FIND: Friendly Indoor Navigation app for Disabled people

This study had three main objectives including: (1) designing an interface for an indoor navigation app for people with disabilities, (2) evaluating the interface by conducting heuristic evaluations and a focus group meeting with usability experts, and (3) enhancing the user interface based on the findings.

Funding: NSF grant in collaboration with Wichita State University

My Role: App designer and researcher

Timeline: January 2021-June 2022

Research Method: Usability testing, In-depth interviews, Survey, content analysis

Research Type: Exploratory UXR

Motivation

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2011 that 15% of the world's population live with some form of disability and 2-4% of these people experience significant difficulties functioning. Around 61 million adults in the United States live with a functional disability. Of the adults with functional disabilities 13.7% are mobility impaired defined by having serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, 10% are cognitively impaired individuals who have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions, 6.8% are in independent living facilities defined by having difficulty doing errands alone, 5.9% have hearing impairment who are deaf or have serious difficulty hearing, and 4.6% have vision impairments . Furthermore, 2 in very 5 adults over the age of 65 have a disability.

These disabilities can hinder one's ability to complete necessary daily tasks such as navigating independently in indoor or outdoor environments especially in unfamiliar places.

Research objective

Methods

Participants

Five usability experts including one female and four males (age: M=27, SD= 5.29) were recruited to participate in this study. Participants were selected from graduate students in human factors at Texas A&M University.

Designing the app

Adobe XD was used to design the interface for disabled people.

Heuristic evaluation

Participants were asked to use the app to complete various scenarios that were explained to them by the experimenters. Several scenarios were developed for users to interact with different components of the app including changing the app's setting preferences, contacting someone for help within the app, and navigating to This study had three main objectives including: (1) designing an interface for an indoor navigation app for people with disabilities, (2) evaluating the interface by conducting heuristic evaluations and a focus group meeting with usability experts, and (3) enhancing the user interface based on the findings.

Data analysis

Heuristic data analysis:

1_ analysis of the participants’ interactions with the app from the video recordings

2_ evaluation of the heuristic checklist completed after the experiment

Focus group meeting

1_ Transcribing the session based on the collected recordings and supplemented field notes

2_ Analysis of the manuscript based on a combination of conventional, directed, and summative content analysis

Results: Initial interface

Interface for people with visual impairment

Interface for people with cognitive, hearing, or mobility impairment or older adults. (from left to right: main menu, path to restroom 2, information about restroom 2)

Results: heuristic evaluation and focus group meeting

Visibility of system status:

1_ The four icons (i.e., stairs, wheelchair, elevator, and a person walking icons) beneath the search bar can be removed to have a cleaner interface.

2_ Buttons should be distinguishable from other icons

3_ Add visual, auditory, or haptic feedback when a user is holding the microphone icon so they can recognize the system is listening.

User control:

1_ Give users the ability to customize and adjust the location of the items on each screen.

2_ Record the users’ behavior throughout the application and suggest the best layout for them. For example, the system can recognize the most frequently used button and inform the user to place it in the most accessible spot on the screen.

Aesthetic and minimalist design:

1_ Simplify the home screen by removing the welcome note, user picture, arrows, and four icons in the middle of the page (i.e., walking, stairs, elevator, and wheelchair).

2_ Make a separate interface for people with cognitive disabilities.

Match between system and the real world (mental model accuracy):

1_ Replace the help icon with one similar to the “Whatsapp” icon (i.e., a message icon with a call icon inside it).

2_ Add an option to automatically connect to the user’s contact list on phone.

Results: Enhanced interface

Updated version of the interface for people with visual impairment (from left to right: main menu, help, setting, navigation)

Updated version of the interface for people with cognitive impairment (from left to right: main menu, navigation, path to restroom 2)

Updated version of the interface for people with hearing or mobility impairment or older adults (from left to right: main menu, help, information about restroom 2)

Limitation and future work

5 day time delay between user testing sessions and focus group meeting
Target users were only usability experts
there is a need for future studies to do the usability testing with end-users

Impact

Industrial impact:
This research is a funded project by NSF secure America grant in collaboration with Wichita State University. As a result from this study, a specific indoor navigation app called FIND will be introduced for people with cognitive, visual, mobility, and hearing impairment and older adults.
Academic impact:
Shahini, F., Nasr, V., & Zahabi, M. (under review). User Interface Usability Testing and Focus Group Evaluation for FIND, A Friendly Indoor Navigation App for Disabled Persons. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting.