This experiment examines the effect that computer experience and various combinations of feedback (auditory, haptic, and/or visual) have on the performance of older adults completing a drag-and-drop task on a computer. Participants were divided into three computer experience groups, based on their frequency of use and breadth of computer knowledge. Each participant completed a series of drag-and-drop tasks under each of seven feedback conditions (three unimodal, three bimodal, one trimodal). Performance was assessed using measures of efficiency and accuracy. Experienced users responded well to all multimodal feedback while users without experience responded well to auditory-haptic bimodal, but poorly to haptic-visual bimodal feedback. Based on performance benefits for older adults seen in this experiment, future research should extend investigations to effectively integrate multimodal feedback into GUI interfaces in order to improve usability for this growing and diverse user group.
This experiment examines the effect of combinations of feedback (auditory, haptic, and/or visual) on the performance of older adults completing a drag-and-drop computer task. Participants completed a series of drag-and-drop tasks under each of seven feedback conditions (3 unimodal, 3 bimodal, 1 trimodal). Performance was assessed using measures of efficiency and accuracy. For analyses of results, participants were grouped based on their level of computer experience. All users performed well under auditory-haptic bimodal feedback and experienced users responded well to all multimodal feedback. Based on performance benefits for older adults seen in this experiment, future research should extend investigations to effectively integrate multimodal feedback into GUI interfaces in order to improve usability for this growing and diverse user group.
This experiment examines the effect of combinations of feedback (auditory, haptic, and/or visual) on the performance of older adults completing a drag-and-drop computer task. Participants completed a series of drag-and-drop tasks under each of seven feedback conditions (3 unimodal, 3 bimodal, 1 trimodal). Performance was assessed using measures of efficiency and accuracy. For analyses of results, participants were grouped based on their level of computer experience. All users performed well under auditory-haptic bimodal feedback and experienced users responded well to all multimodal feedback. Based on performance benefits for older adults seen in this experiment, future research should extend investigations to effectively integrate multimodal feedback into GUI interfaces in order to improve usability for this growing and diverse user group.
Through an investigation of how the performance of people who have normal visual capabilities is affected by unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal feedback, this research establishes a foundation for presenting effective feedback to enhance the performance of individuals who have visual impairments. Interfaces that employ multiple feedback modalities, such as auditory, haptic, and visual, can enhance user performance for individuals with barriers limiting one or more channels of perception, such as a visual impairment. Results obtained demonstrate the effects of different feedback combinations on mental workload, accuracy, and performance time. Future, similar studies focused on participants with visual impairments will be grounded in this work.
Multimodal interfaces have the potential to enhance a user's overall performance, especially when one perceptual channel, such as vision, is compromised. This research investigated how unimodal, b/modal, and trimodal feedback affected the performance of fully sighted users. Limited research exists that investigates how fully sighted users react to multimodal feedback forms, and to-date even less research is available that has investigated how users with visual impairments respond to multiple forms of feedback. A complex direct manipulation task, consisting of a series of search and selection drag-and-drop subtasks, was evaluated in this study. The multiple forms of feedback investigated were auditory, haptic and visual. Each form of feedback was tested alone and in combination. User performance was assessed through measures of workload and time. Workload was measured objectively and subjectively, through the physiological measure of pupil diameter and a portion of the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) workload survey, respectively. Time was captured by a measure of how long it took to complete a particular element of the task. The results demonstrate that multimodal feedback improves the performance of fully sighted users and offers great potential to users with visual impairments. As a result, this study serves as a baseline to drive the research and development of effective feedback combinations to enhance performance for individuals with visual impairments.
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