Voice-enabled technologies such as VoiceOver (screen reader) and the Seeing AI app (image recognition) have revolutionized daily tasks for people with visual disabilities, fostering greater independence and information access. However, a gap remains in understanding the user experience (UX) of these technologies. This study investigated how those with visual disabilities interacted with VoiceOver and the Seeing AI app. A convenience sample of eight participants with visual disabilities engaged in direct observations while using these technologies. The study utilized the System Usability Scale (SUS) to assess perceived usability and analyzed findings using descriptive statistics. Results indicated a poorer UX with VoiceOver compared to the Seeing AI app, with challenges identified in graphical user interfaces (GUIs), voice and gesture commands. Relevant recommendations were made to enhance usability. The study emphasizes the need for more intuitive GUIs and optimized voice/gesture interactions for users with visual disabilities.
DoThisHere: Multimodal Interaction to Improve Cross-Application Tasks on Mobile Devices
Many computing tasks, such as comparison shopping, two-factor authentication, and checking movie reviews, require using multiple apps together. On large screens, "windows, icons, menus, pointer" (WIMP) graphical user interfaces (GUIs) support easy sharing of content and context between multiple apps. So, it is straightforward to see the content from one application and write something relevant in another application, such as looking at the map around a place and typing walking instructions into an email. However, although today's smartphones also use GUIs, they have small screens and limited windowing support, making it hard to switch contexts and exchange data between apps. We introduce DoThisHere, a multimodal interaction technique that streamlines cross-app tasks and reduces the burden these tasks impose on users. Users can use voice to refer to information or app features that are off-screen and touch to specify where the relevant information should be inserted or is displayed. With DoThisHere, users can access information from or carry information to other apps with less context switching. We conducted a survey to find out what cross-app tasks people are currently performing or wish to perform on their smartphones. Among the 125 tasks that we collected from 75 participants, we found that 59 of these tasks are not well supported currently. DoThisHere is helpful in completing 95% of these unsupported tasks. A user study, where users are shown the list of supported voice commands when performing a representative sample of such tasks, suggests that DoThisHere may reduce expert users' cognitive load; the Query action, in particular, can help users reduce task completion time.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1900638
- PAR ID:
- 10211968
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- UIST '20: The 33rd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 35 to 44
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3379337.3415841
