Needs identification methodology for inclusive design

Identification of user needs is an essential phase in the early stages of every design project. Many needs identification methodologies are described in the literature. When targeting users with special needs, the task becomes more challenging for different reasons (difficulty of retrieving information, performing prototype testing, etc.). This article presents a novel methodology, Needs Identification Methodology for Inclusive Design (NIMID), that guides the process of needs identification in the inclusive design scenario considering users’ physical, sensorial and cognitive capabilities. NIMID is grounded in Abowd and Beale's human–computer interaction framework and uses WHO's International Classification of Functionalities as the taxonomy that provides a common language. We exemplify the application of the methodology in the design of a smart oven for elderly people. We also compare NIMID with other methodologies evidencing its strong points: universality (common international classification of functioning language), systematicity (clearly defined phases and outcomes) and rationality (grounded in well-established interaction theory).     

Thinking Aloud in the Presence of Interruptions and Time Constraints

Thinking aloud is widely used for usability evaluation, and its reactivity is therefore important to the quality of evaluation results. This study investigates whether thinking aloud (i.e., verbalization at Levels 1 and 2) affects the behavior of users who perform tasks that involve interruptions and time constraints, two frequent elements of real-world activities. The study finds that the presence of auditory, visual, audiovisual, or no interruptions interacts with thinking aloud for task solution rate, task completion time, and participants' fixation rate. Thinking-aloud participants also spend longer responding to interruptions than control participants. Conversely, the absence or presence of time constraints does not interact with thinking aloud, suggesting that time pressure is less likely to make thinking aloud reactive than previously assumed. These results inform practitioners faced with the decision to either restrict verbalizations in usability evaluation to thinking aloud to avoid reactivity or relax the constraints on verbalization to obtain additional information.     

Gestures that people can understand and use

Recent advances in computing devices push researchers to envision new interaction modalities that go beyond traditional mouse and keyboard input. Typical examples are large displays for which researchers hope to create more “natural” means of interaction by using human gestures and body movements as input. In this article, we reflect about this goal of designing gestures that people can easily understand and use and how designers of gestural interaction can capitalize on the experience of 30 years of research on visual languages to achieve it. Concretely, we argue that gestures can be regarded as “visual expressions to convey meaning” and thus are a visual language. Based on what we have learned from visual language research in the past, we then explain why the design of a generic gesture set or language that spans many applications and devices is likely to fail. We also discuss why we recommend using gestural manipulations that enable users to directly manipulate on-screen objects instead of issuing commands with symbolic gestures whose meaning varies among different users, contexts, and cultures.     

The Impact of Cognitive Style on User Preference Based on Usability and Aesthetics for Computer-Based Systems

Understanding target users is a crucial issue in establishing design and marketing strategies for computer-based applications. To contribute to the comprehension of target users, this study examines the effect of cognitive style (imagers vs. verbalizers) on user preference based on perceived usability and perceived aesthetics through an experiment using four simulated systems with different levels of usability and aesthetics. Forty-two imagers and 31 verbalizers participated in the experiment. The results of the analyses of variance indicated that, before actual use, the effect of the aesthetics factor on user preference was significantly different between imagers and verbalizers but that of the usability factor was not. The difference between imagers and verbalizers with respect to the effect of the aesthetics/usability factor on time performance was not sufficiently demonstrated, nor was the difference between the two cognitive styles with regard to the effect of the aesthetics/usability factor on user preference after actual use. For the combined experimental data of users' responses before and after actual use, the interaction effect between cognitive styles and actual use on user preference was not significant. Some possible reasons for these results and the possibilities of an important role of cognitive style in users' preference making are discussed here. Further studies are necessary to better examine the impact of cognitive style.     

Age-Related Differences in Eye Tracking and Usability Performance: Website Usability for Older Adults

Cognitive decline is inherent with age. Despite known cognitive limitations, older adults are generally not taken into account during website design. Understanding age-related differences in website navigation is instructive for website design, especially considering the growing number of older adults who use the Internet. This article presents usability and eye-tracking data from five independent website usability studies that included younger and older participants. Overall results revealed age-dependent differences in eye movement and performance during website navigation on some of the sites. In particular, older participants had lower accuracy in one study and took longer to complete tasks in two studies compared to younger participants, they looked at the central part of the screen more frequently than younger participants in two studies, and they looked at the peripheral left part of the screen less frequently and took longer to first look at the peripheral top part of the screen than younger participants in one study. These data highlight the potential for age-related differences in performance while navigating websites and provide motivation for further exploration. Implications for website design and for usability practitioners are discussed.     

Comparison of Cognitive Modeling and User Performance Analysis for Touch Screen Mobile Interface Design

The aim of this study is to analyze and comparatively evaluate the usability of touch screen mobile applications through cognitive modeling and end-user usability testing methodologies. The study investigates the accuracy of the estimated results of a cognitive model produced for touch screen mobile phone interfaces. A mobile wallet application was chosen as the mobile software. The CogTool modeling tool was used as the cognitive modeling method. Eight tasks were determined and user tests were conducted in a usability laboratory with 10 participants. The tasks were compared on the basis of step time and total task completion time. This study reveals that CogTool gives approximate estimations with actual user performance on touch screen mobile phone application interfaces. However, if there are special cases in the tasks such that users are very accustomed to the steps or decision-making that is involved in the tasks, the “Think Operation” in CogTool should be modified.     

