HCI 2015
International

Monday, 3 August 2015, 14:00 - 17:30

Simeon Keates (short bio)
Faculty of Engineering and Science, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom

Objectives:

The objective of this tutorial is to introduce and explore how interaction science can contribute to the design and development of effective solutions for universal access. Many standard models of user behaviour and performance are based on young adult populations and consequently do not represent wider, more heterogeneous user groups, such as older adults and people with disabilities. This tutorial will explore the differences in user populations and how the standard models can be adapted and applied to the wider set of real-world users. 

Content and Benefits:

This tutorial will cover the basics and introduce more advanced aspects of interaction science. user-centred design and universal access. We will explore how they are fundamentally related and also their application in real-world situations.

It is widely accepted in principle that both user-centred design and universal access are essential for the development of products that are both usable and accessible by the widest possible range of users. However, in all design processes, it is necessary that quantifiable and verifiable measures of success are established. Fundamentally, we need to know whether a design solution actually works how it is intended to. In the case of universal access for human-computer interaction, such measures are usually derived from interaction metrics.

There are standard measures of user performance, but these have often been validated and calibrated against very homogeneous users populations. These models can often be applied to wider users populations, but need careful handling when doing so.

In this tutorial, we will examine the role of a number of these models and metrics, and how they have been adapted successfully to other population sets, including older adults and people with severe motor impairments.

The case studies will include the design and evaluation of a wide range of both hardware and software, including kiosks, robots, websites and the next generation of television and broadcast media. 

Target Audience:

The tutorial is designed for anyone with an interest in universal access and accessibility, from academic researchers to practitioners attempting to develop accessible solutions.

Relevant Links and Bibliography:

• Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
• Inclusive Design
• Webanywhere
• Inclusive Design Toolkit
• British Standards Institute (2005) BS 7000 Part 6: Guide to managing inclusive design
• Patrick Jordan (1998) An introduction to usability. Taylor & Francis, London
• Simeon Keates and John Clarkson (2003) Countering design exclusion: An introduction to inclusive design. Springer-Verlag, London
• Simeon Keates (2007) Designing for accessibility: A business guide to countering design exclusion. CRC Press, Mahwah, NJ
• Jakob Nielsen (1994) Usability engineering. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA

Bio Sketch of Presenter:

Professor Simeon Keates is Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor in the Faculty of Engineering and Science at the University of Greenwich. He was formerly Chair of HCI and Head of School of Engineering, Computing and Applied Mathematics at the University of Abertay Dundee and Associate Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, where he lectured in the Design and Digital Communication study line. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he also worked as an Industrial Research Fellow in the Engineering Design Centre.

After leaving Cambridge, he moved to the US and joined the Accessibility Research Group at the IBM TJ Watson Research Center before moving to Boston and working at ITA Software (now part of Google) as a Usability Lead designing interfaces for Air Canada.

Simeon also has an extensive history of consultancy, with clients including Royal Mail, the US Social Security Administration, the UK Department of Trade and Industry, Danish Broadcasting Corporation (Danske Radio) and Lockheed Martin.