The Dark Side of Design
Good designers know how to influence user attitudes and behaviour – they can encourage certain desired actions to be taken and can control how users interact with a site. The problem is that this skill...
View ArticleI Hate Captchas!
There’s nothing more annoying than having to fill out a lengthy form and then be faced with a Captcha. It should be simple – you’re given two words to enter into a box to prove that you’re a person and...
View ArticleUser Experience Design for Kinect Applications
I just watched an interesting video on designing user experiences for Kinect applications that touches on many of the new interaction issues that designers need to think about. It’s just under 40...
View ArticleSearch = Poor Design
Including search functionality on a website is often seen as standard practice and it’s quite common to see this on “smaller” websites that have anywhere from 5-100 pages. But do sites of this size...
View ArticleIdiot-Proof Design
You’ll often hear people refer to the devices and applications they use as being “idiot-proof” – a positive comment that typically highlights the simplicity of a design and the ability to intuitively...
View ArticleUser Experience Design for Kinect Applications
I recently watched an interesting video on designing user experiences for Kinect applications that touches on many of the new interaction issues that designers need to think about. It’s just under 40...
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User Responses to Embodied Agent Emotion
Several studies have demonstrated that we can recognise the emotional facial expressions of embodied computer agents with similar accuracy to that of identifying human facial expressions. However, it...
View ArticleMulti-Touch Gestures on Large Touch Tables
Uta Hinrichs and Sheelagh Carpendale have written an interesting paper (Gestures in the Wild: Studying Multi-Touch Gesture Sequences on Interactive Tabletop Exhibits) describing their findings from a...
View ArticleBolting On Accessibility
The process of making software, applications, and other interactive experiences accessible for disabled users often involves incorporating assistive solutions into existing and standard interfaces. Eye...
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Multi-Touch Web Browsers for People with Tremor
People with tremor can experience significant barriers when attempting to use a range of input devices for computers. For instance, trying to accurately control a mouse or use a standard keyboard can...
View Article3D Print Your Own Mouth Controlled Mouse (For Under $20!)
Assistive tools and technologies can often be very expensive which in turn can make it difficult for the people who need them the most to afford and access them. It’s almost like disabled users have to...
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Finger Mouse – A Cheap Assistive Tool for Physical Impairments
There are lots of alternative mice around on the market that aim to help support people with physical impairments when using computers. However, there are also other interesting devices that have...
View ArticleDesigning Assistive Technology for Social Acceptance
Assistive technologies are typically designed with a primary focus on making them functional and usable for people with a range of different impairments. This is clearly a worthy goal and essential to...
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Boomer Foot Mouse: Using Your Feet For Computer Control
The Boomer Foot Mouse is a device which looks like it has some interesting potential as an assistive tool. As the name of the device suggests, it enables the control of an on-screen cursor using only...
View ArticleAssistive Technologies and Social Exclusion
Digital technologies are often heralded as having the potential to transform opportunities for disabled people. And rightly so – there are many examples of assistive digital tools that enable people...
View ArticleAssistive Technology for People with Parkinson’s Disease
People with Parkinson’s disease can have significant issues in using computers and can experience real difficulties when using a traditional mouse and keyboard. Tremor is often the symptom that many...
View ArticleAn Introduction to Eye Gaze Tracking Technology
Eye gaze tracking enables people with severe physical impairments to interact with systems via their eyes. This technology has been around for a while now, but it used to be very expensive (several...
View ArticleAssistive Technology: The Myo Gesture Armband
The Myo Armband is an interesting product that enables people to control different systems via simple gestures. The promotional video below shows a variety of scenarios where the tool might be used...
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