1. universal design by Prof. Dr. Sajjad Mohsin
Lecture 15
universal design
by Prof. Dr. Sajjad Mohsin

2. Today’s Outline Today we will look into What is Universal Design?
Why Universal Design?
Assistive technologies
Non-speech audio

3. What is Universal Design?
Universal design is the process of designing products so that they can be used by as many people as possible in as many situations as possible.

4. Examples I’m having trouble reading smaller print
Lefties have trouble with scissors
Someone with arthritis can’t open a bottle
Chair that a child can’t sit in properly …

5. Different Environments
“Non-average” can mean different environments, context, locations, modalities.
May require different interaction methods, rules, models

6. Different Users
Not just about “special” populations like those with particular physical or perceptual challenges.
Also about users not part of the original specification, new users, late adopters.

7. Users with Disabilities
Visual impairment
Not just about blindness, from age, color issues, limitations
Hearing impairment
From birth, environment, noise
Physical impairment
Wide range, unavailable vs. limited, injury
Speech impairment
Permanent, temporary, noise
Dyslexia
Autism
Dyslexia=a learning disorder marked by a severe difficulty in recognizing and understanding written language, leading to spelling and writing problems. It is not caused by low intelligence or brain damage.
Autism= disturbance in psychological development in which use of language, reaction to stimuli, interpretation of the world, and the formation of relationships are not fully established and follow unusual patterns

8. Dyslexia

9. Autism A fast growing serious disability. May be caused by Pollution.
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.

10. … plus … Age groups Cultural differences
Older people e.g. disability aids, memory aids, communication tools to prevent social isolation
Children e.g. appropriate input/output devices, involvement in design process
Cultural differences
Influence of nationality, generation, gender, race, sexuality, class, religion, political persuasion etc. on interpretation of interface features
e.g. interpretation and acceptability of language, cultural symbols, gesture and colour

11. Universal Design
In HCI terms, this means particularly designing interactive systems that are
usable by anyone,
with any range of abilities,
using any technology platform.

12. Thought of a good design
Universal design is primarily about trying to ensure that you do not exclude anyone through the design choices you make but, by giving thought to these issues, you will invariably make your design better for everyone.

13. Principles of Universal Design
In the late 1990s a group at North Carolina State University in the USA proposed seven general principles of universal design.
These principles give us a framework in which to develop universal designs.

14. Principles of Universal Design
Equitable use
Flexibility in use
Simple and intuitive to use
Provide perceptible information
Tolerance for error
Low physical effort
Size and space for approach and use

15. Equitable Use
The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities
GUIDELINES :
Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not.
Avoid segregating or stigmatizing any users.
Provisions for privacy, security, and safety should be equally available to all users.
Make the design appealing to all users.

16. Flexibility in Use
The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.
GUIDELINES:
Provide choice in methods of use.
Accommodate right- or left-handed access and use.
Facilitate the user's accuracy and precision.
Provide adaptability to the user's pace

17. Flexibility in Use – Power Point

18. Simple and intuitive
Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level
GUIDELINES
Eliminate unnecessary complexity.
Be consistent with user expectations and intuition.
Accommodate a wide range of literacy and language skills.
Arrange information consistent with its importance.
Provide effective prompting and feedback during and after task completion.

19. Simple and Intuitive – Theater Control

20. Perceptible Information
The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities

21. Perceptible Information
GUIDELINES
Use different modes (pictorial, verbal, tactile) for redundant presentation of essential information.
Provide adequate contrast between essential information and its surroundings.
Maximize "legibility" of essential information.
Differentiate elements in ways that can be described (i.e., make it easy to give instructions or directions).
Provide compatibility with a variety of techniques or devices used by people with sensory limitations.

22. Tolerance for Error
The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.
GUIDELINES
Arrange elements to minimize hazards and errors: most used elements, most accessible; hazardous elements eliminated, isolated, or shielded.
Provide warnings of hazards and errors.
Provide fail safe features.
Discourage unconscious action in tasks that require vigilance

23. Tolerance for Error
Example Undo

24. Low Physical Effort
The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue.
GUIDELINES
Allow user to maintain a neutral body position.
Use reasonable operating forces.
Minimize repetitive actions.
Minimize sustained physical effo

25. Low Physical Effort

26. Size and Space for Approach and Use
Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of user's body size, posture, or mobility.
GUIDELINES
Provide a clear line of sight to important elements for any seated or standing user.
Make reach to all components comfortable for any seated or standing user.
Accommodate variations in hand and grip size.
Provide adequate space for the use of assistive devices or personal assistance

27. “Designing for Diversity”
Requires really understanding the way diverse types of users interact with a system
Imagine how your interface is “translated”
Different language
Modality (screen reader, touch, Braille)
Cognitive filter
Etc.

