Suzette Keith

Analytical usability evaluation for digital libraries: a case study

There are two main kinds of approach to considering usability of any system: empirical and analytical. Empirical techniques involve testing systems with users, whereas analytical techniques involve usability personnel assessing systems using established theories and methods. We report here on a set of studies in which four different techniques were applied to various digital libraries, focusing on the strengths, limitations and scope of each approach. Two of the techniques, heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough, were applied in text-book fashion, because there was no obvious way to contextualize them to the digital libraries (DL) domain. For the third, claims analysis, it was possible to develop a set of reusable scenarios and personas that relate the approach specifically to DL development. The fourth technique, CASSM, relates explicitly to the DL domain by combining empirical data with an analytical approach. We have found that heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough only address superficial aspects of interface design (but are good for that), whereas claims analysis and CASSM can help identify deeper conceptual difficulties (but demand greater skill of the analyst). However, none fit seamlessly with existing digital library development practices, highlighting an important area for further work to support improved usability.

HCI and the older population

HCI issues for older people are extremely important in light of the rapidly ageing population in developed countries. In addition, technology offers great potential for this age group but it will only be useful if it can be used effectively by its target users. In this workshop, we will therefore examine how HCI can address the needs and situations of this increasing older population. We aim to build up and support the research community in this area by providing a forum for the presentation of current work and a platform for discussing key challenges in this area. This workshop continues a successful series held at HCI in recent years and this year focuses on methodology, exploring how older people can be considered and included most effectively in design.

Designing for Expert Information Finding Strategies

This paper reports on a study of evaluating and generating requirements for the user interface of a digital library. The study involved observation of librarians using the digital library, working on information finding problems on behalf of clients of the library. The study showed that librarians, familiar with the particular digital library system and with information retrieval work in general, possess a repertoire of relatively simple, yet effective, strategies for carrying out searches, and that non-librarians tend not to deploy the same strategies. After describing the study and the most commonly observed strategies, this paper makes some suggestions for how an understanding of how the librarians organize their activities may generate design ideas for user interfaces that aid ‘ordinary’ users in making use of the strategies that help librarians to be effective users.

Disrupting digital library development with scenario informed design

In recent years, there has been great interest in scenario-based design and other forms of user-centred design. However, there are many design processes that, often for good reason, remain technology-centred. We present a case study of introducing scenarios into two digital library development processes. This was found to disrupt established patterns of working and to bring together conflicting value systems. In particular, the human factors approach of identifying users and anticipating what they are likely to do with a system (and what problems they might encounter) did not sit well with a development culture in which the rapid generation and informal evaluation of possible solutions (that are technically feasible and compatible with stable system components) is the norm. We found that developers tended to think in terms of two kinds of user: one who was exploring the system with no particular goal in mind and one who knew as much as the developer; scenarios typically work with richer user descriptions that challenge that thinking. In addition, the development practice of breaking down the design problem into discrete functions to make it manageable does not fit well with a scenario-based approach to thinking about user behaviour and interactions. The compromise reached was scenario-informed design, whereby scenarios were generated to support reasoning about the use of selected functions within the system. These scenarios helped create productive common ground between perspectives.

Fit for Purpose Evaluation: The Case of a Public Information Kiosk for the Socially Disadvantaged

This paper describes and assesses the deployment of an integrated set of techniques collectively described as fit-for-purpose evaluation. It details the deployment of the approach in a pilot study of kiosk-based delivery for health and general Citizens Advice Bureau services. The study showed that the kiosk design appeared to address basic usability and accessibility needs, but the system had architectural problems that seriously impacted on its usability. These problems only came to light when a deeper analysis of clients’ information seeking needs was factored in. This case study demonstrates the need for a multi-perspective approach to evaluation — fit for purpose — to facilitate not only identification but also deep diagnosis of usability problems. The paper concludes with lessons we have learnt about methodological issues and how one might orchestrate nine different user-centred techniques in order to understand why, as in this case, apparently well designed systems do not satisfy the needs of its target users.

