Design Thinking to Enhance E-Commerce Accessibility for Blind Users in Indonesia

Adam Mukharil Bachtiar, Dian Dharmayanti, Reymunda Dwi Alfathur

Abstract


Indonesia’s expanding e-commerce sector still marginalizes blind users. This study aimed to determine whether a user-centred design process could convert inaccessible shopping flows into accessible ones. We applied Design Thinking to a large Indonesian e-commerce website, audited barriers with screen reader walkthroughs, mapped issues to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and ARIA, and iteratively prototyped semantics, headings, roles, keyboard flows, and feedback. Blind participants from a rehabilitation center completed think-aloud evaluations that compared the original and redesigned flows. Usability tests showed complete task completion across search, product, and checkout, with faster completion and fewer errors, because interface semantics matched assistive technologies and interaction steps were simplified and consistently announced. The redesign now enables truly independent transactions and reduces frustration. These findings indicate that locally adapted, standards-guided, and user-validated design can replace exclusion with inclusion in digital commerce and can be replicated by teams in resource-constrained settings to accelerate equitable access.

Keywords


Accessibility; Design thinking; E-Commerce; Inclusive design; Visually impaired

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References


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/ajse.v6i3.90874

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