World Wide Web Resources
2.4 Personality Differences
Some people are eager to use computers and mobile devices, while others find them frustrating. Even people who enjoy using these technologies may have very different preferences for interaction styles, pace of interaction, graphics versus tabular presentations, dense versus sparse data presentation, and so on. A clear
understanding of personality and cognitive styles can be helpful in designing interfaces for diverse communities of users.
One evident difference is between men and women, but no clear pattern of gender-related preferences in interfaces has been documented. While the majority of video-game players and designers are young males, some games (such as The Sims™, Candy Crush Saga, and Farmville) draw ample numbers of female players. Designers can get into lively debates about why many women prefer certain games, often speculating that women prefer less violent action and quieter soundtracks. Other conjectures are that women prefer social games, characters with appealing
personalities, softer color patterns, and a sense of closure and completeness. Can these informal conjectures be converted to - measurable criteria and then validated?
Turning from games to productivity tools, there is also a range of reactions to violent terms such as KILL a process or ABORT a program. These and other potentially unfortunate mismatches
thoughtful attention to individual differences among users.
Unfortunately, there is no simple taxonomy of user personality types.
A popular, but controversial, technique is the Big Five Test, based on the OCEAN model (Wiggins, 1996): Openness to
Experience/Intellect (closed/open), Conscientiousness
(disorganized/organized), Extraversion (introverted/extraverted), Agreeableness (disagreeable/agreeable), and Neuroticism
(calm/nervous). There are hundreds of other psychological scales, including risk taking versus risk avoidance; internal versus external locus of control; reflective versus impulsive behavior; convergent versus divergent thinking; high versus low anxiety; tolerance for stress; tolerance for ambiguity, motivation, or compulsiveness; field dependence versus independence; assertive versus passive
personality; and left- versus right-brain orientation. As designers explore computer applications for the home, education, art, music, and entertainment, they may benefit from paying greater attention to personality types. Consumer-oriented researchers are especially aware of the personality distinctions across market segments, so as to tune their advertising for niche products designed for tech-savvy youngsters versus family-oriented parents.
Another approach to personality assessment is by studying user behavior. For example, some users file thousands of e-mails in a well-organized hierarchy of folders, while others keep them all in the inbox, using search strategies to find what they want later. These distinct approaches may well relate to personality variables, giving
designers the clear message that multiple requirements must be satisfied by their designs.
Diversity
Another perspective on individual differences has to do with cultural, ethnic, racial, or linguistic background (Quesenbery and Szuc, 2011; Marcus and Gould, 2012; Salgado, 2012). Users who were raised learning to read Japanese or Chinese will scan a screen differently from users who were raised learning to read English or French. Users from reflective or traditional cultures may prefer interfaces with stable displays from which they select a single item, while users from action-oriented or novelty-based cultures may prefer animated screens and multiple clicks. Preferred content of webpages also varies; for example, university home pages in some cultures emphasize their impressive buildings and respected
professors lecturing to students, while others highlight student team projects and a lively social life. Mobile device preferences also vary across cultures that lead to rapidly changing styles in successful apps, which may include playful designs, music, and game-like features.
More and more is being learned about computer users from different cultures, but user experience designers are still struggling to
establish guidelines that are appropriate across multiple languages and cultures (Sun, 2012; Pereira and Baranauskas, 2015). The growth of a worldwide computer and mobile device market means
that designers must prepare for internationalization. Software architectures that facilitate customization of local versions of user interfaces offer a competitive advantage (Reinecke and Bernstein, 2013). For example, if all text (instructions, help, error messages, labels, and so on) is stored in files, versions in other languages can be generated with little or no additional programming. Hardware issues include character sets, keyboards, and special input devices.
User-interface design concerns for internationalization include the following:
Characters, numerals, special characters, and diacriticals
Left-to-right versus right-to-left versus vertical input and reading Date and time formats
Numeric and currency formats Weights and measures
Telephone numbers and addresses
Names and titles (Mr., Ms., Mme., M., Dr.)
