User-interface design and evaluation in a mobile application for detecting latent tuberculosis

Treatment and monitoring of tuberculosis have been met with various interventions to reduce its prevalence. One such intervention, to detect and prevent latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), is the tuberculin skin test (TST), for which an induration response on a patient’s arm is an indication of LTBI. The test requires the patient to return to a clinic 48 to 72 hours after TST administration for assessment of the response. This is a challenge because of financial and accessibility obstacles, especially in under-resourced regions. A mobile health (mHealth) application (app) has been developed for remote assessment of the response to the TST. The previous version of the LTBI screening app, however, had usability limitations. The app is intended for use by patients and healthcare workers; thus, ease of use is important. There is a lack of literature on the usability of mHealth apps, especially in under-resourced settings. In this project, the user interface of the app was redesigned and tested. The Information Systems Research (ISR) framework was integrated with design thinking for this purpose. The project included creating mock-ups of the interface which were iteratively prototyped with ten student participants, adjusted, and assessed according to the user feedback. Thereafter, the Android Studio software was used to adjust the user interface based on the insights gained through the progression of prototypes. The usability of the updated app was tested and assessed with ten healthcare workers at a community health clinic in Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa. Data collection and analysis comprised both qualitative and quantitative methods. Observations, the “think aloud” approach, and the post-study system usability questionnaire were used for data collection. Student participants highlighted various usability limitations of the app during each iteration. The major usability limitations included: the complex image capture protocol, misunderstanding of instructions, and time taken to capture images. Engagement with students allowed for improvement of the app interface and enabled adequate preparation for testing in the field with end-users. Furthermore, improving the app interface before engaging with healthcare workers, enabled context specific limitations that would affect the usability of the app, to be explored during the field testing. These included safety concerns when using the app and the privacy of health information. Future work should explore how these concerns, as well as other social factors, affect usability. Furthermore, improving the image capture protocol is required for improving the usability of the app

Intuitive interaction: Steps towards an integral understanding of the user experience in interaction design

A critical review of traditional practices and methodologies demonstrates an underplaying of firstly the role of emotions and secondly aspects of exploration in interaction behaviour in favour of a goal orientated focus in the user experience (UX). Consequently, the UX is a commodity that can be designed, measured, and predicted. An integral understanding of the UX attempts to overcome the rationalistic and instrumental mindset of traditional Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) on several levels. Firstly, the thesis seeks to complement a functional view of interaction with a qualitative one that considers the complexity of emotions. Emotions are at the heart of engagement and connect action irreversibly to the moment it occurs; they are intettwined with cognition, and decision making. Furthermore, they introduce the vague and ambiguous aspects of experience and open it up to potentiality of creation. Secondly, the thesis examines the relationship between purposive and non-purposive user behaviour such as exploration, play and discovery. The integral position proposed here stresses the procedurally relational nature and complexity of interaction experience. This requires revisiting and augmenting key themes of HCI practice such as interactivity and intuitive design. Intuition is investigated as an early and unconscious form of learning, and unstructured browsing discussed as random interaction mechanisms as forms of implicit learning. Interactivity here is the space for user's actions, contributions and creativity, not only in the design process but also during interaction as co-authors of their experiences. Finally, I envisage integral forms of usability methods to embrace the vague and the ambiguous, in order to enrich HCI's vocabulary and design potential. Key readings that inform this position cut across contemporary philosophy, media and interaction studies and professional HCI literature. On a practical level, a series of experimental interaction designs for web-browsing aim to augment the user's experience, and create space for user's intuition

