text-free ui for illiterate users microsoft research india
TRANSCRIPT
Text-Free UI for Illiterate Users
Microsoft Research India
• Background• The Application• Target Community• Design Process• Design Principles• Final Prototype• User Testing Results• Conclusions and Future work• New Work
Contents
26% of world’s adult population is illiterate and 98% of all illiterates
live in the developing countries!
Can a user interface be designed such that even novice, illiterate users require absolutely no intervention from anyone at all to use?
How to bridge this increasing ‘Digital Divide’ by providing access to information to all
Text-Free UI is…
PLAY
• Domestic workers (they cook, clean people’s houses)• Informal sector jobs• Income range is INR 800-2500 (USD 20-50) per month• Most are illiterate and have never seen a PC (those who
have seen, see in their employers’ homes)
Target Community
Design Process
• Ethnographic Interviews
• Subject Trials
Being accepted and trusted
Helping overcome fear of technology
Making subjects feel
comfortable
Design Principles
• Avoid text (but using numbers may be okay)• Use semi-abstracted graphics, and increase photorealism with deeper interaction.• Pay attention to subtle graphical cues. User response may depend on psychological, cultural, or religious biases.• Provide voice feedback for all functional units.• Provide “help” on all screens• Provide movie dramatizing purpose of application
Use semi-abstracted graphics, and increase photorealism with deeper interaction.
Design Principles
Pay attention to subtle graphical cues. User response may depend on psychological, cultural, or religious biases.
Design Principles
Provide “help” on all screens
Design Principles
Design Principles
Employers look for a helper through app
Helper sees that job information on the app
They meet
Make a short movie that plays in a loop at the beginning, that would dramatize the purpose of the application, and describe how to use the application, to overcome lack of awareness of the possibilities with computer technology.
Final Prototype
• Text- Free UI for Employment Search • Text-Free UI for Map Navigation
Explore Text-Free UIs in general – could be
any application domain
Demo…
Experimental Set-Up
• Cultural Consideration - Modifications to ensure that subjects were comfortable in the environment and testing scenario.
• Application- We tested both applications with two interfaces (text-based vs. text-free) and used a script!
• Subjects- Range of participants varying in age, environment they lived and worked and familiarity with technology.
User Testing Results
• Unable to make sense or navigate through the text-based UIs
• Immediate comprehension of voice feedback• Collaborative use seemed more effective• The “help” instructions were a constant source of
reassurance to users.• Navigation metaphor of a book helped• Subject involvement among test subjects• After watching movie all 35 test participants could
complete the task and took an average of 7.5 minutes and 5.2 prompts!!!
Conclusions and Future Work
• Design elements could be applicable to other user groups that are illiterate and new to computer use.
•To enable easiest possible operation for any first time user without intervention
•Build strong design principles which could be used to convert any text-based UI into a text-free UI
New Work
Text-Free User Interface for dispensing complex health care information for anemia
What is the best way to represent complex information?
•Static Graphic•Animation•Video
