Foregrounding accessibility for user experience design

textI am interested in creating generative tools and techniques for designing accessible user experiences for end users. As a user experience designer, I am working on embracing the web accessibility standards and guidelines and including them from the beginning of the User Experience (UX) design process. My projects are directed at facilitating design students and professionals to understand two things: that the broad concept of web accessibility is important, and how they can embed web accessibility into the UX design process at a very early stage. To do this, I used different media (website, posters and videos etc.) to create awareness and educate designers in an interesting, simple and engaging way. In this report, I will discuss the definition and role of accessible design, identify limitations in existing tools and methods, and demonstrate how future designers might research, prototype, analyze, and implement their designs for all users.Desig

Impact of haptic 'touching' technology on cultural applications

No abstract available

ENHANCING USERS’ EXPERIENCE WITH SMART MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

The aim of this thesis is to investigate mobile guides for use with smartphones. Mobile guides have been successfully used to provide information, personalisation and navigation for the user. The researcher also wanted to ascertain how and in what ways mobile guides can enhance users' experience. This research involved designing and developing web based applications to run on smartphones. Four studies were conducted, two of which involved testing of the particular application. The applications tested were a museum mobile guide application and a university mobile guide mapping application. Initial testing examined the prototype work for the ‘Chronology of His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah’ application. The results were used to assess the potential of using similar mobile guides in Brunei Darussalam’s museums. The second study involved testing of the ‘Kent LiveMap’ application for use at the University of Kent. Students at the university tested this mapping application, which uses crowdsourcing of information to provide live data. The results were promising and indicate that users' experience was enhanced when using the application. Overall results from testing and using the two applications that were developed as part of this thesis show that mobile guides have the potential to be implemented in Brunei Darussalam’s museums and on campus at the University of Kent. However, modifications to both applications are required to fulfil their potential and take them beyond the prototype stage in order to be fully functioning and commercially viable

A Research Framework and Initial Study of Browser Security for the Visually Impaired

The growth of web-based malware and phishing attacks has catalyzed significant advances in the research and use of interstitial warning pages and modals by a browser prior to loading the content of a suspect site. These warnings commonly use visual cues to attract users\u27 attention, including specialized iconography, color, and an absence of buttons to communicate the importance of the scenario. While the efficacy of visual techniques has improved safety for sighted users, these techniques are unsuitable for blind and visually impaired users. This is likely not due to a lack of interest or technical capability by browser manufactures, where universal design is a core tenet of their engineering practices, but instead a reflection of the very real dearth of research literature to inform best practices, exacerbated by a deficit of clear methodologies for conducting studies with this population. Indeed, the challenges are manifold. In this paper, we present the results of our study analyzing the experiences of the visually impaired with browser security warnings, detail the development and advancement of the methodological best practices when conducting a study of this kind, and ultimately identify some initial approaches that could improve the security for this population

Validation of a development methodology and tool for IoT-based systems through a case study for visually impaired people

In this article, we validate the Test-Driven Development Methodology for Internet of Things (IoT)-based Systems (TDDM4IoTS) and its companion tool, called Test-Driven Development Tool for IoT-based Systems (TDDT4IoTS). TDDM4IoTS consists of 11 stages, including activities ranging from system requirements gathering to system maintenance. To evaluate the effectiveness of TDDM4IoTS and TDDT4IoTS, in the last four academic years from 2019, System Engineering students have developed several IoT-based systems as part of their training, from the sixth semester (third academic year). Ñawi (phonetically, Gnawi), which is the case study presented herein, is one of them, and intends to assist visually impaired people to move through open environments. Ñawi consists of a device, a mobile application and a web application. The device interacts with the environment and issues alerts to the user whenever it recognizes obstacles in their path. The mobile application targets two user roles: assisted person and caregiver. Assisted people can use the device and log in into a server when they leave home, so that the mobile application identifies and notifies obstacles in their path. All the collected data is gathered into the server, so that caregivers receive notifications and can monitor the location of their assisted people at any place and time. The web application allows caregivers to query and view more extensive information (details of events, trajectories, etc.). TDDM4IoTS has been evaluated regarding both the roles of the project members and the development cycle stages. A survey was used to evaluate the methodology. Out of a total of 47 respondents, 30 had used TDDM4IoTS and 96.66% of them were very satisfied or satisfied, with nobody unsatisfied

StateLens: A Reverse Engineering Solution for Making Existing Dynamic Touchscreens Accessible

