Xabier Valencia

Providing universally accessible interactive services through TV sets: implementation and validation with elderly users

One of the challenges that Ambient Intelligence (AmI) faces is the provision of a usable interaction concept to its users, especially for those with a weak technical background. In this paper, we describe a new approach to integrate interactive services provided by an AmI environment with the television set, which is one of the most widely used interaction client in the home environment. The approach supports the integration of different TV set configurations, guaranteeing the possibility to develop universally accessible solutions. An implementation of this approach has been carried out as a multimodal/multi-purpose natural human computer interface for elderly people, by creating adapted graphical user interfaces and navigation menus together with multimodal interaction (simplified TV remote control and voice interaction). In addition, this user interface can also be suited to other user groups. We have tested a prototype that adapts the videoconference and the information service with a group of 83 users. The results from the user tests show that the group found the prototype to be both satisfactory and efficient to use.

TV as a human interface for Ambient Intelligence environments

One of the challenges that Ambient Intelligent (AmI) faces is the provision of a usable interaction concept to its users, especially for those with less technical background. In this paper, we describe a new approach to integrate interactive services provided by an AmI environment with the television set, which is one of the most used interaction client in the home environment. An implementation of this approach has been carried out as a multimodal/multipurpose natural human computer interface for elderly people, by creating adapted graphical user interfaces and navigation menus together with multimodal interaction (simplified TV remote control and voice interaction). In addition, this user interface can also be suited to other user groups. We have tested a prototype that adapts the videoconference and the information service with a group of 83 users. The results from the user tests show that the group found the prototype to be both satisfactory and efficient to use.

Universal Remote Delivery of Rehabilitation: Validation with Seniors' Joint Rehabilitation Therapy

Remote rehabilitation applications still have limited deployment. The path to achieve greater user acceptance and adherence lies in the provision of solutions in their real-life context. Such acceptance is gained through flexibility provided in terms of location, client device, interaction means, and content. This article presents a universal remote rehabilitation delivery approach supporting the introduced flexibility needs. Furthermore, an implementation of the approach in joint rehabilitation for the elderly is described. The approach has been evaluated in a real scenario within Donostia Hospital. The usability evaluation results show the validity of the approach and the acceptance of the developed human −computer interaction paradigm.

Assisted Interaction Data Analysis of Web-Based User Studies

User behaviour analysis requires defining experimental sessions with numerous participants. In this context, the specification of experiments is a demanding task, as several issues have to be considered such as the type of experiment, the type and number of tasks, the definition of questionnaires and the user interaction data to be gathered. The analysis of collected data is also complex and often requires repeatedly examining recorded interaction videos. In order to deal with these tasks, we present a platform called RemoTest which assists researchers to specify and conduct experimental sessions as well as to gather and analyse the interaction data. This platform has been applied to define different formal user studies on the web and has assisted researchers in detecting the main interaction characteristics of different user profiles and settings.

User individuality management in websites based on WAI-ARIA annotations and ontologies

In this paper, we describe a system for adapting websites based on an annotation approach. The system adapts annotated websites according to the user characteristics. The core of the system is composed of a repository containing a comprehensive set of adaptation techniques. 99 techniques have been identified and classified, 48 of them have been fully implemented in the system. This wide range of implemented techniques provides the system with the necessary mechanisms for adapting diverse aspects of website interfaces, such as the content to display, the layout and the structure. The techniques to apply for a given user are inferred according to the information stored in an ontology. This defines the bases for associating user characteristics with the adaptation techniques to apply for specific interaction elements annotated in a website. An annotation language based on the roles and properties of WAI-ARIA has been elaborated. Therefore, any website annotated in this language can be adapted. This adaptation system has been applied to two different websites and adapted interfaces have been obtained for three different user groups.

Depicting the Keypad Mouse Interface: Exploring Pointing Behaviors of Three Input Devices

Using standard keyboard for pointing and clicking interactions seems to be an affordable option for people who have difficulties handling a standard mouse due to a lack of dexterity or temporal disability conditions. The keypad mouse uses discrete input based on keystrokes to perform cursor movements. This distinctive feature along with others related to cursor motion behavior, make the keypad mouse a unique pointing interface when compared with alternatives. We have carried out a study with expert users of different pointing devices. Results of the study revealed significant differences in the performance values among participants in the three groups. Direction on aimed cursor movements proved to be a crucial factor to be taken into account for keyboard-only users. The findings presented in this paper have a broad application when it comes to designing effective predictive models as well as to proposing design guidelines, novel interaction techniques and adaptation techniques for this collective.

Exploring the Web navigation strategies of people with low vision

People with low vision experience accessibility barriers when they interact with the web. This paper explores the navigation strategies of low vision users in order to select the appropriate accessibility techniques to design web interfaces for them. For this purpose, an exploratory study was carried out with six users with low vision. The results revealed the heterogeneity in the group of people with low vision and the variety of navigation strategies applied. Observations and analysis of data gathered in experimental sessions allowed a set of techniques to be defined that can improve accessibility for people with low vision when interacting with the web.

Inclusive Web Empirical Studies in Remote and In-Situ Settings: A User Evaluation of the RemoTest Platform

ABSTRACT Web accessibility evaluation requires tests to be carried out with real users with disabilities performing real tasks or activities. To recruit an appropriate group of users and to observe their performance in the real world is difficult. For this reason we have developed RemoTest, a platform that assists researchers designing experiments, conducting remote and in-situ experimental sessions and analyzing the data gathered while the users are accessing the Web. Although this tool is oriented to experimenters, it is necessary to check whether the evaluation environments created by RemoTest are accessible or not to the users that participate in the tests. To this end, we conducted formal in-situ evaluations with 36 users with diverse characteristics. For this assessment, the participants were asked to install the platform, to fill in some automatically created questionnaires and to carry out several web navigation tasks. From the data gathered we analyzed the ease of the installation process, the accessibility of the automatically generated questionnaires, and user satisfaction. The results revealed the suitability of the platform for conducting inclusive experiments both in remote and in-situ contexts and provided guidelines on how the experiments should be set out.