1. Human Computer Interaction Lecture 19 Universal Design

2. Universal Design
“The process of designing products so that they can be used by as many people as possible in as many situations as possible”
In our case, designing interactive systems that are usable by anyone, with any range of abilities (and capabilities), using any technology platform.
Can be achieved by
E.g. Both visual and audio access to commands in an interface

3. Universal Design
In reality, we may not be able to design everything to be accessible to everyone, but we can try to provide an equivalent experience
Examples of universal design in real life
Edge of footpath is lowered (Slope)
Automatic doors
Both Auditory and visual notification in lifts
Universal design does not make design better for disable people only but also for everyone

4. Universal Design
Universal Design demands making systems more accessible
The idea of accessibility has gone beyond the basic concept of “designing for disability” to “universal design”, allowing access by everyone.
Consider two versions of a website (simple for slow connections, high-end for high-speed connections)
Universal design is particularly important for systems that are to be used in a public context

5. Universal Design
In short, universal design deals with diversities like following:
Age differences
gender differences
cultural issues
people for whom English is a second language
people with different educational backgrounds
people having a range of disabilities
… etc.

6. Universal Design Principles
Universal Design Principles - Proposed by North Carolina State University
These principles give us a framework in which to develop universal designs
Cover all areas of design and are equally applicable to interactive systems.
These include
equitable use
flexibility in use
simple and intuitive to use
perceptible information
tolerance for error
low physical effort
size and space for approach and use

7. Universal Design Principles
Equitable (unbiased) use
No user is excluded, design for all
Whenever possible, Same access for all otherwise equivalent use
Security, safety, privacy etc. provision to all
Flexibility in use
Design should support adaptation to a range of abilities by choice of methods and adaptivity to user’s pace and custom

8. Universal Design Principles
Simple and intuitive to use
Regardless of the knowledge, experience, language or level of concentration of the user
Should not be unnecessarily complex
Perceptible information
The design should provide effective communication of information
Redundancy of presentation (e.g. graphic, verbal, text, touch)
Essential information should be emphasized and clearly distinguishable from peripheral information

9. Universal Design Principles
-Tolerance for error
Minimizing the chances of errors
Minimizing error damage
-Low physical effort

10. 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.
 Will cover
general terminology
speech
non-speech sounds
handwriting

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Speech Recognition Problems
Different people speak differently:
accent, intonation, stress, idiom, volume, etc.
The syntax of semantically similar sentences may vary.
Background noises can interfere.
People often use “ummm.....” and “errr.....”
e.g. “Errr.... I, um, don’t like this”
Words not enough - semantics needed as well
requires intelligence to understand a sentence
context of the word often has to be known
also information about the action and speaker

15. The Phonetic Typewriter
Developed for Finnish (a phonetic language, written as it is said)
Trained on one speaker, will generalise to others.
A neural network is trained to cluster together similar sounds, which are then labelled with the corresponding character.
When recognising speech, the sounds spoken are allocated to the closest related output, and the character for that output is printed.
requires large dictionary of minor variations to correct general mechanism
noticeably poorer performance on speakers it has not been trained on

16. The Phonetic Typewriter (ctd)

17. Speech Synthesis (fusion)
The generation of speech
Useful
natural and familiar way of receiving information
Problems
speech recognition
Additional problems
intrusive - needs headphones, or creates noise in the workplace
temporary - harder to review and browse

18. Speech Synthesis: useful?
Successful in certain constrained applications when the user:
has few alternatives
Examples:
screen readers
read the textual display to the user
utilised by visually impaired people
warning signals
spoken information sometimes presented to people whose visual and haptic skills are already fully occupied