Emotional Aspects in User Experience with Interactive Digital Television: A Case Study on Dyslexia Rehabilitation

Abstract

This work explores the emotional response of users in front of Information and Communication Technologies and the aspects triggering emotional reactions. One of the opportunities provided by interactive services delivered through Digital Television (DTV) is to promote the use of socially relevant ICT-based services by large groups of people who have neither Internet access nor the needed skills to use the Internet, but are familiar with television and its remote control. The pilot research programme on DTV in Italy has been developed through a number of initiatives, some of them issued to explore the potential impact on population of the new digital services associated with the broadcasted TV channels. Fondazione Ugo Bordoni (FUB) co-funded six T-government projects with the main objective to experiment high interactivity services involving real users. The T-islessia project concentrated on the rehabilitation of children at risk of dyslexia using interactive exercises through the TV channel. Structured listening sessions were used to investigate the young users’ attitudes and their emotional reactions towards the technological tool. During these sessions, drawings and interviews were adopted in a complementary way. Positive results derived from the field investigation with regard to the effectiveness of the rehabilitation through the DTV platform: the greater the number of interactive sessions, the higher the level of acquired phonetic skills.