Social Security, national identification, and passport numbers Capitalization and punctuation
Sorting sequences
Icons, buttons, and colors
Pluralization, grammar, and spelling
Etiquette, policies, tone, formality, and metaphors
The list is long and yet incomplete. Recent studies of consumer use show performance and preference differences for information
density, animation, cute characters, eagerness for timely updates, incentives for social participation, and game-like features. Whereas
the current highly competitive atmosphere means that more effective localization may produce a strong advantage. To develop effective designs, companies run usability studies with users from different countries, cultures, and language communities.
The role of information technology in international development is steadily growing, but much needs to be done to accommodate the diverse needs of users with vastly different language skills and technology access. To promote international efforts to foster successful implementation of information technologies,
representatives from around the world meet regularly for the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society. They declared their
desire and commitment to build a people-centered, inclusive and development- oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The plan calls for applications to be “accessible to all, affordable, adapted to local needs in languages and culture, and [to] support sustainable development.” The UN Sustainability Development Goals include eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; reduce child mortality; combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; and ensure environmental sustainability. Information and
communications technologies can play important roles in developing the infrastructure that is needed to achieve these goals (Fig. 2.2 ).
Figure 2.2
Designing for cellphones can open the door to a wider audience (Medhi et al., 2011), for example, in developing countries where feature phones often are the only way to access the internet, literacy may be an issue, and users have very low monthly limits on the data volume they can use.
When digital content and services can be flexibly presented in
different formats, all users benefit (Horton and Quesenbery, 2014).
However, flexibility is most appreciated by users with disabilities who now can access content and services using diverse input and output devices. Blind users may utilize screen readers (speech output such as JAWS or Apple’s VoiceOver) or refreshable braille displays, while low-vision users may use magnification. Users with hearing
impairments may need captioning on videos and transcripts of audio, and people with limited dexterity or other motor impairments may utilize speech recognition, eye-tracking, or alternative keyboards or pointing devices (Fig. 2.3 ). Increasingly, especially on Apple products, these alternate forms of input or output are integrated into technology out of the box (other laptops, tablets, and smartphones have add-on screen reader and magnification capability, and a small number of laptops have built-in eye tracking).
There is a long history of research on how users with perceptual or motor impairments (such as those described above) interact with technology, and research on intellectual or cognitive impairments is now also increasing (Blanck, 2014; Chourasia et al., 2014). In some cases, people with intellectual impairments
Figure 2.3
A young man uses a wheelchair-mounted augmentative
communication and control device to control a standard television.
New universal remote console standards can allow people to use communication aids and other personal electronics as alternate interfaces for digital electronics in their environments (http://
trace.wisc.edu).
need transformation of content, but in other cases, no modifications or assistive technologies are needed. Designing for accessibility helps everyone. The same captioning on video that is utilized by users with hearing impairments is also used by users watching video in noisy locations, such as gyms, bars, and airports. Many
accessibility features help with graceful presentation of content in multiple formats, allowing for flexibility in presentation on small
output. As users are increasingly on the go and experience
“situational impairments,” these accessibility features help all users, who may be in situations where they cannot see their screen (e.g., they are driving a car) or cannot play audio out loud (e.g., on a plane).
For interfaces to be accessible for people with disabilities, they generally need to follow a set of design guidelines for accessibility.
The international standards for accessibility come from the Web Accessibility Initiative, a project of the World Wide Web Consortium.
The best-known standards are the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG); the current version is WCAG 2.0 (since 2008, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/). There are also other guidelines such as the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) for
developer tools and the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) for browsers. Other guidelines, such as EPUB3, exist for ebooks.
Because WCAG 2.0 is the best-known, best-understood, and most- documented set of accessibility guidelines in the world, there is a companion guide, known as Guidance on Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies
(WCAG2ICT), for utilizing WCAG concepts in non-web technologies (Cunningham, 2012).
