Rachel Menzies

Developing technology for autism: an interdisciplinary approach

We present an interdisciplinary methodology for designing interactive multi-modal technology for young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). In line with many other researchers in the field, we believe that the key to developing technology in this context is to embrace perspectives from diverse disciplines to arrive at a methodology that delivers satisfactory outcomes for all stakeholders. The ECHOES project provided us with the opportunity to develop a technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environment that facilitates acquisition and exploration of social skills by typically developing (TD) children and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). ECHOES’ methodology and the learning environment rely crucially on multi-disciplinary expertise including developmental psychology, visual arts, human–computer interaction, artificial intelligence, education, and several other cognate disciplines. In this article, we reflect on the methods needed to develop a TEL environment for young users with ASDs by identifying key features, benefits, and challenges of this approach.

A case study of Facebook use: Outlining a multi-layer strategy for higher education

Many students are looking to appropriate social networking sites, amongst them, Facebook, to enhance their learning experience. A growing body of literature reports on the motivation of students and staff to engage with Facebook as a learning platform as well as mapping such activities to pedagogy and curricula. This paper presents student opinions of the use of a Facebook strategy within higher education through the use of focus groups. Results show that the Facebook strategy is useful in promoting collaborative learning alongside the face-to-face delivery of content. Participants rebuked the perceived blurring of educational and social purposes, which is prevalent in the literature, with the current structure allowing a clear divide between their different uses of the site. The development of further guidelines for the use of Facebook for education is encouraged and recommendations are provided.

Developing for autism with user-centred design

This paper describes the process undertaken to develop software that allows children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) to explore social situations, in particular the concept of sharing. The User-Centred Design (UCD) process is described, along with adaptations made to alleviate anxiety resulting from the reduced social skills seen in ASD.

Peer interviews: an adapted methodology for contextual understanding in user-centred design

In User-Centred Design (UCD) the needs and preferences of the end user are given primary consideration. In some cases, current methodologies such as interviewing may be difficult to conduct, for example when working with children, particularly those with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This paper outlines an approach to understanding the end-users, context and subject matter through the use of peer interviewing. This is proposed as a viable adaptation to User-Centred methodologies for inclusion of children and those with ASD.

Designing for Situational Visual Impairments: Supporting Early-Career Designers of Mobile Content

Mobile devices are a substantial part of our lives, supporting communication, work, and play. However, situational visual impairments (SVIs) can make completing tasks a challenge (e.g., browsing online in bright sunlight) and poorly designed content can cause or exacerbate SVIs. We surveyed 43 mobile content designers and ran four follow-on interviews to understand what designers currently do regarding SVIs, what resources they know of, and what is required to best support them in designing to reduce SVIs. Our findings highlight key similarities and differences between accessibility and designing to reduce SVIs. Our participants requested improved guidelines, education, and digital design tools for SVIs. To accommodate the growing number of people affected by SVIs and improve the inclusion of accessibility in design, we introduce recommendations that leverage the overlap between accessibility and SVIs to minimise the effort required in extending current design processes.

It's not just the light: understanding the factors causing situational visual impairments during mobile interaction.

Mobile technologies are used in increasingly diverse and challenging environments. With the predominantly visual nature of mobile devices, Situational Visual Impairments (SVIs) are a growing concern. However, fundamental knowledge is lacking about the causes of SVIs, how people deal with SVIs, and whether their solutions are effective. To address this, we first conducted a convenience-sampled online questionnaire with 174 participants, and identified many causes and (ineffective) solutions. To firmly ground our initial results, we then conducted a two-week ecological momentary assessment with 24 participants, balanced by age and gender across Australia and Scotland. We confirmed that SVIs are experienced often and during typical mobile tasks, and can be very frustrating. We identify a range of factors causing SVIs, discuss mobile design implications, and introduce an SVI Context Model rooted in empirical evidence. The contributions in this paper will support the development of new effective SVI solutions.

Chronicles: supporting conversational narrative in alternative and augmentative communication

Individuals share experiences and build relationships through the medium of narrative. Lifelong personal narratives play a key role in developing social identity. Individuals with little or no functional speech due to severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) find it difficult to share personal narrative as augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems do not support interactive story telling. As a result, people with congenital SSPI who use AAC may not have learned the linguistic skills involved in sharing narratives. The Chronicles software was developed to support the sharing of personal narrative. Conversational analysis of a conversation using Chronicles illustrates how the system can support more natural conversations when using AAC.

BrightLights: Gamifying Data Capture for Situational Visual Impairments

With the growing popularity of mobile devices, Situational Visual Impairments (SVIs) can cause accessibility challenges. When addressing SVIs, interface and content designers are lacking guidelines based on empirically-determined SVI contrast sensitivities. To address this, we developed BrightLights -- a game that collects screen-content-contrast data in-the-wild that will enable new SVI-pertinent contrast ratio recommendations. In our evaluation with 15 participants, we found significantly worse performance with low screen brightness versus medium or high screen brightness, showing that BrightLights is sensitive to at least one factor that contributes to SVI (screen brightness). Once validated for in-the-wild deployment, BrightLights data will finally help designers address SVIs through their designs.