28. Terminology Ability Impairment Disability Handicap
Policies, Laws, Regulations, Guidelines
People, persons with…
Populations vs categories of abilities

29. Multi-Sensory Systems
More than one sensory channel in interaction
e.g. sounds, text, hypertext, animation, video, gestures, vision
Used in a range of applications:
particularly good for users with special needs, and virtual reality
 Will cover
general terminology
speech
non-speech sounds
handwriting
considering applications as well as principles

30. Multi sensory system for special Kids

31. Usable Senses
The 5 senses (sight, sound, touch, taste and smell) are used by us every day
each is important on its own
together, they provide a fuller interaction with the natural world
Computers rarely offer such a rich interaction
Can we use all the available senses?
ideally, yes
practically – no
We can use • sight • sound • touch (sometimes)
We cannot (yet) use • taste • smell

32. Multi-modal vs. Multi-media
Multi-modal systems
use more than one sense (or mode ) of interaction
e.g. visual and aural senses: a text processor may speak the words as well as echoing them to the screen
Multi-media systems
use a number of different media to communicate information
e.g. a computer-based teaching system:may use video, animation, text and still images: different media all using the visual mode of interaction; may also use sounds, both speech and non-speech: two more media, now using a different mode

33. Visual Impairments How to deal with GUIs?
Keyboard vs. mouse use
How do they know it is there?
“Talking Braille”
ATM phone jack
Sound output
Screen readers, rates, voices, quality
Non-speech audio
Equipment issues
Math, graphs
Equations, graphs, tables

34. Visual Impairments, cont’d
What about these?…
Equitable use
Flexibility in use
Simple and intuitive to use
Provide perceptible information
Tolerance for error
Low physical effort
Size and space for approach and use

35. Speech Human beings have a great and natural mastery of speech
makes it difficult to appreciate the complexities
but
it’s an easy medium for communication

36. Structure of Speech phonemes allophones morphemes 40 of them
basic atomic units
sound slightly different depending on the context they are in, these larger units are …
allophones
all the sounds in the language
between 120 and 130 of them
these are formed into …
morphemes
smallest unit of language that has meaning.

37. Speech (cont’d) Other terminology: • prosody • co-articulation
alteration in tone and quality
variations in emphasis, stress, pauses and pitch
impart more meaning to sentences.
• co-articulation
the effect of context on the sound
transforms the phonemes into allophones
• syntax – structure of sentences
• semantics – meaning of sentences

38. Hearing Impairment
Does access for the blind mean no access for the deaf?
Consider how truly multimodal interfaces can work for everyone
e.g., Sonification Sandbox
The Sonification Sandbox is a project of the Psychology Department's Sonification Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology, overseen by Bruce Walker, PhD.

39. Physical Impairments A wide variety of “handicaps”
Tremor, dexterity, grip, mobility, balance, strength
Solutions need to vary, too
Eyegaze control
Blinks
Text entry like EdgeWrite
Brain-computer interfaces
EdgeWrite is a new design for text entry which yields methods that are accessible to some people with motor impairments or who are in physically destabilizing situations like walking or riding. Important properties of EdgeWrite include ease of learning due to the similarity of its letters to Roman characters, stability of motion due to tracing along physical edges, and simple implementation on a wide variety of input devices. Studies suggest that EdgeWrite works well when implemented for use with a stylus on a handheld device, a joystick on a power wheelchair, or for a touchpad on a desktop computer. A future implementation will explore desktop text entry using a trackball.

40. Aging All of the possible difficulties arise:
Perceptual, cognitive, motor
There are fewer and fewer “low tech” alternatives; forcing seniors into tech
Designers often have little experience in the realities of the older (or handicapped or deaf or…)

41. Audio Non-speech audio
For example whistling, humming or hissing for entering data
Often useful for visually impaired users
Very useful for others too!

42. Non-Speech Sounds boings, bangs, squeaks, clicks etc.
Commonly used for warnings and alarms
Evidence shows they are useful
Fewer typing mistakes with key clicks
Video games harder without sound
Language/culture independent, unlike speech

43. Non-Speech Sounds: Useful?
Dual mode displays:
information presented along two different sensory channels
redundant presentation of information
resolution of ambiguity in one mode through information in another
Sound good for
transient information
background status information
e.g. Sound can be used as a redundant mode in the Apple Macintosh; almost any user action (file selection, window active, disk insert, search error, copy complete, etc.) can have a different sound associated with it.

