Background
Location-based services make discovery easy, but accessibility remains difficult to navigate
While users can easily find information about places to visit, accessibility details are often scattered across reviews, photos, and business descriptions, making them difficult to find and evaluate.
Survey
Many users value accessibility but hesitate to rely on current platforms because details feel incomplete, inconsistent, or hidden. This gap creates uncertainty and forces extra effort, reinforcing the need for clearer, prioritized categories like entrances, ramps, and restrooms to guide confident decisions.
Pain Point in Planning a Trip in a Wheelchair
Incomplete accessibility details create unnecessary effort and frustration
User Interivew
Users struggle with fragmented, shallow, and unclear accessibility information on Yelp
Opportunity
Make accessibility information easier to discover, understand, and trust
Design Solutions
#1. Personalized accessibility discovery
Accessibility information adapts to each user’s mobility needs and preferences.
1
Making accessibility personal
Accessibility is not one-size-fits-all. Bridge surfaces information based on what matters most to each user.
2
Surfacing what matters most
Personalized “For You” tags help users quickly identify venues that align with their accessibility needs and preferences.
→ Reduced decision-making effort
#2. Making accessibility easy to scan
Accessibility information is organized into structured categories and semantic labels, allowing users to quickly understand and compare venues without digging through reviews.
1
Semantic accessibility pins
Accessibility conditions are visualized directly on the map using semantic colors and distinct icon shapes for improved recognition and color-blind accessibility.
→ Reduced decision-making effort
2
Semantic color for accessibility labels
Structured 3 different accessibility labels help users quickly understand venue conditions without digging through reviews.
Color System
Extended Yelp’s brand color palette into a semantic system, establishing new rules for clear accessibility status communication.
Improved Affordance
By standardizing chips, filters, and badges into square shapes and making buttons rounded, the system balances consistency with clear action cues.
Consistency for Recognition
Filters, chips, and badges are standardized into square shapes to maintain visual uniformity, helping users quickly recognize categories without confusion.
Affordance for Action
Buttons are rounded intentionally to stand out as tappable elements, signaling clear actions and guiding users toward the next step.
Reflection
My redesigns represent an important step toward balancing Yelp’s visual identity with a more inclusive experience. Some of the key reflections and next steps I identified include:
🎤 Conducting further user testing and interviews to validate whether the redesign improves clarity, scannability, and trust in accessibility details.
✏️ Exploring ways to maintain visual consistency while embedding accessibility cues, ensuring that changes feel natural within Yelp’s established brand identity.
♟️ Refining the design system with accessibility in mind, including typographic hierarchy, semantic colors, and clearer affordance patterns for universal usability.
