# Journey 5: Admissions content — audit notes

**Pages visited:** `/` (reverse-discoverability check), `/admissions`
**Viewports:** 390×844 (mobile only — light pass per brief)

## Task attempt log

Goal of this pass: light single-viewport review of `/admissions`, plus the open question — is 5% of page views low because parents don't need admissions content, or because they can't find it?

1. Loaded `/` at 390×844 and inspected the full accessibility snapshot for every path into admissions content. Found three independent paths, all one tap from the homepage: (a) a persistent bottom tab bar with a dedicated "Admissions" tab visible on every page without scrolling, (b) a "Key admissions deadlines" widget on the homepage itself (above the fold on most phones, right below the search box and "Schools near me" button) with a "Full admissions guide →" link, and (c) a footer "Admissions guide" link. No hunting required — this is unusually well-exposed for content that gets only 5% of views.
2. Navigated to `/admissions`. Page loaded a full guide: hero with a live "days until next milestone" countdown strip, a sticky in-page nav ("Primary / Secondary / Tips"), a "Primary school admissions" timeline (6 stages: research criteria → portal opens → deadline → offer day → accept/decline → appeals), an identically structured "Secondary school admissions" timeline, and a "Three things most parents get wrong" section.
3. Checked heading hierarchy via `document.querySelectorAll('h1,h2,h3,h4')`: H1 "School Admissions Guide" → H2 "Primary school admissions" → H2 "Secondary school admissions" → H2 "Three things most parents get wrong" → H3×3 tip headings → (footer landmark) H3 "SchoolCompare" → H4×2. Clean, no skipped levels.
4. Checked line length on `main p` elements via `getBoundingClientRect` + `textContent.length`: body copy renders in a ~240px column at ~14px font, roughly 30–32 characters per line. Narrow, but this is a function of the 390px viewport and card padding, not a defect — not flagged as a friction point.
5. Checked the "recently added" SchoolCompare tool cross-links: every one of the 12 timeline steps (6 primary + 6 secondary) ends with a contextual CTA linking to `/` ("Find schools & view their admissions history", "Look up your allocated school"), `/compare` ("Build and compare your shortlist", "Weigh your offer against your other choices"), or `/rankings` ("Compare performance to order your preferences", "Gather performance evidence for your case"). Copy is tailored to the specific stage (e.g. the deadline step links to rankings framed as "order your preferences", not a generic "see rankings"). These read as genuinely contextual, not bolted on.
6. Checked touch target sizes on cross-link CTAs via `getBoundingClientRect`: most are 42px tall, well above minimum, but two variants ("Build and compare your shortlist →" and "Look up your allocated school →") measure only 21px tall.
7. Ran the axe-core snippet (`axe-snippet.js`) verbatim via `browser_evaluate`. 1 violation type, `color-contrast` (serious), 13 nodes, including the active bottom-nav tab label, the "England · Primary & Secondary" eyebrow, and the deadline countdown chip text.
8. Visual cohesion check (screenshot `j5-admissions-mobile.png`, full page): same cream background, coral/teal accent palette, card styling, and typography as the homepage's "Key admissions deadlines" widget. No visible inconsistency with the rest of the site in this pass.

**Discoverability answer:** Not a discoverability problem on the evidence gathered here. Admissions is reachable in 1 tap from any page (bottom tab bar) and is additionally surfaced unprompted on the homepage itself via the deadlines widget and in the footer. If 5% of views is "low," the more likely explanations are demand-side (most visits are one-off school lookups, not admissions research) or a mismatch between when parents need this content (a narrow autumn/winter window) and when they're on the site — not a findability failure.

## Friction points

- **F1. Color-contrast failures on nav label, eyebrow, and deadline chip text**
  - Evidence: axe-core `color-contrast` rule, impact `serious`, 13 nodes. Sample targets: `.Navigation-module__Pj2Xoq__tabActive .tabLabel`, `.AdmissionsView-module__HSIWdq__eyebrow`, `.AdmissionsView-module__HSIWdq__chipDeadline .chipTrackDeadline`.
  - Criterion violated: WCAG 2.2 SC 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum), AA.
  - Argument: the affected elements include the deadline countdown chips — the single most load-bearing piece of information on this page (parents are here specifically to check "how many days until the deadline"). Low-vision parents reading this on a phone in poor lighting are the exact audience this feature is for.
  - Severity guess: P1 (WCAG failure, so not capped at P2; serious axe impact on primary task-critical content).

- **F2. Two cross-link CTA styles fall below the 24px touch-target minimum**
  - Evidence: `getBoundingClientRect()` on all `main a` elements — "Build and compare your shortlist →" and "Look up your allocated school →" both measure 21px tall (vs. 42px for the other 4 CTA variants on the same page).
  - Criterion violated: WCAG 2.2 SC 2.5.8 Target Size (Minimum), AA (24×24 CSS px, with only a narrow exception for links inline within a sentence — these render as standalone single-line CTAs, not text wrapped mid-paragraph, so the exception is doubtful).
  - Argument: these are two of the twelve "recently added" cross-links meant to funnel admissions readers into the Search/Compare/Rankings tools — the exact conversion path this content exists to support. A tap target 3px under spec, inconsistent with sibling CTAs at 42px on the same page, adds avoidable mis-tap friction for a stressed parent thumbing through a countdown page.
  - Severity guess: P2 (WCAG failure but a small, inconsistent-styling shortfall rather than a missing target).

## Works well — keep

- Admissions is discoverable in one tap from anywhere (bottom tab bar) and is proactively surfaced on the homepage (deadlines widget) and footer — this rules out "parents can't find it" as the likely explanation for low view share.
- The 12 contextual cross-links from admissions timeline steps into Search/Compare/Rankings are well-targeted to the specific stage of the journey (e.g., "Compare performance to order your preferences" at the deadline step, not a generic link) — a good example of tool cross-linking done with intent rather than bolted on.
- Heading hierarchy is clean (H1→H2→H3, no skipped levels), which matters for screen-reader users navigating a long timeline page by heading.
- Visual style is consistent with the rest of the site (palette, card treatment, typography match the homepage) — no cohesion break found in this pass.

## Axe results

- `/admissions` @ 390×844: 1 violation — `color-contrast` (serious, 13 nodes)

## Manual WCAG spot checks

- Touch targets ≥24px on interactive elements: fail — 2 of the 12 cross-link CTAs measure 21px tall (see F2); bottom-nav tabs (56px) and sticky in-page nav links (35px) pass.
- Keyboard: tab order, focus visibility (desktop only): not checked — mobile-only pass per brief.
- Zoom 200% text reflow (desktop only): not checked — mobile-only pass per brief.

## Screenshots

- `j5-home-mobile-top.png`: homepage above the fold at 390×844, showing the bottom tab bar with an "Admissions" tab and the "Key admissions deadlines" widget with "Full admissions guide →" link — evidence for the discoverability finding.
- `j5-admissions-mobile.png`: full-page screenshot of `/admissions` at 390×844, used for the cohesion and layout review.
