Abstract: Internet accessibility for the visually impaired community is still an open issue. Guidelines have been issued by the W3C consortium to help web designers to improve web site accessibility. However several studies show that a significant percentage of web page creators are still ignoring the proposed guidelines. Several tools are now available, general purpose, or web specific, to help visually impaired readers. But is reading a web page enough? Regular sighted users are able to scan a web page for a particular piece of information at high speeds. Shouldnât visually impaired readers have the same chance? This paper discusses some features already implemented to improve accessibility and presents a user feedback report regarding the AudioBrowser, a talking browser. Based on the user feedback the paper also suggests some avenues for future work in order to make talking browsers and screen readers compatible.
Abstract: Reasoning about the usability of a given interactive systemâs design is a difficult task. However it is one task that must be performed if downstream costs with extensive redesign are to be avoided. Traditional usability testing alone cannot avoid these costs since it too often is performed late in development life cycle. In recent years approaches have been put forward that attempt to reason about the usability of a design from early in development. Mainstream approaches are based on some kind of (more or less structured) inspection of a design by usability experts. This type of approach breaks down for systems with large and complex user interfaces, and again extensive testing is required. In an attempt to deal with these issues there have been attempts to apply software engineering reasoning tools to the development of interactive systems. The article reviews this work and puts forward some ideas for the future.
Abstract: Engineering natural and appropriate interactive behaviour in ubiquitous computing systems presents new challenges to their developers. This paper explores formal models of interactive behaviour in ubiquitous systems. Of particular interest is the way that these models may help engineers to visualise the consequences of different designs. Design options based on a dynamic signage system (GAUDI) are explored using different instances of a generic model of the system.
Abstract: Internet accessibility for the visually impaired community is still an open issue. Guidelines have been issued by the W3C consortium to help web designers to improve web site accessibility. However several studies show that a significant percentage of web page creators are still ignoring the proposed guidelines. Several tools are now available, general purpose, or web specific, to help visually impaired readers. But is reading a web page enough? Regular sighted users are able to scan a web page for a particular piece of information at high speeds. Shouldnât visually impaired readers have the same chance? This paper discusses some features already implemented to improve accessibility and presents a user feedback report regarding the AudioBrowser, a talking browser. Based on the user feedback the paper also suggests some avenues for future work in order to make talking browsers and screen readers compatible.
Abstract: The theories and practices of software engineering and of human-computer interaction have, to a great extent, evolved separately. It seems obvious that the development of an interactive system would benefit from input from both disciplines. In practice, however, the communication between the two communities has been difficult. Models can be a particularly good tool for communication. For that to happen the differences between the models used by each community must first be identified and understood. This paper looks at the gaps between the models used by the software engineering and the human-computer interaction communities. It identifies where differences between these models can be found, and some aspects that need addressing in order to promote better communication.
Abstract: A norma ISO DIS 9241-11 define usabilidade de um sistema como a efic?cia, efici?ncia e satisfa??o com que utilizadores determinados atingem objectivos determinados em ambientes espec?ficos. A an?lise de usabilidade de um sistema deve ent?o ter em considera??o os utilizadores e o contexto de utiliza??o. Isto coloca problemas pois tipicamente os engenheiros de software n?o est?o motivados, nem tem os conhecimentos necess?rios, para analisarem o sistema desta perspectiva. Neste artigo apresenta-se a arquitectura de uma ferramenta que suporta uma abordagem ao desenvolvimento de sistemas interactivos em que se procura facilitar a comunica??o entre as comunidades da Interac??o Humano-Computador e da Engenharia de Software.
Notes: ISBN: 972-98464-4-8 (proceedings also available as a special number of the Virtual electronic journal, ISSN: 0873-1837)
Abstract: Esta comunica??o ? uma tentativa de sistematizar a aplica??o de um m?todo de an?lise de usabilidade: o cognitive walkthrough. Pode ent?o ser utilizada como um tutorial, apresentando um exemplo da aplica??o do m?todo a uma situa??o pr?tica.
Notes: ISBN: 972-98464-4-8 (proceedings also available as a special number of the Virtual electronic journal, ISSN: 0873-1837)
