Week 7 updates

Hey everyone,

To begin, I'd like to show you guys a screenshot of something I mentioned during week 5.  One of the problems we had with our test applications was that when you opened a note box up it would cover the lecture.  This wasn't how we envisioned the application working, so some code was added to push the lecture view up whenever you opened the note view, and likewise push it down when the note view was exited. We didn't include a screenshot of this during the entry for week 5 so I thought that we should take one and put it in this weeks entry so that you guys could get an idea of what we were talking about.

You can see how the note box does not cover up the lecture, they are separate views and so all of the lecture will be accessible while you're typing your notes.  Before, the bottom half of the lecture would get covered up and could not be viewed.

This week we refined our search for related research that people have done regarding accessibility and mobile devices.  Our CREU faculty member discussed several different conferences with us last week, and by searching for papers from those conferences we were able to find more relevant and more academic papers on the subject. We found a lot of papers that focused on visual impairments and accessibility by looking through the ACM Digital Library and narrowing our search to specific conferences.

One of the conferences that seemed to have the most relevant papers was ASSETS, which makes sense because the ASSETS conference focuses on using computing and information technology to help people that have different kinds of disabilities. 

We focused our search on conferences within the last couple of years, from 08 and on.  The reasoning behind this was that smartphones and other touchscreen mobile devices are relatively new, and we also wanted to make sure that we were looking at current research so that we could see what the latest findings have been.  This doesn't mean that older research should be overlooked, but by looking at the newer papers we were able to find studies that were very related to our project and could help us in developing our own plans for our usability tests.

Interestingly, our CREU faculty member actually knew about a lot of the authors of the papers we were finding.  As a result, we might be able to get in touch with some of them so that we can learn more about the process they used for testing, as well as how they found participants.  When you're conducting research with a very specific group of people, it can be really difficult to find participants for your studies. 

A lot of the articles that I've read, that have dealt with research about visual impairments, have mentioned having participants who were sighted but wearing blindfolds.  I saw this mentioned in two different articles and  I was really surprised by it.  I feel like using sighted participants could give you much different results, even if they were blindfolded. I'm hoping that with our tests we will be able to find enough participants that have visual impairments so that our research will be more sound.

-Lindsey

Week 6 Update - Better Late than Never!

Hi all,

Alex here with a rather late week 6 rundown. We apologize for the delay; there was a mix-up in which week it was in an earlier post, causing us to think that week 6 had already been written! We're computer scientists and software engineers researching new and innovative technology to help visually impaired students, yet we can't keep track of the date; but enough about that!

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The key talking points for week 6 can be split into two categories: conferences and surveys.

First, the conferences will be discussed!

We are preparing for the possibility of presenting a poster and/or a paper at several conferences. Our project adviser has identified several conferences (some coming up soon, and some not until the fall) for which we can likely get funding for at least one team member to present. Some of these conferences are specifically catered to the presentation of research with the purpose of utilizing technology to assist users with disabilities; others, such as the Richard Tapia Conference, are conducted with the intent of celebrating/acknowledging diversity in computing (including those with disabilities).

The possibility of presenting at these conferences is an extremely exciting prospect for the AL team, as this would be our first exposure to a professional research/conference environment. Therefore, we have been doing our homework in this regard! Our preparations so far have included:

• Writing an abstract and introduction for our poster and/or paper.
  
• Amassing a collection of research papers that related to our own research in various aspects. These included research on the accessibility of touch screen and mobile devices, as well as research that dealt with VI- and/or blind-user friendly versions of various technologies.
  
• Data mining these research papers for references, ideas, inspiration, and leverage points.
• Keeping a precise list of references that point to which data was mined from which paper, for the purpose of making this information usable in several of our own papers

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Second, the pre- and post-surveys for our upcoming usability tests will be covered. We accomplished a great deal with regards to these surveys, including many fundamental and functional changes. Our progress can be summarized as such:

• Received feedback on the surveys from our project adviser (CREU faculty member).
• Implemented a large number of fundamental formatting/wording changes, based on our project adviser's feedback.
• Changed the way in which our surveys were to be given to the users and conducted.
  
• Modified the survey documents to exist as forms that would automatically parse themselves into a spreadsheet (as opposed to the previous pencil and paper versions).

Mainly, we revised the surveys and decided to change the way in which they are to be given. Instead of having the users fill-out the surveys themselves, we will ask them the questions and copy their responses on our own into an online form. Their data will then be sent into a spreadsheet for easy interpretation and management. This will help clarify the any potential obscurities in our questions, and will also help to make sure that the users answer the questions in the way that most benefits our study.