Eyes-Off Physically Grounded Mobile Interaction

This thesis explores the possibilities, challenges and future scope for eyes-off, physically grounded mobile interaction. We argue that for interactions with digital content in physical spaces, our focus should not be constantly and solely on the device we are using, but fused with an experience of the places themselves, and the people who inhabit them. Through the design, development and evaluation of a series ofnovel prototypes we show the benefits of a more eyes-off mobile interaction style.Consequently, we are able to outline several important design recommendations for future devices in this area.The four key contributing chapters of this thesis each investigate separate elements within this design space. We begin by evaluating the need for screen-primary feedback during content discovery, showing how a more exploratory experience can be supported via a less-visual interaction style. We then demonstrate how tactilefeedback can improve the experience and the accuracy of the approach. In our novel tactile hierarchy design we add a further layer of haptic interaction, and show how people can be supported in finding and filtering content types, eyes-off. We then turn to explore interactions that shape the ways people interact with aphysical space. Our novel group and solo navigation prototypes use haptic feedbackfor a new approach to pedestrian navigation. We demonstrate how variations inthis feedback can support exploration, giving users autonomy in their navigationbehaviour, but with an underlying reassurance that they will reach the goal.Our final contributing chapter turns to consider how these advanced interactionsmight be provided for people who do not have the expensive mobile devices that areusually required. We extend an existing telephone-based information service to support remote back-of-device inputs on low-end mobiles. We conclude by establishingthe current boundaries of these techniques, and suggesting where their usage couldlead in the future

Multiple multimodal mobile devices: Lessons learned from engineering lifelog solutions

For lifelogging, or the recording of one’s life history through digital means, to be successful, a range of separate multimodal mobile devices must be employed. These include smartphones such as the N95, the Microsoft SenseCam – a wearable passive photo capture device, or wearable biometric devices. Each collects a facet of the bigger picture, through, for example, personal digital photos, mobile messages and documents access history, but unfortunately, they operate independently and unaware of each other. This creates significant challenges for the practical application of these devices, the use and integration of their data and their operation by a user. In this chapter we discuss the software engineering challenges and their implications for individuals working on integration of data from multiple ubiquitous mobile devices drawing on our experiences working with such technology over the past several years for the development of integrated personal lifelogs. The chapter serves as an engineering guide to those considering working in the domain of lifelogging and more generally to those working with multiple multimodal devices and integration of their data

Evaluating technology for elders : towards a measure of attitudes

Technology is ubiquitous in modern day society and has the potential to enhance one's quality of life. Numerous innovative assistive technologies are designed to aid elderly people in every day activities and enable them to maintain a measure of independence longer. One such assistive technology was the PAM-AID walking aid: a robotic walking aid designed to provide frail, visually impaired elders with the physical support of a rollator, coupled with the navigational assistance necessary for safe, independent mobility. A user-centred design approach was integral to the design and development of PAM-AID and the first part of this thesis, details the research undertaken to ensure that, as far as possible, PAM-AID met the needs of potential users. Studies were conducted with carers and elders to establish elders' requirements for PAM-AID. The results of these studies directly influenced the functional specification of the first PAM-AID prototype. Following an iterative design life cycle, further studies were conducted to evaluate the usability of the first and second prototypes and the results of these studies enabled informed design decisions could be made. Therefore, elders were involved at every stage of the design process, to ensure that PAM-AID was an efficient and acceptable technology to this user group. However, throughout this preliminary work, an interesting discrepancy in elders' attitudes began to emerge. It became evident that although elders thought that PAM-AID was a useful walking aid for other frail elderly people, they did not think that PAM-AID was beneficial for them personally. In other words, elders' attitudes indicated that they might not use or accept PAM-AID, even though they would clearly benefit from this innovative technology. Indeed, other research has shown that many assistive technologies are often under utilised or discarded by elders, even when the potential benefits of the technology are clearly evident. This was a pivotal point in the research programme, as it highlighted the importance of monitoring elders' attitudes to predict future use of and acceptance of assistive technology. Since no applicable tool exists for measuring individuals' attitudes to technologies such as PAM-AID, the main empirical work of this research programme involved the development of a psychometric scale: the Attitudes to Technology Scale (ATS). The inductive approach to development of this scale involved: the generation of items, the reduction of the items into meaningful subscales, as well as the demonstration of the scale's reliability and validity. Throughout its development, the scale was applied to a number of different types of technology such as ATMs, computers, microwaves, mobile phones, VCRs and the Internet. The scale has been used to investigate the effect of age and sex differences in terms of attitudes to technology. Thus, the ATS is unique in that it has been developed for use with ID1 types of technology and with individuals of ~ ages. The limitations of the scale have been noted and further work is needed to address these limitations. It is hoped that this scale will have both academic and commercial research applications, but above all, the ATS could be applied to continually monitor users' attitudes during the design and development of new technologies. It is proposed that the measurement of users' attitudes should be an integral part of the design life cycle, resulting in more useable and acceptable technology

