I have no idea whether their design is fully accessible or not (I think there are a couple of places to improve – I’ll mention those). I’ll have to check it out – but I may not get a chance to this year, since I’m writing this on the next-to-last day of the Tour de France. But whether you’re a cycling fan or not, it’s pretty incredible how much information they’re able to update in near real time on their website.
When you go to the Race Center page, here’s what the organizers show:
- The entire stage, including the different categories of climbs, where points are earned,
- Where each group is on the course, with continually updating time gaps
- The time gaps are updated with green or red circles, indicating whether the gap is increasing or decreasing. Here I think it’s not quite fully accessible, as color shouldn’t be used as the only indicator. I’d like to listen to this in a screen reader.
- The gradient of the ride is individually updated for each of the different groups with an angle symbol and the gradient.
- A blog type section of the page, with tweets.
- A link to race radio
- A updated graph of the average speed of the leading group
- The jersey leaders, with descriptions of each of the four main individual jerseys.
- The wind indicator even changes to show changes in the direction of the wind.
- On the “live data” section of the website, each of the group circles have quarter circles defined for where the yellow (race leader), green (sprint leader), white (best young rider), and polka-dot (best climber) jerseys are. As I type this, the lead group has the polka-dot jersey (1/4 red circle), the white and yellow jerseys are in the second group, and the leading sprinter is in the third group. Very clever.
- The bicycles in the group description also have quarter circles showing which jerseys are in which groups.
Even the different jerseys have their own Twitter accounts.
And there are four languages for the website – English, French, German, and Spanish.
Granted, the technology on the bikes makes gathering real-time information much easier. But there has to be a conscious thought as to how to assimilate that information in an easy-to-follow form, and to think about what casual fans and hard core cycling fans would want to know. Cycling and baseball have so much information available during their games that gets published in real-time. I do wonder what other sports could learn from this website.