Usability evaluation of the touch screen and mouse as input devices by people with intellectual disabilities

• Autor(a) principal: Tânia, Rocha
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Outros Autores: Diana, Carvalho, Ramiro, Gonçalves, José, Martins, Frederico, Branco, Maximino, Bessa, Branco, Frederico
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/6010
• topic: Usability Evaluation; Intellectual Disability; Touch Screens; User Tests; e-Inclusion

With this study we aim to assess if the touch screen input device can be a more usable option for digital interaction by people with intellectual disabilities, when compared to a traditional mouse input. In previous studies, we observed that many users with intellectual disabilities struggle to interact with digital content when using traditional input devices, such as the keyboard or mouse. This can lead to a decrease in their motivation to access digital content. Therefore, it is important to evaluate other options, such as touch screens, in order to present a more usable option of interaction for this specific group. For that, we present a case study where the participants were invited to perform primitive selection tasks in a colouring activity, using a painting Web application. The results showed that this group presented a better performance and made less errors when interacting with the touch screen, rather than when compared with the traditional mouse input. We also registered an increase regarding their motivation and satisfaction, when using the touch screen as the input device.