Positive expressive technologies for social wellness

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Drawing on research from the fields of HCI, social and positive psychology, this thesis investigates the design of technologies that encourage the expression of positive emotions. In parallel, it details the deployment of effective design steps to guide, frame and eventually support understandings of positive mental and social usage effects of technology. Different artefacts termed PosiPost have been iteratively developed as exemplars for the discussion and exploration of the ways in which technologies can support positive communication and social sharing. Studies with these technologies have been conducted to explore how these can encourage positive communication and understand how they contribute to social wellness. Specifically, the studies undertaken validate the hypothesis that the sharing of positive emotions as mediated by technology has beneficial social and mental effects. The first stage of the research examined whether and how social technology can be designed for positive affect. A theoretical framework, named THE Medium model was developed to support the design process. Furthermore, design considerations were produced for technologies that encourage the sharing of positive emotions. This latter involved two studies, paper-based and online, which showed the potential for a prefixbased elicitation of positive emotions and drove the design and development of a mobile tool called PosiPost Me (Mobile edition). The second stage of the design process focused on how positive emotions can be mediated by technology in a mobile context and how such tools were used and understood. The iterative design study process continued, resulting in PosiPost Be, a Bluetooth edition, which allows sharing of positive messages with people in close proximity to explore the social and potential positive effects of contextualizing posiposting by adding location as a factor. Results suggest that by using a prefix-strategy, messages of a positive and mundane nature can be shared and mediated by mobile technology. Analysis of the shared messages provides insights into people’s pleasant moments in daily life. A questionnaire instrument named SPOT was developed and used for the measurement of the effects of sharing pleasant moments with the developed mobile expressive technologies in further detail. The results suggest that lightweight positive expressive technologies can have beneficial social wellness effects. In particular, the study showed significant beneficial effects in reducing depressed feelings and increasing social interest in others. Participants also believed that the mobile PosiPost applications supported social connectedness, socio-pleasure, social and positive awareness, and positive thinking

Co-designing a mobile Internet service for self-management of physical activity in rheumatiod arthritis

Aim: The overall aim of the thesis was to describe and evaluate the content and outcome of co-designing a mobile Internet service for self-management of physical activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with active lead user involvement, within the action research paradigm. Context: Physical activity is known for its health benefits. However, maintaining a physically active lifestyle is a great challenge for most people, and maybe even more so for people living with RA. IT and mobile phones provide additional means to deliver health care services, i.e. mHealth, for physical activity self-management. Further, involvement of lead users in the development of services has been reported to improve their usability and effectiveness. Process: In the first phase of the co-design process, six focus group interviews were performed with lead users (n=26) to explore their ideas on core features (Study I). In the next phase, four workshops were conducted, which included lead users, clinical and researcher physiotherapists, an eHealth strategist and an officer from the Swedish Rheumatism Association (n=10). The aim was to specify the system requirements of the future service (Study II and III). Video recordings, natural observations, prototypes of the future service and an online notice board were used to collect data on the requirements and challenges of co-design. In the third phase, the first test version of the service was produced and evaluate in terms of the participants’ utilization of and experiences with the service (Study IV). Log-data were collected during the six week test period. Web questionnaires were sent out to and telephone interviews were performed with the participants after the test period. Content: Four core aspects that are important to consider in the development of the mHealth service were identified: features, customized options, user interface, and access and implementation (result Study I). To produce the requirements specification, the participants had to merge their different perspectives, which was the core challenge of codesign (Study II). The merging resulted in “tRAppen”, an mHealth service for maintenance of physical activity. tRAppen included two key components: 1) “My self-regulation features” and 2) “My peer support features” (result Study III). The first test version of tRAppen included 22 different behavior change techniques. Outcome: Twenty-eight participants tested tRAppen (result Study IV). Most participants registered physical activity, sent likes and made an exercise plan. tRAppen was generally rated as easy and fun to use, and all participants would recommend it to other people. The results also described the experiences of using tRAppen as being influenced by physical and mental state and personal preferences. Conclusions: The use of co-design in the development of the physical activity selfmanagement service tRAppen was successful. The first test version of tRAppen was perceived as feasible and to have the potential to support a physically active lifestyle in people with RA. Co-design in collaborative workshops was an extensive decision-making process that put high demands on the participants’ ability to find solutions, negotiate, come to agreements and reach final decisions