Using protocol analysis to evaluate the usability of a commercial web site

Despite the increasing popularity of electronic commerce, there appears to be little evidence of the methodical evaluation of the usability of commercial web sites. The usability of a web site defines how well and how easily a visitor, without formal training, can interact with the site. This paper reports the results of a research project, which applies a systematic qualitative technique known as protocol analysis or think aloud method, to examine the usability of a commercial web site. About 15 usability principles and 3 evaluation parameters (content, navigation and interactivity) were used as a framework to analyze the verbal protocols of a sample of users interacting with a greeting card web site. The protocols provided evidence of usability problems caused by crowded content, poor navigation and cumbersome interactivity. These results underscore the importance of two crucial usability goals for commercial web sites: clear path to products and transparency of the ordering process.     

Using lag-sequential analysis for understanding interaction sequences in visualizations

The investigation of how users make sense of the data provided by information systems is very important for human computer interaction. In this context, understanding the interaction processes of users plays an important role. The analysis of interaction sequences, for example, can provide a deeper understanding about how users solve problems. In this paper we present an analysis of sequences of interactions within a visualization system and compare the results to previous research. We used log file analysis and thinking aloud as methods. There is some indication based on log file analysis that there are interaction patterns which can be generalized. Thinking aloud indicates that some cognitive processes occur together with a higher probability than others.     

Objective versus subjective measures of Paris Metro map usability: Investigating traditional octolinear versus all-curves schematics

Schematic maps are an important component of assistance for navigating transport networks worldwide. By showing routes as simple straight lines, they reduce the cognitive load of journey planning, and by revealing the underlying structure of networks, they make their key features easier to identify and learn. However, although there are many suggestions for optimizing schematic maps so as to maximize these benefits, to date these have not been directly supported by published usability studies or psychological theory. In this paper, we suggest that there are circumstances in which conventional schematic maps fail to yield benefits, and we compare journey planning using the current official RATP Paris Metro map with an all-curves design which replaces straight lines and corners with gentle curves. Three separate usability studies with slightly different methodologies showed that the journey planning time for the all-curves map was better than the RATP version, with effect sizes ranging from 0.48 to 1.12. Subjective usability ratings were derived from questionnaires, and user preferences, but neither were correlated with objective usability measures. We conclude that (1) in terms of designing schematics, there is no evidence to suggest that any rule-set can be claimed to be a gold-standard, and it is important to match the design rules to the properties of the network, (2) in some circumstances, radical departures from traditional ideas can yield usability benefits, and (3) map usability appears to be distinct from map engagement, although the latter is undoubtedly important in encouraging people fully to make use of navigation aides.     

Automatic data-gathering agents for remote navigability testing

The Tirsus Project, developed at the Laboratory of Object-Oriented Technologies at the University of Oviedo, Spain, comprises the design of several hypermedia tools for teaching history in the exhibition rooms of the Archaeological Museum of Asturias, Spain. These tools must be designed for a wide variety of users. We use the Object Oriented Hypermedia Development Model to structure the information that historians, archaeologists, and the museum curator provide. This tool lets us create several navigation models to comply with the expectations of different kinds of users, including special versions of the knowledge base in three languages: English for international support, Spanish for national support, and Asturian, the local language, for local support. The research team at Oviedo tested the prototypes' usability and navigability concurrently, employing usability testing techniques. The test participants were history students and volunteers of the Friends of the Archaeological Museum of Asturias Society, two groups who closely matched our intended average users.     

A usability study of iPhone built-in applications

The intuitiveness of gestural devices offers great potential for more physical ways of interacting, but it is imperative that such devices comply with existing, platform-independent usability principles that have proven their effect in heterogeneous settings over the last decades. This study focuses on iPhone, one of the most widely used haptic devices and reviews the usability problems of five built-in iPhone applications documented in related sources. The study investigates whether these problems are actually reported during testing with novice users, which is their severity and whether testing reveals additional issues. Overall, the study confirmed the list of usability problems documented and stressed the importance of conforming to established usability principles.     

What users really think about the usability of smartphone applications: diversity based empirical investigation

In recent years, smartphone devices are becoming progressively popular across a diverse range of users. However, user diversity creates challenges in smartphone application (app) development. The diversity of users is often ignored by designers and developers due to the absence of requirements. Owing to this, many smartphone users face usability issues. Despite that, no dedicated platform found that guide smartphone app designers and developers regarding human universality. The aim of this research is to explore the requirements of diverse users in smartphone apps and provide usability guidelines. The objectives of this research are achieved by following two scientific approaches. The human diversity requirements are located by conducting usability tests that investigated the requirements in the form of usability issues. The systematic literature review (SLR) process is followed in order to resolve the discovered usability issues. Both approaches resulted in a list of usability issues and guidelines. The usability tests returned 27 problems while the SLR came with a comprehensive set of universal usability guidelines that were grouped into eleven categories. The study concluded with some major outcomes. The results show evidence of critical usability problems that must be addressed during the design and development of smartphone apps. Moreover, the study also revealed that people with disabilities were three times severely affected by usability problems in such apps than people of different ages and their needs must be considered a top priority in the development of smartphone apps.

