Making touch-based kiosks accessible to blind users through simple gestures

Touch-based interaction is becoming increasingly popular and is commonly used as the main interaction paradigm for self-service kiosks in public spaces. Touch-based interaction is known to be visually intensive, and current non-haptic touch-display technologies are often criticized as excluding blind users. This study set out to demonstrate that touch-based kiosks can be designed to include blind users without compromising the user experience for non-blind users. Most touch-based kiosks are based on absolute positioned virtual buttons which are difficult to locate without any tactile, audible or visual cues. However, simple stroke gestures rely on relative movements and the user does not need to hit a target at a specific location on the display. In this study, a touch-based train ticket sales kiosk based on simple stroke gestures was developed and tested on a panel of blind and visually impaired users, a panel of blindfolded non-visually impaired users and a control group of non-visually impaired users. The tests demonstrate that all the participants managed to discover, learn and use the touch-based self-service terminal and complete a ticket purchasing task. The majority of the participants completed the task in less than 4 min on the first attempt

Design of Web-based Tools to Study Blind People?s Touch-Based Interaction with Smartphones

Nowadays touchscreen smartphones are the most common kind of mobile devices. However, gesture-based interaction is a difficult task for most visually impaired people, and even more so for blind people. This difficulty is compounded by the lack of standard gestures and the differences between the main screen reader platforms available on the market. Therefore, our goal is to investigate the differences and preferences in touch gesture performance on smartphones among visually impaired people. During our study, we implemented a web-based wireless system to facilitate the capture of participants? gestures. In this paper we present an overview of both the study and the system used

An image-based visual strategy for working with color contrasts during design

acceptedVersio

Improving the robustness to input errors on touch-based self-service kiosks and transportation apps

acceptedVersio

Are Split Tablet Keyboards Better? A Study of Soft Keyboard Layout and Hand Posture

acceptedVersio

A Novel Application: Using Mobile Technology to Connect Physical and Virtual Reference Collections

This chapter describes an innovative implementation of the use of iPad kiosks to blur the lines between physical and virtual library collections. Providence College’s Phillips Memorial Library + Commons began lending iPads to students, faculty, and staff in 2012. In addition to lending the devices, library staff dedicated time to learning about both task-based and subject-based mobile applications that would be of use to our community. A small group of library staff tested, discussed, and vetted a variety of apps that would be deployed on the iPads to be lent out. Efforts were made to promote the use and discovery of various apps on the devices through thoughtful organization of the apps on the devices themselves, programming around applications, and the creation of an online research guide designed to teach more about the apps. Despite these initiatives, assessment data from the iPad lending program collected over the course of five semesters suggests that patrons borrowing the iPads are using them primarily for accessing the Internet (Safari, Chrome, etc.), social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), and consuming media (YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, etc.). With this data in mind, library staff began to think of alternative ways to connect our patrons with useful, content-based, mobile applications. Drawing on research around the Internet of Things and the integration of digital technologies with our physical lives, the Digital Publishing Services Coordinator suggested positioning iPad kiosks strategically within the library’s physical book collection as a means to connect patrons browsing a given area of the stacks with the library’s online resources related to that subject area. The library’s Commons Technology Specialist had experience with iPad kiosks and programming the iPads as he had managed the logistics of the iPad lending program since its inception. Working collaboratively, these colleagues devised a way to image the iPads for public use and load them with subject-specific apps as well as links to library databases and open web resources. The team chose to use Scalar as the primary content management tool for kiosk content. This chapter provides details about the selection and deployment of content for the Theology Kiosk, signage and communications created to attract patrons to the kiosk, and initial data about kiosk use. The piece concludes with a review of the kiosk project and an outline of future planning related to the project (staff time, hardware and software requirements, usability testing, scaling the project, etc.)

Form Feedback on the Web: A Comparison of Popup Alerts and In-Form Error Messages

acceptedVersio

Making touch-based kiosks accessible to blind users through simple gestures

Touch-based interaction is becoming increasingly popular and is commonly used as the main interaction paradigm for self-service kiosks in public spaces. Touch-based interaction is known to be visually intensive, and current non-haptic touch-display technologies are often criticized as excluding blind users. This study set out to demonstrate that touch-based kiosks can be designed to include blind users without compromising the user experience for non-blind users. Most touch-based kiosks are based on absolute positioned virtual buttons which are difficult to locate without any tactile, audible or visual cues. However, simple stroke gestures rely on relative movements and the user does not need to hit a target at a specific location on the display. In this study, a touch-based train ticket sales kiosk based on simple stroke gestures was developed and tested on a panel of blind and visually impaired users, a panel of blindfolded non-visually impaired users and a control group of non-visually impaired users. The tests demonstrate that all the participants managed to discover, learn and use the touch-based self-service terminal and complete a ticket purchasing task. The majority of the participants completed the task in less than 4 min on the first attempt

Measuring acceptable input: What is "good enough"?

Many new assistive input systems developed to meet the needs of users with functional impairments fail to make it out of the research laboratory and into regular use by the intended end users. This paper examines some of the reasons for this failure and focuses particularly on whether the developers of such systems are using the correct metrics and approaches for evaluating the functional and social attributes of the input systems they are designing. This paper further focuses on the importance of benchmarking new assistive input systems against baseline measures of useful interaction rates that take allowance of factors such as input success/recognition rate, error rate, correction effort and input time. By addressing each of these measures, a more complete understanding of whether an input system is practically and functionally acceptable can be obtained and design guidance for developers is provided