Embedding mobile learning into everyday life settings

The increasing ubiquity of smartphones has changed the way we interact with information and acquire new knowledge. The prevalence of personal mobile devices in our everyday lives creates new opportunities for learning that exceed the narrow boundaries of a school’s classroom and provide the foundations for lifelong learning. Learning can now happen whenever and wherever we are; whether on the sofa at home, on the bus during our commute, or on a break at work. However, the flexibility offered by mobile learning also creates its challenges. Being able to learn anytime and anywhere does not necessarily result in learning uptake. Without the school environment’s controlled schedule and teacher guidance, the learners must actively initiate learning activities, keep up repetition schedules, and cope with learning in interruption-prone everyday environments. Both interruptions and infrequent repetition can harm the learning process and long-term memory retention. We argue that current mobile learning applications insufficiently support users in coping with these challenges. In this thesis, we explore how we can utilize the ubiquity of mobile devices to ensure frequent engagement with the content, focusing primarily on language learning and supporting users in dealing with learning breaks and interruptions. Following a user-centered design approach, we first analyzed mobile learning behavior in everyday settings. Based on our findings, we proposed concepts and designs, developed research prototypes, and evaluated them in laboratory and field evaluations with a specific focus on user experience. To better understand users’ learning behavior with mobile devices, we first characterized their interaction with mobile learning apps through a detailed survey and a diary study. Both methods confirmed the enormous diversity in usage situations and preferences. We observed that learning often happens unplanned, infrequently, among the company of friends or family, or while simultaneously performing secondary tasks such as watching TV or eating. The studies further uncovered a significant prevalence of interruptions in everyday settings that affected users’ learning behavior, often leading to suspension and termination of the learning activities. We derived design implications to support learning in diverse situations, particularly aimed at mitigating the adverse effects of multitasking and interruptions. The proposed strategies should help designers and developers create mobile learning applications that adapt to the opportunities and challenges of learning in everyday mobile settings. We explored four main challenges, emphasizing that (1) we need to consider that Learning in Everyday Settings is Diverse and Interruption-prone, (2) learning performance is affected by Irregular and Infrequent Practice Behavior, (3) we need to move From Static to Personalized Learning, and (4) that Interruptions and Long Learning Breaks can Negatively Affect Performance. To tackle these challenges, we propose to embed learning into everyday smartphone interactions, which could foster frequent engagement with – and implicitly personalize – learning content (according to users’ interests and skills). Further, we investigate how memory cues could be applied to support task resumption after interruptions in mobile learning. To confirm that our idea of embedding learning into everyday interactions can increase exposure, we developed an application integrating learning tasks into the smartphone authentication process. Since unlocking the smartphone is a frequently performed action without any other purpose, our subjects appreciated the idea of utilizing this process to perform quick and simple learning interactions. Evidence from a comparative user study showed that embedding learning tasks into the unlocking mechanism led to significantly more interactions with the learning content without impairing the learning quality. We further explored a method for embedding language comprehension assessment into users’ digital reading and listening activities. By applying physiological measurements as implicit input, we reliably detected unknown words during laboratory evaluations. Identifying such