E-commerce Usability Guidelines for Visually Impaired Users

The growing diffusion of fashion e-commerce websites shows the appreciation by users, highlighting the importance of offering this service also to users with different disabilities. To this end, e-commerce should be not only accessible - implementing all the technical requirements for accessibility - but also usable, paying attention to the offered user experience. This study aims to investigate the current e-commerce usability considering visually impaired users’ navigation experience and understand which aspects define a good usability level for this target. An expert analysis of a set of fashion e-commerce websites and user testing were conducted, considering five different market segment categories. The analysis highlighted a gap in the consideration of visually impaired users’ navigation needs and style, as for instance non-uniformity of layout and page structure. All the findings have been structured in usability guidelines to favor the e-commerce usability improvement, with the goal of offering visually impaired users a better shopping experience.