What's new and why?
Nothing is closer to our hearts than the desire to make Lyfta more inclusive, more accessible for all users, regardless of their needs. This is a continuous journey, on which we are committed to improving the product learning and teaching experience for users of all abilities and backgrounds.
So we’re very proud and happy to introduce the latest accessibility and usability changes we’ve made to the platform. The latest changes focus on the Lyfta Globe and the Quest Tracker, two key elements that impact how your classes experience lessons inside Lyfta storyworlds.
The source of inspiration for these changes is threefold:
- Feedback from our wonderful customers: Please always let us know what else you would like to see improved via our feedback form!
- Formal user testing: We conduct regular and rigorous research with teachers worldwide to understand what is working and - importantly - what needs to be improved.
- Our internal expertise: We are blessed to have a diverse mix of educationalists and user experience experts on the Lyfta team. These experts constantly use and review the platform to understand and meet our users’ needs.
Details of what has been upgraded and changed are below.
Enhanced accessibility for front of class teaching:
- Improved colour contrast: Screens and windows within the app now utilise high-contrast colour schemes, ensuring better visibility when projecting information in classrooms. This allows educators to display content clearly for students seated anywhere in the room.
- Increased font size for the Quest Tracker: The Quest Tracker font size has been significantly increased. This ensures all students can easily follow along with their learning journeys, even from the back of the class.
Promoting accessibility for diverse users:
- Low-vision friendly design: The app now reduces reliance solely on colour for information distinction. Shapes and patterns have been strategically integrated to complement colour coding, ensuring clear identification for users with colour vision difficulties.
- Descriptive alt text for images: Non-decorative images used within rich-media articles are now accompanied by informative alt-text descriptions. This provides context for users who rely on screen readers or may have difficulty processing visual information. This piece of work is ongoing, as we constantly add content and media to Lyfta.
- Customisable captions with brand new video player (coming soon): Development is underway for a new video player with comprehensive caption customisation options. Users can adjust caption colour, background, and size to suit their preferences. This caters to users with visual impairments and those who benefit from enhanced visual cues.
Improved accessibility for keyboard users:
- Keyboard navigation on student app: The globe screen now offers keyboard controls for navigating and interacting with various buttons (e.g., the mute button). This caters to users who primarily rely on keyboards for app interaction.
Accessibility for users with screen readers:
- Text highlighting: Text within the app can now be highlighted, making it easier for screen reader software to identify and convey information to users with visual impairments.
We hope you’re enjoying using the new, improved student app. As ever, we value and appreciate your feedback, so please let us know how it’s going!
Other recent upgrades, in case you missed them…
