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Putting situational impairments in context: developing guidance for situational impairments and severely constraining situational impairments by examining parallel domains

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Abstract

Mobile device use is omnipresent in everyday life spawning design to account for the increased complexity and diversity of “Situationally Induced Impairments and Disabilities (SIID)”. Although SIIDs frequently impact interactions, little research has attempted to provide generalizable guidance supporting users when these events occur. Situational impairment events may produce challenges similar to those faced by users with Health Induced Impairments and Disabilities. This study conducted an exhaustive literature review from Assistive Technology and Accessibility research and parallel domains, and found that existing guidance on designing for “impairments” can inform designing for “temporary” impairments created by the mobile interaction context. Guidance identified was validated by a panel of mobile interaction experts with a novel adaptation of the consensus-seeking approach known as the Delphi method. This research presents preliminary guidelines to support mobile interface designers and researchers to better recognize and effectively account for the new complexity present during mobile interaction.

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Notes

  1. Additional discovery becomes redundant, reasonably assuring further data collection would only yield similar results [12]

  2. The IQR is an alternative measure of variance that is the result of the subtraction of the 3rd quartile from the 1st quartile value. This measure has been used by some Delphi studies like Chen [7] that employed Likert Scale rating as an alternative measure of variance to standard deviation. IQR has an advantage over standard deviation in that it is unaffected by extreme outliers. It is for this reason that the researchers chose this measure of variance for the present study.

  3. When referring to final set of 26 guidelines, we use the numbering applied to the original 49 of the unique draft guidelines first offered to the expert panel for review and validation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Jobke Wentzel for her input to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMBC, Baltimore, USA

    Sidas Saulynas, Apoorva Bendigeri & Ravi Kuber

  2. Stevenson University, Baltimore, USA

    Sidas Saulynas

  3. Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, USA

    Lawrence Burgee

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Correspondence to Ravi Kuber.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table

Table 11 Situational impairment themes and SCSI characteristics from [43]
Full size table

11.

Severely Constraining Situational Impairments (SCSI) An occurrence of a situational impairment where a workaround is not available/easily obtained, or where a technological solution was found that only led to the introduction of a new situational impairment and disability.

1.1 Characteristics/types of SCSI

“Super” situational impairment event Multiple impairment events combined in a single transaction (e.g., “Thought of something I wanted to search the web for while I was cutting grass, but couldn't use phone because it was too bright out and couldn't use Siri because it was too noisy- By the time I reached a shady area, I ended up forgetting what the task was.”)

Expiration of transaction “Half-Life” The value of a transaction becomes zero before conditions conducive to transaction completion can be achieved. (e.g., A SMS is received (and unattended) while in a store. The text is read upon returning from the store and was a request from the spouse to purchase an item.)

Solution to one SIID produces new SIID An existing design solution to an SIID creates a new and different SIID (e.g., voice input can overcome hand encumbrance, but not necessarily if that input contains information that cannot be disseminated in public)

Competing modal transactions Common communication channel needed for competing modal transactions (e.g., “GPS navigation in car interrupted by telephone call.”)

Pre-abandonment Transaction voluntarily terminated due to [a] concern over the violation of certain contextual social/cultural norms, or [b] past history leads user to not make transaction attempt (e.g., “Operation to get files from a secured ‘cloud’ service, download them to my phone with an app, then upload them to a web service is simply too cumbersome to do on the phone... If even possible at all…”)

Appendix 2

See Table

Table 12 Draft guidelines (by coding theme)
Full size table

12.

Appendix 3

The table below displays 26 final guidelines validated by the expert panel. The topic areas of the sources primarily used to create the guideline are shown in the third column. The last column shows the theme(s) from Saulynas et al. [43] that each guideline was mapped to.