These concepts of digital accessibility are not new. The first version of WCAG came out in 1999, and captioning of video has existed for more than 30 years. The accessibility features are not technically hard to accomplish. WCAG requires, for instance, that all graphics
have ALT text describing the image, that a webpage not have
flashing that could trigger seizures, that tables and forms be marked up with appropriate labels (such as first name, last name, street address instead of FIELD1, FIELD2, FIELD3) to allow for
identification. Another WCAG requirement is that all content on a page can be accessed even if you cannot use a pointing device through keyboard access. Creating accessible digital content is simply good coding, and it doesn’t change, in any way, how information is visually presented.
Similar concepts apply for creating accessible word-processing documents, presentations, and PDF files—appropriate labeling and descriptions ensure that a document or presentation will be
accessible. Multiple approaches for accomplishing a task allow for successful task completion for a diverse population of users. Even when properly utilizing guidelines such as WCAG 2.0, it is a good idea to evaluate for success by usability testing with people with disabilities, expert reviews, and automated accessibility testing.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines form the basis for many of the laws and regulations around the world. Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act in the United States requires that when the federal government develops, procures, maintains, or uses electronic and information technology, that technology must be accessible for
employees and members of the general public who have disabilities.
This applies to procurement of both hardware and software
technology as well as ensuring that websites are accessible (Lazar and Hochheiser, 2013; Lazar et al., 2015).
and the U.S. Department of Justice, also requires accessibility of state and local government websites as well as those of private companies and organizations that are considered “public
accommodations” (stores, museums, hotels, video rental, etc.). The U.S. Department of Justice is also enforcing accessibility of websites and instructional materials at universities. Lawsuits such as those against Target, Netflix, Harvard University, and MIT highlight the increasing importance and expectations of digital accessibility.
The European Union Mandate 376 (http://www.mandate376.eu/) will require procurement and development of accessible technologies by EU governments and will coordinate with U.S. Section 508, utilizing WCAG 2.0 and enabling developers to easily satisfy both U.S. and EU legal requirements. Prior to EU Mandate 376, many European countries, such as the UK, Italy, and Germany, and other countries around the world, including Australia and Canada, also had
information technology accessibility requirements. The coverage (only government technology or also public accommodations), required reporting requirements, and penalties for noncompliance differ from country to country.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/
conventionfull.shtml), an international human rights agreement, also addresses accessible technology. Article 9 of the CRPD calls upon countries to “Promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems,
including the Internet,” and article 21 encourages countries to
“[provide] information intended for the general public to persons with disabilities in accessible formats and technologies appropriate to different kinds of disabilities.”
Accessibility is a core feature of contemporary information systems, baked into development from the start. Programmers who follow coding standards and guidance from WCAG 2.0 add minimal cost in development yet provide valuable services to all users. By contrast, implementers who seek to retrofit for accessibility find that their effort is much greater (Wentz et al., 2011).
Increasingly, a person’s economic success depends on equal access to digital content and services. University classes take place online, job postings are made online, and job applications must be
submitted online. Prices are often lower when using a company website instead of calling the company on the phone. When people with disabilities have equal access to digital content and services, they have access to the full range of economic opportunities. The good news is that computer scientists, software engineers,
developers, designers, and user experience professionals have the opportunity, through good design, appropriate coding standards, and proper testing and evaluation, to ensure equal access.
Seniority offers many pleasures and all the benefits of experience, but aging can also have negative physical, cognitive, and social consequences. Understanding the human factors of aging can help designers to create user interfaces that facilitate access by older adult users (Fig. 2.4 ). The benefits include improved chances for productive employment and opportunities to use writing, e-mail, and other computer tools plus the satisfactions of education,
entertainment, social interaction, and challenge (Newell, 2011;
Czaja and Lee, 2012). Older adults are particularly active
participants in health support groups. The benefits to society include increased access to older adults, which is valuable for their
experience and the emotional support they can provide to others.
