Surveying User Needs - Bringing Universal Design to Life
James Mueller, IDSA, Project Director, Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Wireless Technologies, USA
Background
In the fall of 2001, the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Wireless Technologies for Persons with Disabilities ("Wireless RERC") began a project to identify and prioritize ergonomic needs of users with disabilities for mobile wireless technologies (cell phones, text messagers, etc.). The goal is to bring this information to producers of these technologies so that they might be made more useful and usable for all customers, regardless of age or ability.
Methodology
The Wireless RERC first began a Survey of User Needs, which includes demographic questions as well as questions regarding the use of various electronic and communication products. The survey also invites respondents to participate in focus groups to study in greater depth the data gathered through the User Needs Survey.
Survey Data
The Survey of User Needs (SUN) has yielded 625 responses as of this writing. Full survey data is being compiled for internet access through a SUN Database Query Tool.
In gender (59% female) and home location (46% suburban, 32% urban, 22% rural), survey respondents reflect the US population of persons with disabilities. Respondents represent higher levels in education, employment, and income. Respondents tended toward middle age groups (25-44 years: 39%, 45-64 years: 42%), compared to national samples. The most common disabilities among respondents are spinal cord injury (26%), deafness or hard of hearing (26%), back injuries (22%), arthritis (19%), blindness or low vision (18%). Many respondents cited multiple disabilities.
Sixty-eight per cent of the respondents already own or have access to a wireless device. The vast majority of these are cell phones; 49% said their cell phones were very important to their lives, and 32% said they used it every day. On the other hand, 61% said they have at least some difficulty using a cell phone. The most common problems in using cell phones related to visual and manual limitations. Other wireless devices owned or accessed by respondents included:
- Pager (29%)
- Text Messager (16%)
- Global Positioning Device (GPS) (16%)
Focus Group Results
From among the survey respondents, 8-10 volunteers are selected with diverse demographic characteristics, but with similar impairments, i.e., groups of persons with physical, vision, or hearing limitations as the primary cause of their functional limitations. Many participants have multiple disabilities, including cognitive limitations. Focus group discussions center around a specific product category, such as cell phones, text messagers, or global positioning devices (GPS).
As of this writing, 10 focus groups have been conducted. Among the most critical issues for wireless technology users with disabilities are:
- Technical support and customer assistance
- Effectiveness of providers in resolving technical problems
- Meeting the needs of customers with disabilities
- Effective communication, sensitivity to disability issues
- Understanding of assistive technologies
- Affordability and accessibility of wireless technologies
- Cost of products
- Cost and complexity of service plans and features
- Service coverage
- Trust (reliability and dependability of hardware)
- Usability and compatibility of wireless products
- Adaptability of products to user needs (vs. the other way around)
- Security/privacy issues
- Ergonomic issues, e.g., carrying and holding, reading and understanding the display, physically and cognitively using the keypad, battery charging, etc.)
- Using assistive technologies with wireless products
- Interface issues
- Physical burden of multiple devices
Discussion - Disseminating Project Results through Personas
The focus groups conducted during this project have emphasized the importance of direct consumer input in developing products that are both useful and usable to people with disabilities. Designers with little experience with elders and people with disabilities might otherwise be reluctant to design for these individuals.
Focus group participants' identities must be kept confidential. So project staff developed "personas" as composites of many focus group participants to preserve confidentiality while also sharing participants' valuable personal insight.
Personas are often used in product development to focus the design team on real users and their needs, so that designers do not fall into the common trap of designing for themselves. As few designers have disabilities, this is especially important in designing products that consider the needs of customers with disabilities.
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This (pictured left) is Cindy, one of the personas representing a number of cell phone users with visual limitations. Cindy's biography is based on input from 79 survey and focus group participants who are blind and use cell phones:
Cindy is the director of community relations for a low-vision support group in her home town. She regularly relies on a cell phone in her work but would appreciate a device that could alleviate some problems of her current cell phone. Since she can't see the display, the amount of remaining battery life is always a concern for her. "How about an audible and tactile indicator?" she suggests. Besides which, "all the buttons feel the same, except for the little nib on the '5' - thank God for that. Couldn't the buttons be different sizes, shapes, and textures, or be separated better? If they 'voiced' what they are before I pressed them, that would be great, too."
Cindy has had her share of condescending or uninformed customer service staff among wireless providers: "Once I called for help, and the rep advised me that I could get my questions answered in their manual. When I explained that I can't see, he was so flustered that he apologized for my blindness. I told him, 'That's okay, you had nothing to do with it. I was blind before I called you.'"
Personas in the Global Design Community
Cindy is one of several personas developed through this project. As consumer products and services like cell phones become increasingly global, effective relations with customers of all ages, abilities, languages, and cultures becomes more problematic. In this environment, personas are a powerful tool to share the results of user research results and to assure that design teams pay attention to them during the design development process.
Group Discussion
Following this presentation, the audience will be invited to comment on the use of personas to stimulate product development that is more sensitive to users limited by age or disability. Some of the important questions are:
- Are personas capable of changing designers' behavior?
- Do personas accurately represent seniors and people with disabilities?
- Might personas also be useful in helping designers to understand global cultural issues?
Acknowledgments
The article has been made possible by funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) of the U.S. Department of Education under grant number H133E010804. The opinions contained in this article are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education.