knowledge gaps could be used for the provision of in-situ support and to inform the generation of personalized language learning content tailored to users’ interests and proficiency levels. To investigate memory cueing as a concept to support task resumption after interruptions, we complemented a theoretical literature analysis of existing applications with two research probes implementing and evaluating promising design concepts. We showed that displaying memory cues when the user resumes the learning activity after an interruption improves their subjective user experience. A subsequent study presented an outlook on the generalizability of memory cues beyond the narrow use case of language learning. We observed that the helpfulness of memory cues for reflecting on prior learning is highly dependent on the design of the cues, particularly the granularity of the presented information. We consider interactive cues for specific memory reactivation (e.g., through multiple-choice questions) a promising scaffolding concept for connecting individual micro-learning sessions when learning in everyday settings. The tools and applications described in this thesis are a starting point for designing applications that support learning in everyday settings. We broaden the understanding of learning behavior and highlight the impact of interruptions in our busy everyday lives. While this thesis focuses mainly on language learning, the concepts and methods have the potential to be generalized to other domains, such as STEM learning. We reflect on the limitations of the presented concepts and outline future research perspectives that utilize the ubiquity of mobile devices to design mobile learning interactions for everyday settings.Die Allgegenwärtigkeit von Smartphones verändert die Art und Weise wie wir mit Informationen umgehen und Wissen erwerben. Die weite Verbreitung von mobilen Endgeräten in unserem täglichen Leben führt zu neuen Möglichkeiten des Lernens, welche über die engen Grenzen eines Klassenraumes hinausreichen und das Fundament für lebenslanges Lernen schaffen. Lernen kann nun zu jeder Zeit und an jedem Ort stattfinden: auf dem Sofa Zuhause, im Bus während des Pendelns oder in der Pause auf der Arbeit. Die Flexibilität des mobilen Lernens geht jedoch zeitgleich mit Herausforderungen einher. Ohne den kontrollierten Ablaufplan und die Unterstützung der Lehrpersonen im schulischen Umfeld sind die Lernenden selbst dafür verantwortlich, aktiv Lernsitzungen zu initiieren, Wiederholungszyklen einzuhalten und Lektionen in unterbrechungsanfälligen Alltagssituationen zu meistern. Sowohl Unterbrechungen als auch unregelmäßige Wiederholung von Inhalten können den Lernprozess behindern und der Langzeitspeicherung der Informationen schaden. Wir behaupten, dass aktuelle mobile Lernanwendungen die Nutzer*innen nur unzureichend in diesen Herausforderungen unterstützen. In dieser Arbeit erforschen wir, wie wir uns die Allgegenwärtigkeit mobiler Endgeräte zunutze machen können, um zu erreichen, dass Nutzer*innen regelmäßig mit den Lerninhalten interagieren. Wir fokussieren uns darauf, sie im Umgang mit Unterbrechungen und Lernpausen zu unterstützen. In einem nutzerzentrierten Designprozess analysieren wir zunächst das Lernverhalten auf mobilen Endgeräten in alltäglichen Situationen. Basierend auf den Erkenntnissen schlagen wir Konzepte und Designs vor, entwickeln Forschungsprototypen und werten diese in Labor- und Feldstudien mit Fokus auf User Experience (wörtl. “Nutzererfahrung”) aus. Um das Lernverhalten von Nutzer*innen mit mobilen Endgeräten besser zu verstehen, versuchen wir zuerst die Interaktionen mit mobilen Lernanwendungen durch eine detaillierte Umfrage und eine Tagebuchstudie zu charakterisieren. Beide Methoden bestätigen eine enorme Vielfalt von Nutzungssituationen und -präferenzen. Wir beobachten, dass Lernen oft ungeplant, unregelmäßig, im Beisein von Freunden oder Familie, oder während der Ausübung anderer Tätigkeiten, beispielsweise Fernsehen oder Essen, stattfindet. Die Studien decken zudem Unterbrechungen in Alltagssituationen auf, welche das Lernverhalten der Nutzer*innen beeinflussen und oft zum Aussetzen oder Beenden der Lernaktivität führen. Wir leiten Implikationen ab, um Lernen in vielfältigen