     

Cultural cognition in usability evaluation

We discuss the impact of cultural differences on usability evaluations that are based on the thinking-aloud method (TA). The term ‘cultural differences’ helps distinguish differences in the perception and thinking of Westerners (people from Western Europe and US citizens with European origins) and Easterners (people from China and the countries heavily influenced by its culture). We illustrate the impact of cultural cognition on four central elements of TA: (1) instructions and tasks, (2) the user’s verbalizations, (3) the evaluator’s reading of the user, and (4) the overall relationship between user and evaluator. In conclusion, we point to the importance of matching the task presentation to users’ cultural background, the different effects of thinking aloud on task performance between Easterners and Westerners, the differences in nonverbal behaviour that affect usability problem detection, and, finally, the complexity of the overall relationship between a user and an evaluator with different cultural backgrounds.     

The Evaluator Effect: A Chilling Fact About Usability Evaluation Methods

Computer professionals have a need for robust, easy-to-use usability evaluation methods (UEMs) to help them systematically improve the usability of computer artifacts. However, cognitive walkthrough (CW), heuristic evaluation (HE), and thinking- aloud study (TA)-3 of the most widely used UEMs-suffer from a substantial evaluator effect in that multiple evaluators evaluating the same interface with the same UEM detect markedly different sets of problems. A review of 11 studies of these 3 UEMs reveals that the evaluator effect exists for both novice and experienced evaluators, for both cosmetic and severe problems, for both problem detection and severity assessment, and for evaluations of both simple and complex systems. The average agreement between any 2 evaluators who have evaluated the same system using the same UEM ranges from 5% to 65%, and no 1 of the 3 UEMs is consistently better than the others. Although evaluator effects of this magnitude may not be surprising for a UEM as informal as HE, it is certainly notable that a substantial evaluator effect persists for evaluators who apply the strict procedure of CW or observe users thinking out loud. Hence, it is highly questionable to use a TA with 1 evaluator as an authoritative statement about what problems an interface contains. Generally, the application of the UEMs is characterized by (a) vague goal analyses leading to variability in the task scenarios, (b) vague evaluation procedures leading to anchoring, or (c) vague problem criteria leading to anything being accepted as a usability problem, or all of these. The simplest way of coping with the evaluator effect, which cannot be completely eliminated, is to involve multiple evaluators in usability evaluations.     

Developing a Usability Evaluation Method for e-Learning Applications: Beyond Functional Usability

In this article, the development of a questionnaire-based usability evaluation method for e-learning applications is described. The method extends the current practice by focusing not only on cognitive but also affective considerations that may influence e-learning usability. The method was developed according to an established methodology in HCI research and relied upon a conceptual framework that combines Web and instructional design parameters and associates them with the most prominent affective learning dimension, which is intrinsic motivation to learn. The latter is proposed as a new usability measure that is considered more appropriate to evaluate e-learning designs. Two large empirical studies were conducted in order to evaluate usability of e-learning courses offered in corporate environments. The results provide valuable evidence for reliability and validity of the method, thus providing evidence that usability practitioners can use it with confidence when evaluating the design of e-learning applications.     

The interaction experiences of visually impaired people with assistive technology: A case study of smartphones

Globally, the number of visually impaired people is large and increasing. Many assistive technologies are being developed to help visually impaired people, because they still have difficulty accessing assistive technologies that have been developed from a technology-driven perspective. This study applied a user-centered perspective to get different and hopefully deeper understanding of the interaction experiences. More specifically, this study focused on identifying the unique interaction experiences of visually impaired people when they use a camera application on a smartphone. Twenty participants conducted usability testing using the retrospective think aloud technique. The unique interaction experiences of visually impaired people with the camera application, and relevant implications for designing assistive technologies were analyzed.Relevance to industryThe considerations for conducting usability testing and the results of this study are expected to contribute to the design and evaluation of new assistive technologies based on smartphones.     

A comparison of methods currently used in inclusive design

Inclusive design has unique challenges because it aims to improve usability for a wide range of users. This typically includes people with lower levels of ability, as well as mainstream users. This paper examines the effectiveness of two methods that are used in inclusive design: user trials and exclusion calculations (an inclusive design inspection method). A study examined three autoinjectors using both methods (n = 30 for the user trials). The usability issues identified by each method are compared and the effectiveness of the methods is discussed. The study found that each method identified different kinds of issues, all of which are important for inclusive design. We therefore conclude that a combination of methods should be used in inclusive design rather than relying on a single method. Recommendations are also given for how the individual methods can be used more effectively in this context.