A Design Engineering Approach for Quantitatively Exploring Context-Aware Sentence Retrieval for Nonspeaking Individuals with Motor Disabilities

Nonspeaking individuals with motor disabilities typically have very low communication rates. This paper proposes a design engineering approach for quantitatively exploring contextaware sentence retrieval as a promising complementary input interface, working in tandem with a word-prediction keyboard. We motivate the need for complementary design engineering methodology in the design of augmentative and alternative communication and explain how such methods can be used to gain additional design insights. We then study the theoretical performance envelopes of a context-aware sentence retrieval system, identifying potential keystroke savings as a function of the parameters of the subsystems, such as the accuracy of the underlying auto-complete word prediction algorithm and the accuracy of sensed context information under varying assumptions. We find that context-aware sentence retrieval has the potential to provide users with considerable improvements in keystroke savings under reasonable parameter assumptions of the underlying subsystems. This highlights how complementary design engineering methods can reveal additional insights into design for augmentative and alternative communication

Methods towards API Usability: A Structural Analysis of Usability Problem Categories

Part 2: Full PapersInternational audienceThe usability of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) is one of the main factors defining the success of a software based framework. Research in the area of human computer interaction (HCI) currently mainly focuses on end-user usability and only little research has been done regarding the usability of APIs. In this paper, we present a methodology on how to use and combine HCI methods with the goal to evaluate the usability of APIs. The methodology consist of three phases - a heuristic evaluation, a developer workshop and interviews. We setup a case-study according to the methodology, in which we are evaluating the usability of a service-oriented framework API. The goal was to explore different HCI methods and compare the applicability of such methods to find usability problems in an API. The case-study combined qualitative and quantitative methods in order to investigate the usability and intuitiveness of the API itself. It allowed us to identify relevant problem areas for usability related issues that could be mapped to specific types of HCI methods. Examples for this are e.g. structural problems, which are identified mainly in inspection methods, while problems regarding errors and exception handling are mainly identified during the hands-on example part of the developer workshops conducted. The resulting problem areas allow us to develop a first classification of API related usability problems that are making the relevancy of usability issues for APIs more explicit and applicable

Vital Mind

Vital Mind (VM) intends to design a new platform for running interactive cognitive applications to improve the life quality of older citizens. The Vital Mind project will develop two main innovations: the use of interactive digital television (iDTV) for enabling older people to train on cognitive exercises, and new methods of user interaction via voice and physical gesture. The VM system also involves the inclusion of a USB Flash Disk (UFD) to store and personalize applications running on a common set-top box (STB)