- I'm from the UTM, the University of Technology in Mexico.
We're presenting this paper which is actually the result
of a project in the Student Design Competition.
This is the Latin American
Student Design Competition we have.
So this is the result of our project reached third place.
So Carlos Humberto is there, the one that's dressed like me.
Our University is situated in the south of Mexico
in a very poor region.
So as many other universities in its current,
it's an instrument of change.
It was created to change the community
and the people around it.
Our lab is called the UsaLab, UsaLab is the first
usability lab in Mexican universities.
It was founded in 2002,
so we have more than 15 years
working on cutting edge research,
projects with industry
and
the development of
students and competition.
Like I said before, this is our lab.
So,
in the Latin American
ACI Conference
in Guatemala
in the year 2017,
they had students in competitions.
Very similar to the one we're having this year
here in Glasgow and two teams of our University
reached first place and second place.
So,
the theme of the competition that year was to create
an interface object of service devoted to blind people.
So the idea for those two projects were about blind people.
And I'm going to talk about the second one,
the second place called YAMI.
Which is the auxiliary complement to enable
visually impaired people to use mobile devices.
So, the idea of this project
was to
help children,
blind children who have never used a telephone
by facilitating the way they start to use it by themselves
and to understand in a simple manner, its functionality.
So those kids have mobile phones,
the same as we all have, iPhones.
But they cannot use it, so they have to be used
only with the help of their parents or someone else
helping them to use it.
So the idea of this project is to create a device
to help them use it by themselves.
To learn to use the mobile on the first time by themselves.
That was the idea of this project.
So let me show you a quick video
while I describe the device.
The device is designed as a shell that encloses the phone,
as you can see, connected with a micro USB port.
The YAMI control interface consists
of buttons and a touch wheel.
Five buttons are integrated into the wheel
and five more outside of it.
This could be, as you can see, they have an embossed symbol
which is a braille letter
depicting the use of the of the device.
Also, it has different shades of light
for those people with limited sight.
And the users can navigate the mobile phone applications
by the finger over the wheel.
So that was the idea of this project,
but one important part of the project
was to test this idea
with blind children.
I'm very proud to say that this project was created
by our students which are all undergraduate students
from our University, really brilliant students.
And Carlos, over there, was his advisor.
They used the extended design,
centered design
which includes another phase which is the understand phase.
This is a new way to include because
you have to understand very clearly
the importance of the community
and the people with disabilities
in our community.
This project was developed in Oaxaca
in the south of Mexico.
So they did research in which
they talked with organizations
about the limitations, about the people,
about what they are looking for using a mobile phone.
Also they did a study, a very large study
in which they had some instructor interviews with users.
You can see the students were talking to
children, blind children with their needs
about the using of technology.
Those people, as I said,
they have technology in their lives.
They have remote controls for televisions,
they have the use of mobile phones with help of an adult.
So what we wanted to do is to create something to help them
to use the mobile without the help of an adult.
So they created three prototypes which they tested.
The first one, it was very simple, made of wood I believe.
And the idea is for the user to understand the difference,
the significance of the buttons in the device.
The second one, it was a larger device in which
encloses the mobile phone, as you can see,
the mobile phone is into this device
and then the buttons.
I think they did the testing of the buttons
and then they created the final version,
which is a smaller,
more
easier version to use.
So,
in total,
they tried these prototypes with 66 users.
And the results of each of the testing
is in detail in the paper,
so I'll just go very briefly over those.
So the first prototype consisted,
the first testing of the prototype consisted of six tasks
with an effectiveness of 83%.
The second one you see,
the larger one,
had seven tasks and had a result of 92% effectiveness.
I can't say the word, effectiveness.
And finally, in Spanish it's nicer.
(audience laughs)
And finally, the third prototype
which you see it fits all the way up,
it was 97% with seven tasks.
So,
what we learned about using,
making user tests with blind people, with children.
Firstly, maybe this is clear for most of the people,
we need to have authorization.
In our country in Mexico, it's not the first step.
Sometimes you don't get the authorization until the end.
So the first thing,
you need to have the parent's authorization at the beginning
of the tests so the children can carry out the test.
We normally have the parent present
during the test with them.
So there's students, there's the parents
and they're doing some test.
Make the task easy, of course, and appropriate,
avoiding ambiguities.
We're used to do usability testing with people who can see.
So when we try to use
blind people,
we don't use the correct words.
This was a process we learned.
Avoiding ambiguities and be careful
when using certain expressions.
As we said "Oh, can you see this?
"Can you point to this?"
Right, replace them with the correct ones.
Also, we need to take into consideration other senses
to help children complete the task.
Like textures,
like the size of the buttons,
the braille emboss of the symbols.
Normally you don't take those
into consideration but you have to.
The facilitator, which is someone on our team,
asking for the task will have to be more specific
regarding location, where are
the device, what is around
the user
and time.
We have to be very careful about the way in which
the person understands the lapsing of time.
To guide them, to give them the objects
in their hands and to facilitate manipulation.
That looks really
clear and understandable, but sometimes we forget.
So, that's why we're saying.
And make sure to describe in detail the prototype
and the interface, the whole environment
in which the users are and the task to be done.
So normally when we have a user in our lab,
we describe the lab first, "You are sitting in a lab,
"there's a two-way mirror," et cetera, et cetera.