Strategies for Finding Government Information by Older People

Governments increasingly expect web technology to become their major way of exchanging information with citizens, replacing existing methods. They also give accessibility a high priority. Older people are a major user of government services. We describe a pilot study comparing attitudes of older people to e-government with other ways of obtaining information. We examine what individuals consider important in an information search strategy, and the relative effectiveness of each for achieving an individuals personal aims. We do this in the light of research on the effects of aging on cognitive skills.

Certification or conformance: making a successful commitment to WCAG 2.0

The need for accessible websites is well recognized and the accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0) provide an important benchmark standard for measuring progress of eGoverment and commercial websites. This study was commissioned by ANEC and aimed to examine the effects of voluntary and third party certification schemes on actual conformance with web accessibility standards. A sample of 100 websites claiming voluntary or certified conformance to accessibility standards were selected from 5 European countries. In a combination of automatic tests and manual inspection it was found that simple measures of numbers of passes to WCAG 2.0 level A were highly disappointing. Closer inspection of the results revealed that a limited number of criteria at level A accounted for more than half the failures. These individual failures at level A tend to mask the commitment made by development teams to meet the needs of disabled users. Clearer processes are needed to identify and resolve these persistent barriers in order to support web development and achieve better and more consistent conformance to accessibility guidelines.

The challenge of mainstreaming ICT design for all

The education and training of ICT students and professionals with respect to Design for All is a vital part in the process of achieving eInclusion throughout Europe. This paper outlines the latest activity on the development of a curriculum in Design for All in ICT in higher education and professional development, and discusses some of the challenges of mainstreaming ICT Design for All. Concepts have been devised to introduce Design for All at bachelor-level of mainstream ICT education, to implement a masters degree in Design for All, and to provide training for professionals in ICT industry.

Designing computer systems for and with older users

The ageing population in the developed world, and the centrality of computer systems in many aspects of daily life, are factors commonly cited as necessitating the provision of computer technologies appropriate for older users. Much of the research on older people and computer systems is undertaken and presented with a crusading zeal, based on the assumption that computer systems are, of themselves, a positive influence on the lives of older people (Selwyn et al. 2003). We have argued elsewhere that insufficient data exist to determine whether or not computer systems, as they are currently constituted, improve wellbeing among older users (Dickinson and Gregor 2006). In this special issue, we have focused on approaches, techniques and methodologies that support a fuller and more sophisticated analysis of the relationship – or potential relationship – between older adults and computer systems. The seven selected papers published here offer a variety of perspectives on this area, and add both empirical data and theoretical richness to the field. The paper by Convertino and colleagues explores theoretical issues of intergenerational collaborations using computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) in a work environment. The authors persuasively argue the vital point that older workers bring different – not fewer – talents and qualities to intergenerational work relationships. Comparative lack of technical knowledge is offset by valuable and extensive domain expertise and problem-solving skills. To maximize usefulness to industry, where such skills are highly valued, designers of such systems should aim to support these talents and qualities as well as those of younger workers. Another paper which benefits from a strongly theoretical approach is the work by Turner et al. who use ‘learned helplessness’ theory to explore the qualitative and discursive outcomes of a nine month study of older adults learning to use interactive systems. Their analysis of the experiences of the learners, and the ways in which these are described in conversation, provides us with important and rich information on the barriers that older adults perceive to their own computer use. An important theory which informs the paper by Sokoler and Svensson is that of non-stigmatizing technologies and the ways in which these might be developed. The work, based on qualitative field work in residential homes, focuses on the difficulties of inducing people explicitly to recognize and express feelings that might be regarded as stigmatizing, such as loneliness and isolation. Arguing that older adults themselves have various strategies for dealing with such problems in indirect, non-stigmatizing ways, the authors seek to develop technology that enables such strategies, rather than technology that stigmatizes the recipient through defining them as having a problem such as, for example, being ‘lonely’. These theoretical approaches and, in the case of Sokoler and Svensson, the production of a prototype system, are thought-provoking and useful, offering new insights into the issues surrounding older adults’ use – or non-use – of computer systems. Renaud and Ramsay report on the development of an identification and authentication procedure to increase the accessibility of web content to older users, through focusing on strengths which do not change with age, such as recognition of one’s own handwriting, rather than current approaches that demand perfect recall. The system developed provides a number of insights into ways in which designs can be made more widely accessible and in which the seriousness of user errors can be reduced without compromising security. The special issue concludes with three papers focused on methodological strategies for working with older adults. Rice et al. look at the use of requirements gathering techniques adapted from Forum Theatre in working with older adults. These techniques, the authors argue, allow the social and attitudinal implications of potential technologies to be explored with people who may have little technical knowledge, thus overcoming significant communication barriers between older users and designers. They report on sessions carried out with older participants on the topic of interactive television to illustrate the richness of the data gathered with these techniques. In his paper, Hawthorn explores adaptations to user centred design techniques using the example of the development and evaluation of a tutorial program, FileTutor, which teaches older people about file management. Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol. 26, No. 4, July –August 2007, 273 – 274

