Making Takealot's Personal Shopper usable for everyone

Context

Personal Shopper is Takealot's assisted shopping service. Over one month I worked as accessibility consultant and UX researcher, testing the service with volunteer users who rely on screen readers and keyboard navigation, and mapping how the service runs behind the screens.

The problem

People with visual and motor impairments could not use the service. The flows failed WCAG 2.1 AA, and screen reader users got stuck before they could finish basic tasks. Behind the scenes there was no shared service blueprint, so the experience changed depending on which shopper team handled the order.

Approach

1. 01

   Audited every Personal Shopper flow with NVDA, VoiceOver and keyboard-only navigation

2. 02

   Ran participatory design sessions with three users with disabilities

3. 03

   Rebuilt the onboarding and preference-setting flow to meet WCAG 2.1 AA

4. 04

   Fixed focus states, contrast ratios, heading order and form labels

5. 05

   Wrote alt-text guidelines for product photography

6. 06

   Mapped a full service blueprint across digital touchpoints, shopper operations and fulfilment

Outcome

• →WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across all Personal Shopper flows
• →100% keyboard navigation coverage
• →Screen reader task completion up from 41% to 94%
• →Service blueprint adopted as the operating standard by 3 shopper teams

Reflection

“Testing with real screen reader users surfaced problems no automated checker flagged. Most fixes were small, like a missing label or a focus ring that disappeared, but together they decided whether someone could shop at all. The service blueprint mattered just as much. An accessible screen does not help much if the people running the service behind it work in different ways.”