Digital Navigational Aids for the Visually Impaired A Designer’s Guide for Implementing Effective Feedback Solutions
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Bachelor's thesis
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Date
2023
Department
Major/Subject
Major of Design
Mcode
Degree programme
Bachelor's Programme in Design
Language
en
Pages
82 + 12
Series
Abstract
Mobility and navigation in outdoor environments constitute a formidable daily challenge for the blind and visually impaired community. Difficulty in outdoor mobility limits participation in social activities and employment opportunities which in turn contributes to isolation and a decreased sense of mental well-being. To address these challenges, digital navigational aids (NAVIs) extend the capabilities of traditional mobility aids such as guide dogs and the white cane. However, adoption of these new technologies within the blind and visually impaired community has been low. This low adoption rate suggests that a gap exists between current solutions and user needs and goals. As intermediaries between solutions and the users they serve, designers are ideally situated to bridge this gap. Thus, this research aims to provide designers new to the problem space with an understanding of the considerations that inform NAVI design. To build a rudimentary understanding of these considerations, a literature review of individual NAVI research projects and comparative reviews of NAVIs was con-ducted. The interaction design requirements framework proposed by Sharp et al. (2019) was then used as an organizational tool for further defining these considerations. Requirements categories including user experience goals, usability goals, functional requirements, environmental requirements and data requirements were applied as themes in a thematic analysis of data obtained through interviews with NAVI designers and other designers of feedback systems in an effort to identify challenges, designer approaches and areas where improvements could be made to current NAVI design solutions. Findings from expert interviews suggest that developments emerging from the rap-idly evolving technological environment can be leveraged by designers for creating more user friendly and accessible solutions. For example, user familiarity with smartphone interfaces can reduce the learning curve required when adapting to a new smartphone-based NAVI thus increasing the chances of adoption into daily use. Data obtained in interviews also examines the methods by which designers improve usability, including users not only in their iterative processes but through-out the entire life cycle of a NAVI solution. Finally, expert interviews reveal new prototyping tools for designing feedback systems with wearables which streamline the prototyping process and lower the barrier of entry for designers without prior expertise in coding or electronics.Description
Supervisor
Leinonen, TeemuThesis advisor
Chumaira, TaniaKeywords
mobility aids, haptic feedback, interaction design, multimodal feedback, user experience, usability goals, sensory substitution