Universal Usability

Flexibility

Figure 2: This mobile view displays one column.

The designers of San Antonio’s Food Bank does a great job creating flexibility.  The site automatically adapts to the size of the screen, no matter what device you are using.  Horton and Lynch states, “Pages designed exclusively for large displays will not display well on the small screens of cell phones” (56).  San Antonio’s Food bank challenges this statement by adapting to the small screens of mobile devices.  As seen in figure 2, the site viewed from mobile device adapts using one column.  When viewed on a laptop or desktop display, the site uses two columns, as shown in figure 3.  Although, when you minimize the screen on a desktop, or laptop, the site then resizes to a one column view.

Figure 3: This maximized desktop view shows a two column display.

 

 

 

 

 

Keyboard Functionality

The San Antonio Food Bank does a great job with keyboard functionality.  Horton and Lynch suggests that being able to access the web interface is a crucial component of universal usability (57).  San Antonio Food Bank’s users can press the tab key to navigate through the menus without using a mouse.  Users are able to access every region, including menus and links, except for the site’s slideshow.  The designers made it possible to use the arrow keys to navigate up and down the page.  Pressing the enter key acts as the mouse’s clicker and selects the highlighted menu option.