Usability Evaluation of the MOST Mobile Assistant (SlatTalker)

The goal of the MOST project is to develop a novel, inexpensive, easy-to-use digital talking device for blind and visually impaired users based on off-the-shelf handheld computers (Personal Digital Assistant). The device provides a novel user interface based on a simple menu system and Braille text input, and a range of application programs to support everyday tasks, including clock, notepad, phone and short messaging, email. This paper reports on the usability evaluation of the device, its strategy and implementation, and shows that our approach results in an easy to learn and use system with input speed comparable to sighted users.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Information Systems, Pannon University, Veszprem, Hungary

   Zoltan Juhasz, Gabor Bognar & Emil Mogor

2. KFKI RMKI Laboratory of Speech Technology for Rehabilitation, Budapest, Hungary

   Andras Arato, Laszlo Buday & Norbert Markus

3. Speech Technology Kft., Budapest, Hungary

   Gergely Eberhardt, Zoltan Nagy & Terez Vaspori

Editors and Affiliations

1. Institut Integriert Studieren, Johannes Kepler Universität, Altenbergerstraße 69, 4040, Linz, Austria

   Klaus Miesenberger

2. Studienzentrum fuer Sehgeschaedigte, Universitaet Karlsruhe (TH), Germany

   Joachim Klaus

3. fortec - Research Group on Rehabilitation Technology, Institute integrated study, Vienna Univ. of Technology, Favoritenstr. 11/029, A 1040, Vienna, Austria

   Wolfgang L. Zagler

4. The Universal Math Access Lab, University of San Francisco, 281 Masonic San Francisco, 94117, CA, USA

   Arthur I. Karshmer

Reprints and permissions

© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Policies and ethics