FlexInterface: a Framework to Provide Flexible Mobile Phone User Interfaces

Addressing the elderly diversity

Sibelius SeraphiniVinícius P. GonçalvesVânia P. A. NerisJó Ueyama

Outline

Introduction; Key aims; Implementation of Flexible Interfaces

for Elderly; Evaluation of FlexInterface with

Elderly Users; Conclusions and Future Work.

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Context

Increased use of Mobile Devices; (Nilsen, 2011) Aging population worldwide;

893 million elderly people in the world; (UN, 2010)

Even in the elderly population, there are differences regarding education, experience with technology, cognitive and physical abilities.

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Problematic

Mobile phones interface are developed for young people;

(Wood et al., 2005; Czaja e Lee, 2007; Goebel, 2007)

Need to investigate solutions for elderly public: Taking into account the diversity of interaction skills among the

elderly.

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Key Aims

Provide interfaces that meet the highest number of elderly users;

Make an existing solution to adapt to several user profiles.

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Our Approach

Develop flexible interfaces;

Flexibility Changes on interface elements (color, size, positions, etc); Changes in the order of the interaction actions;

We proposed a framework that supports the development of flexible tailored interface design.

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Implementation of Flexible Interfaces for Elderly

Our Architecture

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Android

The world’s most widely used smartphone platform (Canalys, 2011);

Open Source; Design for touchscreen mobile devices –

smartphones and tablet computers; Independence of Handset Makers.

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OpenCom

Developed by Lancaster University; CBSD: Component Based Software Development; Reset components at Runtime; Adapts to the dynamics features of

the execution environment;

Domain Independence; Device Independence; Low Overhead.

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FlexInterface

Supports the development of the design of flexible interfaces

Based on the adaptive middleware OpenCom;

Enables the application fits user needs during their interaction with the device;

Interfaces elements are components; Loaded, instanstied and

destroyed on demand.

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The FlexInterface Approach

FlexInterface Generic Component; Two receptacles (required interfaces) FlowScreen

Determine a sequence of screens used in a task for a user profile; Example: Record Name -> Record Phone -> Save Contact;

ProfileChecker Select the most suitable user profile based on user’s interaction data; Reset the FlexInterface components.

FlexComp

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Evaluation of FlexInterface with Elderly Users

Evaluation with Elderly Users

Purpose of Evaluation: Observe and analyse the

interaction of elderly people with flexible interfaces for mobile phones and see if there was improvement over the non-flexible interface;

Elderly from CRAS (Community Center) - São Carlos/SP;

Task: User should save a contact in

mobile phone address book and call it following.

Pair Users AgeEducation

LevelCell phone

Usage

D1 1, 2 81, 84Less than 4

yearsNever

D2 3, 4 66, 60Less than 4

yearsRarely

D3 5, 6 61, 60More than 12

yearsDaily

D4 7, 8 65, 69Less than 4

yearsRarely

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FlexInterface for Elderly Users

Two different profiles of elderly people Low Education profile – Elderly with less than 4 years of education; High Education profile – Elderly with more than 4 years of education;

ElderlyFlex Extension of FlexComp One new receptacle (IKeyboard)

IKeyboard Enables us to reset the keyboard at runtime

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FlexInterface for Elderly Users

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FlexInterface for Elderly Users

ElderlyProfileChecker Collect data from the user’s interaction Sets the most suitable elderly user profile

One Keyboard and FlowScreen Component for user profile; Default, LowEducation and HighEducation

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FlexInterface for Elderly Users

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Native Contact Application Android

Contact Application Interface

Flexible Contact Application Android

FlexInterface for Elderly Users

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Default Keyboard Adapted Keyboard

Keyboard Interface

Evaluation with Elderly Users

Pair 1: “I can see well that button. I loved the green color!”; Pair 2 e Pair 4:

“I’d rather hear the voice than having to type.”; “I loved talking to the phone. He talked to me!”; “Is this phone for sale?”;

Pair 3 (Doctorate): “Having the color gray does not affect the task.”.

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Results of Evaluation

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Results of Evaluation

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Conclusions and Future Work

FlexInterface framework can be used to adapt existing solutions to meet a broader number of users (For instance, Native Contact Android in our Evaluation);

FlexInterface framework improve the usability of a system (by a low overhead), since make tasks easy to complete (less time required per task); and improve the user satisfaction.

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Conclusions and Future Work

Feasibility testing of the FlexInterface on: Others devices (tablets and / or notebooks); Others domains (webpages and /or desktop applications); Others types of Users (children).

Improve the FlexInterface Model: Add specifics components to collect data from the user; Add components to adapt the interface based on the emotion

of the user;

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Thank You

sibelius@grad.icmc.usp.brvpg@icmc.usp.brjoueyama@icmc.usp.brvania@dc.ufscar.br