Toward a purposeful design strategy for visually impaired Web users

The central premise of this research is the belief that using the Web non-visually is cognitively burdensome and tedious due to its complex, sight-centered design. There exists a literature gap on visually impaired (VI) users’ perceptions and experiences regarding Web site complexity. This paper reports the findings from a survey of 50 visually impaired individuals regarding perceived complexity and usability of a popular shopping Web site and its less complex version. Results show that significant gains in usability could be achieved by reducing complexity in Web design. A theoretical model of perceived complexity and associated propositions are presented to guide future research on improving the VI user experience of Web sites and Web applications