So when you're doing it with a user like this,
we have to describe the entire
environment.
And finally, if there's a technology concept
unfamiliar to the user, we have to be able
to relate that into other technology.
As I describe, the remote control, another mobile phone.
Et cetera, et cetera.
So I think in conclusion,
keep testings interesting and short enough.
The user has to understand what
they're trying to do and be short.
You don't get to get a children's attention span
for more than one hour, maybe.
They are keen to learn and explore by themselves.
I think that's very important,
when the user explores by themselves the device
and then they ask you to perform the task,
the results are better.
So you can see the results of our
effectiveness group
according to the test because we were learning
and relate to other technologies and experiences.
Finally, usability tests must be useful
for the development of the device.
You know that and this is so completely true
in this kind of testing.
So I think that's it, I don't know, time?
- [Proctor] You have time.
- Sorry, so thank you so much, if you have any questions,
I will be happy, Carlos will be happy to answer.
Thank you.
(applauding)
- [Proctor] Time for questions.
We have lots of them.
Scoot a but further, a bit more down,
sorry no, you were not the first.
(laughing)
- Sorry, sorry, we'll let him.
- [Audience Member] Thank you very much.
I have a question about the last item,
that is usability tests.
And when I do usability tests
with children with visual impairment,
usually the standardized questions appear a bit weird.
So, do you have any
inside experience about it and how to adapt questions?
- This is not a competition, this will sound,
look like a competition but it isn't.
When you have a disability, let's say with children,
you have to have at least a script.
We usually have a script
and then when you start working with children,
that script may go somewhere differently for each user.
But we have to have the same questions and the same task
in order to have the complete series of results.
So,
in short, we have a script, we'll try to follow the script
and then we can fill some other questions that we find
interesting at the moment with the user for the prototype.
It was, that was your question?
Awesome, thank you, thank you so much.
- [Audience Member] Thank you, it was very interesting.
A few questions, one,
are you going to make this open source?
And then it looks like 3D printed,
I'm just very curious about that.
And also, are you going to
extend it in other areas in Oaxaca?
Because in your photographs I see that
these are not the poorest areas in there, more
like in the coast.
I don't know if you have been
to the center in Pina Palmera that
gives assistance technology
to very poor populations, so I'm very curious about that.
Three questions sorry.
- Okay,
sorry.
He said that this project has a trademark now,
they want to sell this device.
And regarding to the question about the poorest areas,
those are in Oaxaca, the city of Oaxaca, the capital city.
So you see it is not really the poorest area of,
like the one you mentioned.
- [Audience Member] So you have a plan
to go into the poorest areas of the world?
Because it's very much so...
- He said that
the idea is to sell this device, very cheap.
It won't be free
but the idea is to be
useful for many kind of mobile phones.
- [Audience Member] Okay.
- So they held now the copyright,
so they're trying to find a way to produce this product
and to try further before it reaches the market.
- [Audience Member] Is it 3D printed?
- Sorry?
- [Audience Member] Is it 3D printed or how do you make it?
- Those devices were printed.
But the final one-- - 3D printed?
- I'm not sure. - Yeah, okay.
- Not yet.
- [Audience Member] So you were saying which price?
(audience laughing)
- I don't know, ask him.
Ask him later on the coffee break.
- [Audience Member] You don't want to tell publicly?
- Not yet. - No?
- No, I don't.
It's just for you guys-- - Do you know the price?
- Sorry?
- [Audience Member] Do you know the price at all?
- The price? - Yes.
- No - No?
- You do?
How much? - He knows.
- $40.
- [Audience Member] Okay, thank you.
- $40 U.S.
- Sorry.
- [Ralph] Hello, Ralph Black, University of Dundee.
Thank you very much for the talk,
I love the prototypes and everything.
I was just wondering, have you compared that
to the interfaces for blind users on phones themselves?
Because mobile phones these days
cater quite well for blind users.
So why going the extra mile to design a new interface?
How did that work for the children using the phones
with what's built in the operating system?
- Okay, I will, that I know.
I believe they, I know because I saw that.
They believe that, they did a comparison first
at the very beginning of what was on,
accessibility on mobile phones.
But if you see, this has to do with
voice
and this is about using their hands.
So, because of the competition
was supposed to be like that, they didn't.
But they started with a comparing study.
- [Ralph] Thank you.
- But I think it's in the paper.
- [Ralph] Thanks.
- [Procter] Just one more question.
- [Audience Member] Hi, Watin Ansaloo
from Minnesota State University.
My question is, regarding more the usability test,
you talked about
efficiency, I'm sorry effectiveness.
- Effectiveness.
- [Audience Member] But did you look at efficiency
and I know it's not necessarily studied in
a usability study but what about the user experience?
What did the, I mean 'cause your talking about
testing with children but on top of that children
with visual impairments, so I would imagine maybe
you asked questions about how they felt about
using the device and this kind of piggybacks
on what the previous gentleman was saying
regarding, it was a touch interface.
So how did they feel about it?
- That I also know.
I know there are results for
their user experience and yes, many things.
But I don't think, is that added in the paper?
The complete results?
Yes, the complete results are in the paper.
So yeah, so they're more than just effectiveness.