Calculator for Blind & Low Vision Children – UX Design Exercise
CHALLENGE
Children who are blind or have low vision in the United States face very specific challenges in everyday life. The least of which is learning curriculum on par with fully sighted students despite sub-standard tools and technology. According to the 2013 Federal Census, there are over 60,000 “students” (from infancy through postsecondary) in public schools registered with the American Federation of the Blind which means they are blind or have low vision. Of this number, 5,200 are Braille ‘readers’, 5,000 are auditory ‘readers’ and 10,000 are pre-readers. This project will target these 20,000+ students.
Calculators for the blind do exist, however all are generally rectangular, basic designs that appear to be standard calculators. Keys and displays may be larger and most offer audible feedback when a key is pressed. Unfortunately, an opportunity to teach and reinforce Braille to blind and low-vision young students is missed. Further, standard traditional calculators aren’t particularly inviting or fun to use and decrease a child’s motivation to want to learn.
PAIN POINTS
A blind student would find a standard calculator to be useless. Without the aid of audible feedback, there is no possibility to track input or output. Indistinguishable keys are unrecognizable to the novice user and are a bottleneck to the experienced user. Displays are typically too small and not contrasted enough for low-vison users. The units themselves are not built to withstand a fall of a few feet. The functionality stops at standard calculations which do not invite longer use. Lastly, traditional calculators are designed to be boring and bland.
SOLUTION
Design a bold, inviting and fun calculator for blind and low-vision kids that utilizes audible feedback, Braille touch keys, over-sized, full-color display, a chunky, rounded case and includes activities to engage users.
PERSONAS
Ben the Spaceman
Age: 6
Defining Characteristics: Male, blind. energetic, curious, positive.
Academics: Pre-reader, average intelligence, specialized instruction.
Who I Am: I am a curious, excitable young student showing interest in learning to read Braille. I love trying new things and enjoy new ‘techy’ devices like screen readers and accessible websites.
Motivations: I want to learn to read because I want to experience books and stories on my own. I like school especially when my teacher brings me a new tech device. I love learning Braille but wish there could be more learning ‘games’. I want to be an astronaut when I grow up.
Frustrations: Most of the devices I have used are boring. The voices on those devices don’t sound human and make me want to go to sleep. My teacher says I need to be good at math if I want to go into space but I don’t like or understand our calculator.
Ana the Explorer
Age: 8
Defining Characteristics: Female, outgoing and mild-tempered. Low vision.
Academics: Very reliant on voice and auditory feedback from her computer and phone. Utilizes large print but would definitely prefer to have things in an auditory way. Has used an abacus for math.
Who I Am: I don’t mind trying new things, but I always go back to what I am comfortable with. I have a lot of friends who I text with on my phone.
Motivations: I love to listen to books – especially ones about other places. I want to travel when I grow up and then be a teacher so I can help other kids explore the world too.
Frustrations: I don’t really see a point to using my magnifier – and definitely do not understand why I need to learn Braille.
Celia the Social Butterfly
Age: 10
Defining Characteristics: Female, blind, friendly
Acedemics: Cognitively delayed, non-reader
Who I Am: I am a sociable kid who enjoys being around others. I relate best to people through touch and like to hold hands with my aide when we walk to class. My aide tries to help me pay attention more in school.
Motivations: I want to learn new things and share them with my friends. I also want to try to pay attention more to my aide and teacher. I love to feel things that are bumpy, slippery or smooth.
Frustrations: Everything takes too long ! I don’t have patience to wait for answers. Also, I don’t remember how to do things sometimes (ie what order I do them in).
IDEATION
• Inviting, hand-held item that engages User with tactile, auditory feedback through practical functionality as well as game-play.
• All keys have tactile Braille overlays in addition to corresponding traditional characters to teach students.
• Include haptic (vibrating buttons) feedback, individual key lighting and audible voice when pressing any key.
• All input, spoken or keyed in, would be repeated audibly with a friendly human voice. Settings can select voice feature to turn on or off.
• Intelligent database could answer spoken questions using IBM Watson API (internet connection required): ‘What is 516 x 27?’, ‘What is it like on Jupiter?’, ‘Where is the rainiest place on Earth?’, ‘How do you say pizza in Spanish?’.
• Appearance is attractive to young Users: chunky, brightly colored, soft rubber case with grippy contact points.
• Display is relatively large, full-color LCD offering bright contrast and animation.
• Game play includes ‘Simon Says’ where a sequence of buttons is randomly generated as ‘pushes’, meaning a voice, light and haptic vibration that can then be repeated by the User.
• Simple Quizzes to reinforce Braille-specific learning with the keys.
• Number Guesser requires a User to drill down to a random, specific number using numeric clues.
• Play and record a tune using Music feature that responds to sequence of keys pushed or follow a programmed combination of keys to produce a tune.
USABILITY STORYBOARD
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
