Aug 25 - Hubert, Accessibility and Usability Guidelines for Mobile Devices

Rita Hubert. Accessibility and usability guidelines for mobile device in home health monitoring.
Pace University, School of Computer Science and Information Systems, White Plains, New York, USA. E-mail: huberr9@yahoo.com
ACCESSIBILITY AND COMPUTING. Number 84, Jan 2006. pg 26-29 ACM.


This research develops a guideline of accessibility and usability for the multimodal home-based mobile medical monitoring devices used by older adults. Field studies are used to evaluate the quantitative visualization, errors, input and time factors. Additionally, qualitative studies using surveys and interviews focus on customer satisfaction. The findings of the study will form the accessibility and usability guideline. We anticipate that this usability guideline could be used as the foundation for the design and testing of future mobile medical devices used in the home.

Wireless and cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and wireless laptop computers have become a standard part of our daily lives. This trend toward more mobile and wearable devices will continue to increase in the coming years with more mobile devices in the home, in the workplace, in the automobile and on the person. As these devices become a part of our everyday lives, we need to assure that these devices are easy to learn, easy to use and easy to remember. The key to the successful adaptation of these devices is accessibility and usability.

The study and testing of the accessibility and usability of mobile devices by older adults
is important because these devices offer new challenges:
• The smaller size of the mobile devices
• The lighter weight of the devices
• Various input methods
o Buttons
o Touch screens
o Pen based tap
o Voice
• The smaller screens
o Smaller buttons
o Readability
• The form and features of the devices’ communication to the user
• The satisfaction of the users

The goal of this research is the study of usability and accessibility of home health monitoring devices used by older adults and the subsequent development of a guideline for their design and testing. This guideline should provide developers and testers with validated criteria for the assurance that the mobile devices are designed and tested with consideration to the special needs of the older adult.

The semi-structured questionnaires indicate that the older adults studied have a high level of satisfaction with the home health monitoring device and auditory interaction. However, the standard instructions and data entry buttons present a usability and accessibility challenge which is being further studied in this dissertation research.

My comments: Rita Hubert wrote this research paper in the midst of her PhD research program.

Action: Look for Rita Hubert's completed PhD dissertation. Look for other works by Rita Hubert.