Situationen zu unterstützen und besonders die negativen Einflüsse von Multitasking und Unterbrechungen abzuschwächen. Die vorgeschlagenen Strategien sollen Designer*innen und Entwickler*innen helfen, mobile Lernanwendungen zu erstellen, welche sich den Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen von Lernen in Alltagssituationen anpassen. Wir haben vier zentrale Herausforderungen identifiziert: (1) Lernen in Alltagssituationen ist divers und anfällig für Unterbrechungen; (2) Die Lerneffizienz wird durch unregelmäßiges Wiederholungsverhalten beeinflusst; (3) Wir müssen von statischem zu personalisiertem Lernen übergehen; (4) Unterbrechungen und lange Lernpausen können dem Lernen schaden. Um diese Herausforderungen anzugehen, schlagen wir vor, Lernen in alltägliche Smartphoneinteraktionen einzubetten. Dies führt zu einer vermehrten Beschäftigung mit Lerninhalten und könnte zu einer impliziten Personalisierung von diesen anhand der Interessen und Fähigkeiten der Nutzer*innen beitragen. Zudem untersuchen wir, wie Memory Cues (wörtl. “Gedächtnishinweise”) genutzt werden können, um das Fortsetzen von Aufgaben nach Unterbrechungen im mobilen Lernen zu erleichtern. Um zu zeigen, dass unsere Idee des Einbettens von Lernaufgaben in alltägliche Interaktionen wirklich die Beschäftigung mit diesen erhöht, haben wir eine Anwendung entwickelt, welche Lernaufgaben in den Entsperrprozess von Smartphones integriert. Da die Authentifizierung auf dem Mobilgerät eine häufig durchgeführte Aktion ist, welche keinen weiteren Mehrwert bietet, begrüßten unsere Studienteilnehmenden die Idee, den Prozess für die Durchführung kurzer und einfacher Lerninteraktionen zu nutzen. Ergebnisse aus einer vergleichenden Nutzerstudie haben gezeigt, dass die Einbettung von Aufgaben in den Entsperrprozess zu signifikant mehr Interaktionen mit den Lerninhalten führt, ohne dass die Lernqualität beeinträchtigt wird. Wir haben außerdem eine Methode untersucht, welche die Messung von Sprachverständnis in die digitalen Lese- und Höraktivitäten der Nutzer*innen einbettet. Mittels physiologischer Messungen als implizite Eingabe können wir in Laborstudien zuverlässig unbekannte Wörter erkennen. Die Aufdeckung solcher Wissenslücken kann genutzt werden, um in-situ Untestützung bereitzustellen und um personalisierte Lerninhalte zu generieren, welche auf die Interessen und das Wissensniveau der Nutzer*innen zugeschnitten sind. Um Memory Cues als Konzept für die Unterstützung der Aufgabenfortsetzung nach Unterbrechungen zu untersuchen, haben wir eine theoretische Literaturanalyse von bestehenden Anwendungen um zwei Forschungsarbeiten erweitert, welche vielversprechende Designkonzepte umsetzen und evaluieren. Wir haben gezeigt, dass die Präsentation von Memory Cues die subjektive User Experience verbessert, wenn der Nutzer die Lernaktivität nach einer Unterbrechung fortsetzt. Eine Folgestudie stellt einen Ausblick auf die Generalisierbarkeit von Memory Cues dar, welcher über den Tellerrand des Anwendungsfalls Sprachenlernen hinausschaut. Wir haben beobachtet, dass der Nutzen von Memory Cues für das Reflektieren über gelernte Inhalte stark von dem Design der Cues abhängt, insbesondere von der Granularität der präsentierten Informationen. Wir schätzen interaktive Cues zur spezifischen Gedächtnisaktivierung (z.B. durch Mehrfachauswahlfragen) als einen vielversprechenden Unterstützungsansatz ein, welcher individuelle Mikrolerneinheiten im Alltag verknüpfen könnte. Die Werkzeuge und Anwendungen, die in dieser Arbeit beschrieben werden, sind ein Startpunkt für das Design von Anwendungen, welche das Lernen in Alltagssituationen unterstützen. Wir erweitern das Verständnis, welches wir von Lernverhalten im geschäftigen Alltagsleben haben und heben den Einfluss von Unterbrechungen in diesem hervor. Während sich diese Arbeit hauptsächlich auf das Lernen von Sprachen fokussiert, haben die vorgestellten Konzepte und Methoden das Potential auf andere Bereiche übertragen zu werden, beispielsweise das Lernen von MINT Themen. Wir reflektieren über die Grenzen der präsentierten Konzepte und skizzieren Perspektiven für zukünftige Forschungsarbeiten, welche sich die Allgegenwärtigkeit von mobilen Endgeräten zur Gestaltung von Lernanwendungen für den Alltag zunutze machen

