Anirudha Joshi

Keylekh: a keyboard for text entry in indic scripts

Typing in an Indian language is currently not an easy task. Significant training is required before one can achieve an acceptable speed and only professional typists make the investment. Part of the complexity arises due to the structure of Indic scripts and large number of characters in each script. Solutions to input text in Indic languages have been around for a while, but none of these are usable enough to emerge as the de-facto standard. Here we describe the design of a new keyboard based on the structure of the Indic alphabet. The project went through cycles of design, prototyping and user evaluation. The evaluation was done by multiple techniques - usability tests, informal demonstrations, road shows and a typing competition. We particularly found the road shows and the competition useful for gathering feedback for this type of products.

Measuring effectiveness of HCI integration in software development processes

Integrating human-computer interaction (HCI) activities in software engineering (SE) processes is an often-expressed desire. Two metrics to demonstrate the impact of integrating HCI activities in SE processes are proposed. Usability Goals Achievement Metric (UGAM) is a product metric that measures the extent to which the design of a product achieves its user-experience goals. Index of Integration (IoI) is a process metric that measures the extent of integration of the HCI activities in the SE process. Both the metrics have an organizational perspective and can be applied to a wide range of products and projects. An attempt has been made to keep the metrics easy to use in the industrial context. While the two metrics were proposed mainly to establish a correlation between the two and thereby demonstrate the effectiveness of integration of HCI in SE processes, several other applications seem likely. The two metrics were evaluated in three independent studies: a classroom-based evaluation with two groups of students, a qualitative feedback from three industry projects, and a quantitative evaluation using 61 industry projects. The metrics were found to be useful, easy to use, and helpful in making the process more systematic. Our studies showed that the two metrics correlate well with each other and that IoI is a good predictor of UGAM. Regression analysis showed that IoI has a somewhat greater effect on UGAM in projects that use the agile process model than the waterfall process and in the projects that are executed as a contracted software development service than in the projects in product companies. UGAM also correlated well with the traditional usability evaluations.

Design and evaluation of Devanagari virtual keyboards for touch screen mobile phones

Lack of an easy and efficient text input mechanism in Indic scripts has been a barrier to large-scale adoption of ICTs in India. We present findings from a usability evaluation of three keyboard designs for Indic scripts for touch screen phones. The design of one of the keyboards is based on the frequency of characters, while the designs of the other two are based on the logical structure of the script. We evaluated the keyboards with participants with low-level of education through a first-time usability test and a longitudinal usability test. One of the logically structured keyboards started out with significantly higher success rate, typing speed, and lesser errors than the other two. The longitudinal test involving text input of 500 words did not conclusively prove that either design was better. Our study establishes benchmarks for text input speeds, errors and ratings for the initial learning phase for text input in Marathi among less educated users.

Supporting treatment of people living with HIV / AIDS in resource limited settings with IVRs

We developed an interactive voice response (IVR) system called TAMA (Treatment Advice by Mobile Alerts) that provides treatment support to people living with HIV / AIDS (PLHA) in developing countries, who are on antiret-roviral therapy (ART). We deployed TAMA with 54 PLHA in 5 HIV clinics in India for a period of 12 weeks. During the study, we gathered feedback about TAMAs design and usage. Additionally, we conducted detailed qualitative interviews and analysed usage logs. We found that TAMA was usable and viable in the real life settings of PLHA and it had many desirable effects on their treatment adherence. We developed insights that inform the design of TAMA and some of these can be generalised to design of other long-term, frequent-use IVR applications for users in developing countries in the healthcare domain and beyond.

Technology adoption by 'emergent' users: the user-usage model

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have a role to play in human development. However, in order to be effective, they have to be adopted and used by their potential users. While there is an extensive literature on user modelling, there has been very little effort to model emergent users - those who are less educated, economically disadvantaged, geographically dispersed, and culturally heterogeneous. These users have not been adequately addressed by the progress in ICT until recently. In order to design successful ICT artefacts for the emergent users, one needs to know how the users adopt them and progress in their usage. Based on contextual interviews, we propose a two-dimensional model of technology adoption. One dimension characterises the types of users on the basis of the factors affecting their predisposition towards technology adoption, such as culture, capabilities and attitudes. Along the other dimension, we map the progress of each user type in skilful usage of a given ICT artefact over time. We also identify the triggers and barriers encountered during this progress.

My World – Social Networking through Mobile Computing and Context Aware Application

Social networking websites are being regularly used by individuals, groups, friends, colleagues etc. where they share information, communicate with each other by means of using websites like facebook, orkut, twitter, my space & many more.

Embedding HCI in developing countries: localizing content, institutionalizing education and practice

This SIG will facilitate a debate concerning how best to support the development of indigenous HCI in developing countries, both as part of education and training systems and within industrial practice.

A Comparison of List vs. Hierarchical UIs on Mobile Phones for Non-literate Users

Previous research has shown that low-literate users have difficulty using hierarchical information architectures and that a list design showing all items at once on a PC screen works best for search tasks. However, the limited screen space on phones makes it impossible to show more than a few items at once on a single screen. Does a hierarchical UI work better on a phone? In this study, we compared the performance of non-literate users from Bangalore, India, on a search task using a hierarchical UI (four levels deep) and a multi-page list that had forty items across seven pages of a touch-screen phone. Our results show that participants using the multi-page list perform better both in terms of time taken and percent correct even when the list UI design requires them to browse through multiple pages of items on the phone.

Evaluating relative contributions of various HCI activities to usability

Several activities related to human-computer interaction (HCI) design are described in literature. However, it is not clear whether each HCI activity is equally important. We propose a multi-disciplinary framework to organise HCI work in phases, activities, methods, roles, and deliverables. Using regression analyses on data from 50 industry projects, we derive weights for the HCI activities in proportion to the impact they make on usability, and compare these with the recommended and assigned weights. The scores of 4 HCI activities (user studies, user interface design, usability evaluation of the user interface, and development support) have the most impact on the Usability Goals Achievement Metric (UGAM) and account for 58% of variation in it.

Text Entry in Indian Languages on Mobile: User Perspectives

Recently several new solutions have emerged for text entry in Indic languages out ongoing research in this area. The practical challenges for text entry solutions for Indic language are completely different from those of standard roman keyboard solutions. One of the primary challenge is the adoption and practical usage of these by the potential users. In order to understand the practical pain points, needs, expectations and usage patterns of the users, we conducted a field user study. The scale of the study involved 50 participants from the preferred user group who could type in 6 different Indic language scripts. We also performed subjective evaluation of four different keyboards that are relevant for Indian smart phone users in terms of user performance and their preferences. Our observations and insights drawn from this study would go into improvement suggestions and design recommendations for text entry solutions for Indic languages.