Universal technologies in ICT

This special issue collects the extended and revised versions of the best papers that were presented at the International Conference on Universal Technologies—Unitech 2010 in Oslo, Norway during May 19–20, 2010. The goal of the Unitech conference was to encourage a stronger focus on the underlying technologies that help support achieving the goal of universal accessibility to information and communication technology. Of the 23 papers accepted for presentation at the conference, 6 are included in this issue in addition to one submitted in response to the open call. In the paper ‘‘On the usefulness of off-the-shelf computer peripherals for people with Parkinson’s Disease’’ Miriam Nes Begnum and Kyrre Begnum provide an assessment of the suitability of commercially available third party peripherals for computer users with physical disabilities, where they advocate the benefits of projector based pointing peripherals. Several countries are working toward electronic elections, and this move has several ramifications that even may affect democracy. The paper ‘‘An evaluation of web-based voting usability and accessibility’’ by Kristin Skeide Fuglerud and Till Halbach Rossvoll documents experiences with several electronic voting prototypes, looking at implications in the context of reduced functioning, and concluding that designers lack understanding of accessibility guidelines or chose to not prioritize these. Legislation, standards, guidelines and recommendation are important tools for validating whether systems are universally designed and the W3C WCAG2.0 has received a lot of attention. The paper ‘‘Validating WCAG versions 1.0 and 2.0 through Usability Testing with Disabled Users’’, by Dagfinn Romen and Dag Svanaes, describes a study which assessed the effectiveness of WCAG1.0 and WCAG2.0 as heuristics for website accessibility. The results show that WCAG2.0 is only capable of identifying half of the accessibility problems and that WCAG2.0 only is marginally better than WCAG1.0. Practitioners often speak of how technology needs to be designed to ensure that users with reduced functioning are included, sometimes forgetting the positive sides of new technologies and the unintended but new possibilities that new technologies opens up. In the paper ‘‘Universal Life: The Use of Virtual Worlds among People with Disabilities’’ Kel Smith gives an account of how second life can bring the rest of the world closer to users who are often excluded in the physical world due to their reduced functioning. Two of the papers in this special issue propose concrete technologies that may help achieve universal access. First, Hugo Fernandes, N Conceicao, H. Paredes, A. Pereira, P. Araujo and Joao Barroso, in the paper entitled ‘‘Providing accessibility to blind people using GIS’’, propose a strategy based on geographical information system that provides blind pedestrians enhanced navigation support when moving about outdoors. Second, the paper ‘‘EyeBlink Detection System for Human–Computer Interaction’’ by Aleksandra Krolak and Pawel Strumillo describes an implementation and extensive tests of a system that allows input via eye-blinks for users with physical disabilities who F. E. Sandnes (&) Faculty of Technology, Art and Design, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway e-mail: frodes@hio.no