Improving the digital experience of functional illiterates
An award-winning project from Tech3Lab, Desjardins and Lettres en main
June 20, 2024
A project entitled “Améliorer l’expérience numérique des analphabètes fonctionnel(le)s” (Improving the digital experience of functional illiterates), which is the result of a partnership between HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab teams, Desjardins and Lettres en main, won the Best Project Award in the Human category at the 2024 Desjardins Recognition Gala. This project was judged best out of the 228 that were submitted.
Research dedicated to equity, diversity and inclusion
According to the Fondation pour l’alphabétisation, 34% of Quebecers are functional illiterates (level 2). For Desjardins, this represents around 2,720,000 people that are likely to use its digital platforms and have experiences that aren’t suited to their daily challenges.
This is where the strengths of the financial institution, Tech3Lab and Lettres en main were pooled together as part of a study to better understand the reality of these people and find solutions to simplify their online experience, without adversely affecting the experience of other users.
To do this:
- The ability of functional illiterates to access certain pages of the Desjardins.com and Accès D site was assessed, using a simplified interface.
- The experiences of two user groups were compared – the first one with a literacy level of 2, and the second one representing the rest of the population.
Concrete results for everyone
This research made it possible to:
- Discover the importance of using pictograms wisely for functional illiterates;
- Identify improvements that will even have an impact on all other users.
A second phase of user testing will take place this year to determine whether certain types of online support (videos, images) make functionally illiterate people more financially independent.
“Besides receiving this award, the greatest pride of this project lies in our shared commitment to remaining human in the digital age,” said Félix Le Pailleur, MSc graduate in User Experience from HEC Montréal and Senior UX Researcher at Desjardins. “By combining our expertise in literacy, research, accessibility and user experience, we have been able to demonstrate that collaboration is a powerful driver of change.”
Here is the list of all the people who took part in this teamwork:
1) Tech3Lab
Main team – Adrian Minano-Lozano (Master’s student in User Experience, whose thesis included this project), Pierre-Majorique Léger, Sylvain Sénécal, Constantinos Coursaris, Frédérique Bouvier, David Brieugne, Jared Boasen, Shang Lin Chen, Salima Tazi, Xavier Côté, Élise Imbeault, Félix Giroux
Support – Luis Carlos Castiblanco and Alexander Karran
Research assistance – Ikram El Kamouni, Juliette Houvenaghel, Yara Nasr, Kajamathy Subramaniam, Sabrina Verreault, Karine Yeddou
2) Desjardins
Félix Le Pailleur, Stéphanie Levasseur, Kevin Nolet and Éric Tanguay
3) Lettres en main
Anthony Gamache, Marie Claire Sansregret and François Veilleux
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