Knowledge of interaction design, is important for how the final use is going to look like, when developing new information systems or other IT artifacts. When developing IT products for people with disabilities, it is even more important with good interaction design for the user to feel meaningful and worthwhile to use the product.
This master thesis amounts to study participative design, with methods primarily inspired from the interaction design field, when developing IT aids for people with disabilities. Materials for this study is taken from work with a practical design project, which form a design example and therefore is a part of the result. This design project has been done together with a user called Boris and also with his (at the moment working) personal assistant.
In the design process I have been studying Boris´ situation, which is a bit special, since Boris is blind and unable to move. Since there is no given problem to solve in this design project, much of the time is put on this particular phase, to collect information about Boris, his situation and interests. For this, methods inspired from among others Cultural Probes, has been used.
From collected materials about the user it appeared that there was an interest about books and the possibility for Boris to be able to read ordinary paper books. By means of methods like Scenarios and Interaction Relabelling, two design proposals were outlined. These proposals has been prototyped and discussed together with Boris and his assistant.
The work with the design project, together with Boris, turned out to be working very well. You can however not say on a scientific basis how the result would have been by comparison with a design project where non participative methods have been used, since a project like that haven’t been made for this particular case. By applying methods with a high degree of user participation, an understanding has still been made for the user and his situation. The users opinion has been taken under consideration, which I believe has been very valuable when designing the final design proposals. The practical design process that serve as a resulting design example for this thesis, also demonstrate that special methods are needed for special target groups. Many of today’s methods in interaction design therefore needs modifications and further development to fit these target groups.
The report is written in Swedish.
Complete Thesis as PDF
List of Master Theses in Interaction Design
interaction design | chalmers
