Usability Testing in Joomla

Joomla is a popular open-source CMS used worldwide for creating and managing websites. It uses MySQL or PostgreSQL for its database and is developed in PHP. With a vast library of extensions and templates, Joomla allows users to build and manage websites easily, even with minimal technical knowledge. It also functions as a framework, enabling modifications without disrupting essential components. You can customize Joomla's functionality without being an expert in PHP, making it easy to upgrade settings.

This article covers important aspects of Usability testing in Joomla.

Discover the Power of Usability Testing in Joomla 

To improve your Joomla site's performance and prevent future issues, regularly conduct usability checks. Joomla version 4 has introduced user-friendly plugins for easier usability testing by users and developers. This makes it simpler to adjust backend settings from a user's point of view.

For Backend

In this part, you will learn how a developer can get help on the usability testing from the backend. To know more, you need to understand the following features:

Individual Settings for Accessibility

You will be surprised to know that every user can enjoy the backend area operation according to their needs in Joomla 4. More importantly, you can utilize each of the four parameters separately or in combination in accessibility settings. For instance, you can modify the backend's colors from blue to black and white when it is in monochrome condition. Again, removing some background, from the high contrast will brighten the overall contrast. Thirdly, all the links in the backend are given boundaries and underlining by Highlight Links. Finally, increase the font size to 18px as the default font size is set to 16px.

For Authors and Editors

In Joomla, you will find a handful amount of significant plugins that are not only useful but also easy to use. The jooa11y is one of these types which is default in nature and highly optimized for authors and editors.

jooa11

As we mentioned earlier, this is a default plugin that assists in giving accessible content on your Joomla website. As a system plugin, it can be found in Joomla version 4.1.0. Here, you can indicate which particular area of your website has been checked. In addition, you can include or exclude a few regulations if necessary. However, we recommend sticking with the predefined settings if you are new to this plugin.

If you use the jooa11y plugin, then it is highly likely that various visitors, authors, web developers, and agencies will benefit from it. For example: your site visitors will get barrier-free content as the audience, and the authors can generate seamless content easily. In addition, the agencies and developers get barrier-free content in their products.

You can activate this plugin by turning on the ‘Accessibility Check’ button in the Joomla toolbar. Enabling this will give you ease of access to every icon that has a description. This might often come along with suggestions for standard procedures or ways to fix the problem. 

For Users

Use of different plugins

Use of Skip-to-navigation plugin: You can find this Joomla plugin by default in the backend. However, you can use it from the front end. Another useful feature of this plugin is that it helps keyboard users navigate to different sections of a Joomla website easily.

Use of Accessibility plugin: The accessibility options can help customize the backend to the needs of each Joomla user. However, you can also provide your page's visitors with accessibility options for better engagement. Moreover, the extra accessibility feature-related plugin can be accessible from the front end and back end. While configuring this plugin, you will see that this plugin creates a new button at the bottom of the page.

To enhance the readability of the information, the site user can adjust the font size and text spacing using this plugin. Additionally, the user has the ability to change the color scheme of the page, enlarge the cursor, highlight all the links, enable a reading aid, and change text to speech efficiently. Then again, you will find a function for modifying the page containing grey hues. It can also be used in Chrome or Microsoft Edge. However, you will find it being deactivated in Firefox. Some of the below set of hotkeys will help you with this purpose as well:

Toggle Menu CTRL + ALT + A

Gray Hues CTRL + ALT + G

Underline Links CTRL + ALT + U

Big Cursor CTRL + ALT + C

Reading Guide CTRL + ALT + R

Text To Speech CTRL + ALT + T

Speech To Text CTRL + ALT + S

Remember, it's essential to develop your Joomla website correctly from the start for better accessibility. Adding accessibility plugins later won't fix existing issues. Disabled users often rely on specialized tools like screen magnifiers, screen readers, and braille embossers rather than plugins.

Many elderly persons with low vision will find the text enlargement option supportive. Again, the accurate contrasts on the Joomla website will not be replaced by the contrast option. Nonetheless, it could be useful for those who visit your website, specifically, in a bright area, or for those with impaired vision. The links must be highlighted too. 

You should remember that WCAG does not require those links to be underlined. However, highlighted hyperlinks might make the Joomla website more accessible to those with concentration issues or vision impairments.

TinyMCE

You might not know that TinyMCE is one of the most updated WYSIWYG editors online. In Joomla’s usability aspect, also plays an important role in user accessibility. In short, it is a tag that highlights a part of a text as ‘other/foreign language’. Search engines and screen readers can use it to determine whether to adjust their accent or language.

To configure TinyMCE, you can specify the languages you use in your writings with the TinyMCE plugin, but it’s not easy for the editors at first glance. However, you can make this easier for the editors by moving the language symbol to the symbols that your editors are permitted to use. And if you don’t do it, then your editors have to highlight a language with the format button and reach down there by scrolling.

How Glossy IT Can Assist You Further On Usability Testing in Joomla? (H2)

We have tried to cover almost all the major topics regarding the usability testing features in Joomla. However, it is still natural to remain confused on a few aspects as these are not easy to execute to some extent. Therefore, you might be wondering how you can get your problems solved. Glossy IT owns a solid team of experienced professionals who have been working with solving clients' Joomla Web Development and Testing issues with a great reputation. This expert team has members who are capable of fixing all of your Joomla-related problems within an attractive budget. 

Give us a shout to know more about our dedicated Joomla Usability Testing Services.

Closing Verdict

We talked about the multiple functions and attributes of the Joomla system in this article. Consequently, you can implement and carry out these Joomla tests by adhering to some of the recommendations that have the potential to produce outstanding results over time. Despite Joomla’s open-source nature, it still retains somehow a complicated usability method for amateurs. For that reason, it is your responsibility to figure out what type of expert suggestions you need for better improvement.