Blind people frequently encounter inaccessible dynamic touchscreens in their everyday lives that are difficult, frustrating, and often impossible to use independently. Touchscreens are often the only way to control everything from coffee machines and payment terminals, to subway ticket machines and in-flight entertainment systems. Interacting with dynamic touchscreens is difficult non-visually because the visual user interfaces change, interactions often occur over multiple different screens, and it is easy to accidentally trigger interface actions while exploring the screen. To solve these problems, we introduce StateLens - a three-part reverse engineering solution that makes existing dynamic touchscreens accessible. First, StateLens reverse engineers the underlying state diagrams of existing interfaces using point-of-view videos found online or taken by users using a hybrid crowd-computer vision pipeline. Second, using the state diagrams, StateLens automatically generates conversational agents to guide blind users through specifying the tasks that the interface can perform, allowing the StateLens iOS application to provide interactive guidance and feedback so that blind users can access the interface. Finally, a set of 3D-printed accessories enable blind people to explore capacitive touchscreens without the risk of triggering accidental touches on the interface. Our technical evaluation shows that StateLens can accurately reconstruct interfaces from stationary, hand-held, and web videos; and, a user study of the complete system demonstrates that StateLens successfully enables blind users to access otherwise inaccessible dynamic touchscreens.Comment: ACM UIST 201

Using haptic feedback to support cognitive mapping in mobile applications for orientation and mobility

The aim of this study, which is currently underway, is to investigate how the haptic channel can be effectively exploited in a mobile app devoted to visually impaired users, for the preliminary exploration of a complex indoor environment, such as a shopping mall

Accessible Cosmetic Packaging for Visually Impaired and Blind Users

Visually impaired and blind users often find it challenging to identify cosmetic products, and colours and read the label information because of the lack of accessible cosmetic packaging. The goal of this study was to understand the characteristics of and design opportunities for accessible packaging. Four research questions were examined: 1) What features of the packaging design will make it easier to distinguish between various cosmetic products? 2) How may packaging be made to provide Visually impaired/Blind consumers with access to product label information? 3) How do Visually impaired/Blind individuals conceptualize colour and how may this be incorporated into product design/packaging? 4) What application can be developed to aid and enhance the user experience of existing cosmetic packaging? To answer these questions inclusive design framework was adopted, and a co-design methodology was used. Three co-designers took part in the study. Findings were grouped into two themes 1) Characteristics of packaging required to improve user's experience and 2)Characteristics that would minimize the need for users to seek advice from others prior to product selection or use. Findings were used 1) to create an accessible packaging checklist and 2) to design an app that helps visually impaired and blind users identify products, and colours and get expert feedback on how the make-up is applied. The application is named Beauty Ally. The checklist will help brands develop accessible cosmetic packaging for visually impaired and blind consumers. The app will enhance the user experience of visually impaired and blind consumers with existing packaging by helping them identify products, read label information, and colours and seek advice from volunteers

Voice-For-Blind: An Utilizable Email Client for Visually Impaired Users

For people who are sighted, visually impaired, or blind, electronic mail has evolved into a vital tool for collaboration and communication. However, the current email-related activities on smartphones cause a number of problems due to insufficient mapping of haptic feedback, complex text-entry layouts, a variety of screen sizes and orientations, illogical ordering of navigational items, and inconsistent interface design. The Components on touch-screen interfaces that can't be seen can be difficult for blind people to precisely access, making it difficult for them to carry out common mailing tasks such as receiving, sending, organising, managing spam, deleting, searching, and filtering. Due to these issues, blind people are having trouble using smartphones and completing a number of tasks related to email. Junk and Spam email frustration and cognitive overload are additional effects. We proposed Voice-For-Blind an utilizable email client that is friendly to visully imapired individuals to get around the obstacles relating to the usability and accessibility of smartphone-related mailing activities. 38 blind participants in an empirical study who carried out 14 email-related tasks are used to evaluate the proposed email client. The outcomes of this prototype's use demonstrate an elevated accuracy in complettion, improved user experience, and improved touchscreen interface control for basic tasks like email management. The findings show that Voice-For-Blind is an email client that is inclusive of accessibility, giving blind individuals an enhanced user - interface experience and reducing cognitive load when managing emails

Wayfinding and Navigation for People with Disabilities Using Social Navigation Networks

To achieve safe and independent mobility, people usually depend on published information, prior experience, the knowledge of others, and/or technology to navigate unfamiliar outdoor and indoor environments. Today, due to advances in various technologies, wayfinding and navigation systems and services are commonplace and are accessible on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices. However, despite their popularity and widespread use, current wayfinding and navigation solutions often fail to address the needs of people with disabilities (PWDs). We argue that these shortcomings are primarily due to the ubiquity of the compute-centric approach adopted in these systems and services, where they do not benefit from the experience-centric approach. We propose that following a hybrid approach of combining experience-centric and compute-centric methods will overcome the shortcomings of current wayfinding and navigation solutions for PWDs