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That's it for week 6! Stay tuned for an additional update on this week (week 7).

Until next time...
- Alex

Week 5- We Prepare Even More!

Hey all,

Last week Alex updated about our tests apps and our other preparations for the upcoming usability tests. This week went along pretty similar lines, we

• Continued fleshing out the script for our tests
• Continued working on our pre- and post- test surveys
• Fixed a couple of bugs with the test applications
• Made modifications to our test applications so that the lecture screen would be pushed up when you opened up the note view, so that the note view would not be obtrusive and cover the lecture up.

There is still more work and debugging we need to do with the test applications to get them ready. Right now, when the note box comes up it seems to block gesture recognition on the lecture view, which means that the user would not be able to zoom in on the lecture while they were typing. During our usability tests we would like to see if the participants can easily takes note on the lecture they're viewing and so this is something that we will need to fix prior to the tests.

This week we also came up with a title and an abstract for a conference that our CREU faculty member has recommended that we apply to. It's the 2011 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference, and we've been working with our faculty member to make the abstract. Alex, Abhishek, and I came up with a draft for it and have changed it based on the feedback we've gotten. We also applied for the Posters on the Hill conference, but we won't hear back about that one until late February.

Next week we can get our abstract submitted, and then finish up some of the preparations for the usability tests. Once we're all set with our script for the testing process, we can start practicing that so that we'll be ready for when we're doing it for real. If we aren't ready for the real thing, mess ups could result in us having to throw out the data, so it's important that we're all prepared and know what to do. One of the upperclassmen that's working with our faculty member on another accessibility project even volunteered to come in during our practice tests and give us feedback and help out. Our faculty member, who has conducted these kinds of tests for her other projects, is also going to make sure that we're doing everything correctly before we try the tests with any of our real subjects.

-Lindsey

Week 4 - Preparations Begin for Usability Testing

Hello all,

It's week 5, which means that it's that time of the quarter again! Miraculously though, somewhere between not getting any sleep, neglecting the sun, and drowning ourselves in textbooks and notes, we have managed to make some amazing progress on our imminent usability tests.

Usability testing has been our primary focus for the majority of this quarter, and it's great to see things really coming together. Here is a summary of the focus points of our recent work in regards to this preparation:

• Creating several test apps for our human subject trials.
  
• Becoming certified and knowledgeable in the area of conducting research involving human subjects.
• Data mining information on how to conduct a productive and proper usability test.
• Creating a survey to give the tester before and after each usability test.
• Creating a rough script to be used during each test.
• Defining and fleshing out the descriptions of team roles.
• Researching into the specifics of conducting usability tests that involve participants who are visually impaired.

Our test apps deserve some more in-depth coverage; a bullet can only show so much, after all! We are very proud of the work that we've accomplished so far this quarter; I'm also extremely vainglorious about my modesty and vocabulary.

The center of attention has been our test apps. We currently have two test apps; these apps differ only in the way that the user can zoom in-and-out of the content on the screen. We are currently experimenting with the standard iPad "pinch" gesture, as well as with a less conventional 'tap-to-zoom' method. A preliminary draft of our UI is placed on each app, with the option to switch between the inverted and non-inverted icon sets. In addition, the "notes" icon will popup a textbox in which the user can take notes in real-time, using either the on-screen keyboard or an external USB keyboard.

The nature of our test apps will allow us to foster an environment during the tests that will provide us with a substantial amount of information on the key visual and usability components of our app; it will also allow us to better feel-out how users are likely to respond to certain key features. This information will be very valuable to have so early on in the life cycle of the project.

An image of the current version of our test app can be seen to the left, with the inverted icon mode in effect. The large image in the center is a custom-made image that is intended to mimic what the user may see if notes were being captured by our device during a real lecture. To make the image as authentic as possible, it combines digital images with handwritten notes; it is also (purposefully) too large for the iPad screen, and must be 'scrolled' around the iPad screen using one finger. This will allow us to test the ease of use in regards to navigation in a real-world setting.

The toolbar on the top provides quick access to the home screen and the settings page, while the bottom toolbar contains all of the tools immediately available at the board view. These tools are (from left to right), "Save Lecture", "Take Notes", "Selection Tool", "Inversion Toggle", "Zoom-Out", and "Zoom-In". As mentioned above, the "Take Notes" icon is functional.

I hope that this 'tour' of our usability test apps has been fun for you, or at least more exciting than what you were doing before!

Once the test survey and script and more fleshed out, and once more research has been conducted into VI usability testing, we will post a nice content filled update.

Until next week...

- Alex