How technology can help visually impaired young adults participate in physical activity

Abstract

Designing new technologies to address daily activities’ issues for visually impaired users can be challenging for design and software development teams. Designers and developers often do not know what design approach to undertake. There is currently no guidance on how to design, test, and evaluate design solutions considering the needs of visually impaired users as well as the application of accessibility, usability, and user experience early in the mobile interaction design. The aim of this research was to identify better ways to design a solution to aid visually impaired young adults to seek information and social support to get more active. This aim was addressed by a practical approach to conduct and learn iteratively from the design process and through the research questions. The research questions investigated how relevant design guidelines can be developed that are appropriate for designers and developers who accessibility experts are not. This applied Design Thinking and Agile UX methodologies as the main approaches to guide the design and development of a minimum viable product for a mobile application. This involved adapting methods and techniques for prototyping, testing, user evaluation, and interview with visually impaired young adults, sports coaches, guides, and volunteers to gain insights from their perspectives about the physical activity experience of visually impaired young adults and the service provision. This informed the app features to improve accessibility, usability, and user experience in the design requirements. An affinity diagram was used in the triangulation analysis of the findings, which contributed to the development of the design guidance for creating mobile apps for visually impaired users. The guidance received positive evaluations from designers, developers, and accessibility specialists, along with valuable suggestions for further improvement. The key findings address what designers and developers need to know about design approaches and considerations for mobile application for visually impaired users. Building a minimum viable product and applying Design Thinking as a mindset throughout the design process enabled a deeper understanding of the needs of visually impaired young adults and the mobile app's context of use. This approach not only guides the development of accessible mobile applications but also helps enhance user experiences by addressing key challenges and exploring potential new features.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Geane De Almeida Fontinele Zadra: orcid.org/0000-0001-5562-2470

ORCID for Yuanyuan Yin: orcid.org/0000-0002-2109-0135

ORCID for Kate Greenwell: orcid.org/0000-0002-3662-1488

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