Original numbering for guidelines

Guideline

Source topic area(s)

Mapped theme(s) from Saulynas et al. [43]

1

A system should read “the right thing, at the right time, and at the right pace” (e.g., shield users from unimportant minutiae, smart asynchronous notifications for managing interruptions, or correcting automatically transcribed texts)

Mobile visual display/visual impairments

Complexity/social- cultural/SCSI

2

Access should be guaranteed by different input methods (e.g., keyboards, simulators, switches, mouth pointers and head pointers) with attention to particular users’ needs and strengths

Cognitive impairments/web accessibility

Ambient-environmental/workspace-location/SCSI

4

Account for the fact that users may engage in distracting activities because they may not realize that their performance is degraded or overconfident in their ability to deal with distractions while engaged in the primary activity

Distractive driving

Complexity

5

Any function designed for the adaptation to the variable contexts and environments must function in real-time and as a background task without altering the normal operation and use

Visual impairments/SIID in cold environments

SCSI

8

Avoid distractions (i.e., blinking images) and discourage unconscious action in tasks that require vigilance

UD and designing for older adults

Complexity

9

Avoid gestures needing precision, large areas to perform, or cause physical pain after prolonged use

Motor impairments/hearing impairments

Workspace-location

11

Avoid touch input that is too sensitive (prevent accidental presses) and tackle the fear of accidentally initiated commands

Designing for older adults

Ambient-environmental

12

Avoid two-handed, multiple-finger interaction

Accessibility

Workspace-location

13

Connect with different communications and data networks to ensure high availability of services

Mobile services in unstable environments

Technical

14

Connectivity and power issues should be transparent for the end-user. Use automatic logging as an efficient way to obtain continuous battery information and highlight/educate the user regarding their battery life limitations and performance improvements

Shared workspace accessibility/smartphone energy efficiency

Technical

19

Design features to reduce contextual stress. (e.g., facilitate the ease of safety check-ins, users locating one another, and compensate for lack of communication synchronicity)

Cognitive impairments

SCSI

20

Design flexible limits for task completion and warnings/feedback should stay on the screen as long as the user does not respond to them

Accessibility

Complexity/social-cultural/SCSI

21

Design technology such that it poses little burden/encumbrance (i.e., reducing the need for resources such as hands or storage areas like a coat pocket)

Visual impairments

Workspace-location

22

Detect breakpoints (when the user is not actively manipulating the device) using additional sensors, such as GPS, accelerometer, proximity and light sensors

Interruption notification on smartphones

Complexity

23

Device should be easy to recharge via a cradle rather than a plug

Designing for older adults

Technical

24

Employ a simple and universal external mechanism to provide power for phone (e.g., implemented in a carry bag or in a coat pocket) making it accessible

Capacitive touch input on clothing

Technical

25

Ensure the AI system’s language and behaviors do not reinforce undesirable and unfair stereotypes and biases

Human-AI interaction

Social-cultural

26

Explicitly distinguish between periods of active use and passive use, then use the passive periods to conduct power and data intensive operations

Communication in constrained computing environments

Technical

27

For any given task the design should specify which modalities are appropriate for each context and offer additional value to users that are not directly interacting with the screen

Adaptive multi-modal mobile input

Ambient-environmental

29

In highly demanding situations, the user should be saved from overload by either oppressing or delaying non-important information

In-Vehicle device interaction

Complexity/SCSI

33

Low energy consuming localization methods should be used as substitute for power hungry localization techniques (e.g., GPS)

Smartphone energy efficiency

Technical

36

Minimize the number of steps and consider simple movement (e.g., clicking) over complex movements (e.g., dragging, drawing certain shapes). Also, interaction based on tap length (invoking different functionality on long tap) should be avoided

Accessible mouse-based widgets/designing for older adults/ nose-based interaction

Complexity/workspace-location

39

Passively identify potential situational impairment events so that the device can react independently of users’ direct feedback

SIID in cold environments

SCSI

41

Provide subtle feedback, such as vibration from within a pocket, or personal audio, in situations where individuals are hesitant to carry their devices in public

Visual impairments

Social-cultural

45

Under certain ambient conditions (e.g., extreme cold) account for reduced accuracy (e.g., offset skew) in target acquisition, particularly in one-handed interaction

SIID in cold environments

Ambient-environmental

48

When in motion, users can query the system using voice, when not in motion, users can interact with the system using tabs and gestures

Visual impairments

Workspace-location

  1. Final 26 guidelines selected

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Saulynas, S., Burgee, L., Bendigeri, A. et al. Putting situational impairments in context: developing guidance for situational impairments and severely constraining situational impairments by examining parallel domains. Univ Access Inf Soc 21, 941–966 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-021-00811-5

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