general folders in the production team.

Opportunity Areas for Social Media

Templates used by production could be checked for accessibility.
Add accessibility as a checkpoint in tracking done through Adobe Workfront.
Provide event accessibility information and guidelines to the Experiential Team Advocate for more accessible event planning for all teams hosting events.
Design reviews by an accessibility SME.
Document accessibility guidance and a list of vendors for testing and remediation.
Utilize the Multimedia Assistant Tool to identify best practices in creating accessible multimedia content.
Provide education and check consistency around captioning best practices.
Understand how to communicate accessibility requirements to vendors and learn about accessibility in terms of procuring external assets.

Procurement

Group 3

The interview process for procurement was different in an interesting way. Since procurement were the people who dealt with third party vendors, it was less about how they could incorporate accessibility in their own tools and more about the questions they needed to ask vendors to make sure that the products they are purchasing are accessible.

Further Points of Exploration

The questions for procurement were a bit different that the other user groups. Some of the things we wanted to know were:

How can we know if a third-party product, application or design is accessible?
How can we add accessibility requirements for agencies we are already working with?
What happens if the vendor or agency says “no” to accessibility?
What happens if the vendor or agency charges for extra time put towards fixing the accessibility of an existing product or application?
If you are a product owner, is it software Dell developed or added to a commercial off-the-shelf (COTs) product? If so, did you know you need a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)

User Personas - education - Key points_e

Stakeholders

Business Need

Bidding Process / RFP

Procurement

Vendor - Direct Negotiation

Negotiation Strategy

Proposal

Vendor

Negotiation Rounds

Legal

Contract

Global Translation Team

Purchase Order

Procurement Process

Vera

Procurement

Buyer

User persona - Procurement

Goals

To utilize the budget strategically for their domain.
To manage vendor relationships and their overall performance.
To choose the best vendors that have the capacity and capability to support their product.

Needs

To understand accessibility requirements and how to meet compliance.
To make sure third-party products and services being purchased meet Dell's compliance with accessibility guidelines.
To prioritize accessibility in their criteria and budget when aligning with stakeholders.

Tools

Ariba – Employee resource program for vendors and services
ICERTIS – Contract management tool
Thoughtspot – Software used to analyze overall spend.

Pain Points

Lack of basic accessibility knowledge and education.
The amount of research required to maintain knowledge of the domain is a barrier.
Not knowing the questions to ask vendors in order to ensure accessibility of the products they are purchasing.
Improvement of accessibility process and education for all vendors. Some accessible vendors have been onboarded, which helps improve accessibility, but not overall process.
Being tasked to account for accessibility and modify original content, which is not their expertise or responsibility (when vendors do not provide accessible products).
Limited experience in the domain they are assigned to, and not knowing the specifics of what to look for in the proposal or contract.

Opportunity Areas for Procurement

Education about accessibility, what to ask vendors during the procurement process, and how to incorporate it into contracts.
Education on Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs).
Accessibility requirements as part of the criteria and strategy that procurement determines with stakeholders.
Education on document accessibility checks for files stored in Ariba.
Budgeting to account for accessibility to avoid cost hindering the vendor’s accessibility prioritization.
Procurement to help their stakeholders with accessibility awareness so that they can collaborate better when choosing vendors in the future.