Usability and Design Analysis for COMET (COnvergent Media and Exploratory Technologies Lab)

poster abstractThe COnvergent Media and Exploratory Technologies (COMET) Lab is an applied research laboratory in the Department of Human-Centered Computing, School of Informatics and Computing, where faculty and students work together to deliver web, mobile and interactive media solutions for projects submitted by units from the IUPUI campus, external organizations and the community at large. The COMET website serves as a portfolio showcasing to stakeholders inside and outside the campus (community) what IUPUI faculty and students do in the COMET Lab. Currently, the site serves six primary audiences: Non-profit or community organizations, for-profit businesses, IUPUI students, IUPUI faculty/staff, and student organizations. Due to the number of users interested in COMET, we considered performing a redesign of the site in order to improve its aesthetics and the user experience. Based on our initial research discovery with our users, we recognized that many users visited the site because they were interested in projects created at SOIC, wanted access to applications developed by COMET, and were searching for a place to discuss project funding. Also, students were interested in Service Learning, civic engagement, or possibilities for an Independent Study/Capstone project. The redesign attempts to meet three goals: 1) attract external and campus stakeholders for potential projects; 2) connect students with projects, and 3) build a system for project partnerships/collaborations. With the new redesign users will be able to search and view featured projects, join a project, or propose a project with COMET (faculty/community). The visual style will be based on material design and the UI brand colors, specifically the IU Majestic and orange as the accent color

Fast and Discreet access to web services for the Blind through Screenless Browsing

poster abstractWeb services on our smartphones have become an integral part of our daily lives. Services like Google Maps and Yelp have helped us explore the world better. However, the blind and visually impaired (BVI) spend unnecessary cognitive and mechanical effort navigating complex menus displayed on a mobile device before they can locate and access the content of their interest. More direct access may happen via voice-based services (e.g., S iri ), but at the cost of breaking privacy and social boundaries. To combat this issue, we propose Screenless Browsing : combining hand gesture recognition with aural navigation patterns that enable the BVI to quickly navigate aural menus through nimble, discrete hand movements. We propose to decouple the friction-prone mechanical interaction with a mobile display from the navigation experience. We demonstrate our approach by: (1) Introducing novel aural browsing menus that combine web content with binary splitting, dynamic sorting and playlists to accelerate navigation across collections; (2) Mapping aural menu navigation to the robust and simple vocabulary of hand movements enabled by M yo , an off-the-shelf muscle-controlled armband; (3) Reify our approach by iteratively prototyping Screenless Browsing of mobile applications for the BVI; (4) Conduct a user study to assess the limits and potential of our approach with participants from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI). We believe that the ability to access web services on the move without taking the phone out of the pocket will empower the BVI to navigate and explore places effectively. Our work exemplifies a novel way to to reduce unwanted friction with the device and maximize the content experience for the BVI