Figure 2.4
HomeAssist is an assisted living platform for older adults installed in homes is Bordeaux, France. The tablet is used to show alerts (e.g., when the front door was left opened) and reminders but also to run a slide show of photographs when not in use (http://phoenix.inria.fr/
research-projects/homeassist).
The National Research Council’s report Human Factors Research Needs for an Aging Population describes aging as
. . . Average visual and auditory acuity decline considerably with age, as do average strength and speed of response. . . . [People experience] loss of at least some kinds of memory function, declines in perceptual flexibility, slowing of “stimulus encoding,” and increased difficulty in the acquisition of complex mental skills, . . . visual functions such as static visual acuity, dark adaptation, accommodation, contrast sensitivity, and peripheral vision decline, on average, with age. (Czaja, 1990)
This list has its discouraging side, especially since older adults may have multiple impairments, but many older adults increasingly
experience only moderate effects, allowing them to be active participants, even throughout their nineties.
The further good news is that interface designers can do much to accommodate older adult users (Chisnell et al., 2006). Improved user experiences give older adults access to the beneficial aspects of computing and network communication, thus bringing many societal advantages. How many young people’s lives might be enriched by e-mail access to grandparents or great-grandparents?
How many businesses might benefit from electronic consultations with experienced older adults? How many government agencies, universities, medical centers, or law firms could advance their goals from easily available contact with knowledgeable, older adult
citizens? As a society, how might we all benefit from the continued creative work of older adults in literature, art, music, science, or philosophy?
As the world’s population ages, designers in many fields are
adapting their work to serve older adults, which can benefit all users.
Baby boomers have already begun to push for larger street signs, brighter traffic lights, and better nighttime lighting to make driving safer for drivers and pedestrians. Similarly, desktop, web, and mobile devices can be improved for all users by providing users with control over font sizes, display contrast, and audio levels. Interfaces can also be designed with easier-to-use pointing devices, clearer
navigation paths, and consistent layouts to improve access for older adults and every user (Hart et al., 2008; Czaja and Lee, 2012).
Considering older and disabled users during the design process often produces novel designs (Newell, 2011), such as ballpoint pens (for people with impaired dexterity), cassette tape recorders (for blind users to listen to audiobooks), and auto-completion software (to
reduce keystrokes). Texting interfaces that suggest words or web- address completion were originally designed to ease data input for older and disabled users but have become expected conveniences or all users of mobile devices and web browsers. These
conveniences, which reduce cognitive load, perceptual difficulty, and motor control demands, become vital in difficult environments, such as while traveling, injured, stressed, or under pressure for rapid correct completion. Similarly, subtitles (closed captioning) and user- controlled font sizes were designed for users with hearing and visual difficulties, but they benefit many users.
Researchers and designers are actively working on improving interfaces for older adults (Czaja and Lee, 2012). In the United States, the AARP’s Older Wiser Wired initiatives provide education for older adults and guidance for designers. The European Union
older adults.
Networking projects, such as the San Francisco–based SeniorNet, are providing adults over the age of 50 with access to and education about computing and the Internet “to enhance their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom” (http://
www.seniornet.org/). Computer games are attractive for older adults, as shown by the surprising success of Nintendo’s Wii, because they stimulate social interaction, provide practice in sensorimotor skills such as eye-to-hand coordination, enhance
dexterity, and improve reaction time. In addition, meeting a challenge and gaining a sense of accomplishment and mastery are helpful in improving self-image for anyone.
In our experiences in bringing computing to two residences for older adults, we also encountered residents’ fear of computers and belief that they were incapable of using computers. These fears gave way quickly after a few positive experiences. The older adults, who
explored e-mail, photo sharing, and educational games, felt quite satisfied with themselves and were eager to learn more. Their newfound enthusiasm encouraged them to try automated bank machines and supermarket touchscreen kiosks. Suggestions for redesigns to meet the needs of older adults (and possibly other users) also emerged—for example, the appeal of high- precision touchscreens compared with the mouse was highlighted (Chapter 10 ).