44. Uses of Non-Speech Audio
Beeps ‘n’ Bops
Peripheral Awareness
Sonification
Audio Interfaces, Audio Menus
Navigation

45. Beeps ‘n’ Bops Warnings, alerts, status messages
Status indicators
Error messages
Alarms
Will they be heard, identified, and understood?

46. Peripheral Awareness
Using sound to communicate information about the environment
Compare to information visualization
Web server traffic
Weather outside
Traffic
Activity level of colleagues
Status of resources (printers, etc.)

47. Audio Aura Audio Aura Mynatt, Back, & Want Xerox PARC, 1997
“The goal of Audio Aura is to provide serendipitous information, via background auditory cues, that is tied to people’s physical actions in the workplace.”
The physical world can be augmented with auditory cues allowing passive interaction by the user. By combining active badges, distributed systems, and wireless headphones, the movements of users through their workplace can trigger the transmission of auditory cues. These cues can summarize information about the activity of colleagues, notify the status of or the start of a meeting, and remind of tasks such as retrieving a book at opportune times. We are currently experimenting with a prototype audio augmented reality system, Audio Aura, at Xerox PARC. The goal of this work is to create an aura of auditory information that mimics existing background, auditory awareness cues. We are prototyping sound designs for Audio Aura in VRML 2.0. KEYWORDS: Audio, Augmented Reality, Auditory Icons, Active Badge, VRML INTRODUCTION For many people in office environments much of the content of their jobs (e.g. online documents, calendars, ) is contained within computational devices.

48. StockScape Walker & B. Mauney Georgia Tech, 2004
Continuous soundscape that maps stock price change onto sounds. Deviation from baseline means more sounds. Change upmeans adding animals; changes downmeans adding rain, thunder.

49. Sonification “Auditory display of quantitative information”
Compare to visualization
Weather data
Stock market data
Election results
Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data. Auditory perception has advantages in temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency resolution that open possibilities as an alternative or complement to visualization techniques.

50. Sonification Design Issues
Mapping
Data dimension --> Display
Dollars --> pitch (or distance from x-axis)
Polarity
Increasing pitch = increasing or decreasing $ ?
Scaling
Double the pitch = double the $ ?
Context
Equivalent to tick marks, axes, trend lines
Interaction techniques

51. Audio Interfaces & Menus
Audio-only or audio-enhanced interfaces
IVRs (phone-based, like airlines)
Complete operating systems (Curo)
Menus
Earcons, auditory icons, spearcons

52. IVR Phone Based

53. Auditory Icons
Use natural sounds to represent different types of object or action
Natural sounds have associated semantics which can be mapped onto similar meanings in the interaction
e.g. throwing something away
~the sound of smashing glass
Problem: not all things have associated meanings
Additional information can also be presented:
Muffled sounds if object is obscured or action is in the background
Use of stereo allows positional information to be added

54. SonicFinder for the Macintosh
Items and actions on the desktop have associated sounds
Folders have a papery noise
Moving files – dragging sound
Copying – a problem …
sound of a liquid being poured into a receptacle
rising pitch indicates the progress of the copy
Big files have louder sound than smaller ones

55. Earcons Synthetic sounds used to convey information
Structured combinations of notes (motives ) represent actions and objects
Motives combined to provide rich information
compound earcons
multiple motives combined to make one morecomplicated earcon

56. Earcons (cont’d) Family earcons Pro: Con:
similar types of earcons represent similar classes of action or similar objects: the family of “errors” would contain syntax and operating system errors
Pro:
Earcons easily grouped and refined due to compositional and hierarchical nature
Con:
Harder to associate with the interface task since there is no natural mapping

57. Navigation Getting around, for those who cannot look or cannot see
Persons with visual impairments
Military applications

58. Summary of Today’s Lecture
Universal design is about designing systems that are accessible by all users in all circumstances.
Taking account of human diversity in disabilities, age and culture.
Universal design helps everyone
For example, deaf, working in noisy environment, etc…….

59. Summary of Today’s Lecture
Multi-modal systems provide access to system information and functionality through a range of different input and output channels, exploiting redundancy.
Such systems will enable users with sensory, physical or cognitive impairments to make use of the channels that they can use most effectively.
Utilizing senses in interactive experience