Co-designing in the real world: managing a multiple stakeholder design process with an NGO

Many ICT4D research projects work in collaboration with NGOs in order to meet their development objectives and to increase their interventions’ effectiveness. Herein, aspects of co-design are often applied, where the intention is to include all stakeholders as equal participants in the design process. However, collaborating with NGOs and with users who have reduced access to technology can be challenging. As a result, the ideals of co-design are not easily achieved, due to the vastly differing backgrounds of stakeholders in ICT4D projects. In this thesis, an explicit approach for managing the varying interactions between stakeholders is proposed and described through a case study. The approach was derived from ethnographic action research and participatory design methodologies, led by practical consideration from real-world constraints. The approach is structured around an interactive design process that includes the stakeholder groups in unique ways at each phase of the design process, in order to maximise the contributions in a way that respects their backgrounds and areas of expertise. The proposed approach was evaluated through its implementation in the design of a mobile recordkeeping application, in collaboration with an NGO in Cape Town, South Africa. The NGO comprises of two stakeholder groups: the staff and the micro-entrepreneurs who they empower. The NGO’s focus is to provide training and support over a two-year process to women from low-income communities, by teaching them how to manage their own businesses to become socially and financially independent. The objective of this case study was to design a mobile application that aligned with the recordkeeping curriculum of the NGO and meet the specific requirements and constraints of the target users. Through the implementation of the design approach, the students and staff were able to provide useful and complementary contributions towards the design of the system. A one-month field study of the application with a group of 21 student participants revealed that the system was a suitable solution and appropriately met the needs of the NGO and the end-users. The final evaluation of the stakeholders’ reflections on the design process revealed that it was an appropriate design process to have followed. The results further identified that care must be taken to clarify expectations at each stage of the design process, especially when external factors change, and to frequently communicate with all stakeholders involved. The design approach proposed and employed during this research project, and the unique way that it allowed the stakeholders to contribute, will benefit future ICT4D research projects that are faced with stakeholder groups that vary significantly, where traditional equal participation is not possible

Emergeables: Deformable Displays for Continuous Eyes-Free Mobile Interaction

International audienceWe present the concept of Emergeables - mobile surfaces that can deform or 'morph' to provide fully-actuated, tangible controls. Our goal in this work is to provide the flexibility of graphical touchscreens, coupled with the affordance and tactile benefits offered by physical widgets. In contrast to previous research in the area of deformable displays, our work focuses on continuous controls (e.g., dials or sliders), and strives for fully-dynamic positioning, providing versatile widgets that can change shape and location depending on the user's needs. We describe the design and implementation of two prototype emergeables built to demonstrate the concept, and present an in-depth evaluation that compares both with a touchscreen alternative. The results show the strong potential of emergeables for on-demand, eyes-free control of continuous parameters, particularly when comparing the accuracy and usability of a high-resolution emergeable to a standard GUI approach. We conclude with a discussion of the level of resolution that is necessary for future emergeables, and suggest how high-resolution versions might be achieved