Text-Free UI for Illiterate Users Microsoft Research India

Background The Application Target Community Design Process Design Principles Final Prototype User Testing Results Conclusions and Future work New Work Contents

26% of world’s adult population is illiterate and 98% of all illiterates live in the developing countries!

Can a user interface be designed such that even novice, illiterate users require absolutely no intervention from anyone at all to use? How to bridge this increasing ‘Digital Divide’ by providing access to information to all

Text-Free UI is… PLAY

Domestic workers (they cook, clean people’s houses) Informal sector jobs Income range is INR ( USD ) per month Most are illiterate and have never seen a PC (those who have seen, see in their employers’ homes) Target Community

Design Process Ethnographic Interviews Subject Trials Being accepted and trustedHelping overcome fear of technology Making subjects feel comfortable

Design Principles Avoid text (but using numbers may be okay) Use semi-abstracted graphics, and increase photorealism with deeper interaction. Pay attention to subtle graphical cues. User response may depend on psychological, cultural, or religious biases. Provide voice feedback for all functional units. Provide “help” on all screens Provide movie dramatizing purpose of application

Use semi-abstracted graphics, and increase photorealism with deeper interaction. Design Principles

Pay attention to subtle graphical cues. User response may depend on psychological, cultural, or religious biases. Design Principles

Provide “help” on all screens Design Principles

Employers look for a helper through app Helper sees that job information on the app They meet Make a short movie that plays in a loop at the beginning, that would dramatize the purpose of the application, and describe how to use the application, to overcome lack of awareness of the possibilities with computer technology.

Final Prototype Text- Free UI for Employment Search Text-Free UI for Map Navigation Explore Text-Free UIs in general – could be any application domain

Demo…

Experimental Set-Up Cultural Consideration - Modifications to ensure that subjects were comfortable in the environment and testing scenario. Application - We tested both applications with two interfaces (text-based vs. text-free) and used a script! Subjects - Range of participants varying in age, environment they lived and worked and familiarity with technology.

User Testing Results Unable to make sense or navigate through the text-based UIs Immediate comprehension of voice feedback Collaborative use seemed more effective The “help” instructions were a constant source of reassurance to users. Navigation metaphor of a book helped Subject involvement among test subjects After watching movie all 35 test participants could complete the task and took an average of 7.5 minutes and 5.2 prompts!!!

Conclusions and Future Work Design elements could be applicable to other user groups that are illiterate and new to computer use. To enable easiest possible operation for any first time user without intervention Build strong design principles which could be used to convert any text-based UI into a text-free UI

New Work Text-Free User Interface for dispensing complex health care information for anemia What is the best way to represent complex information ? Static Graphic Animation Video

The End