Spindex (Speech Index) Improves Auditory Menu Acceptance and Navigation Performance

Abstract

Users interact with mobile devices through menus, which can include many items. Auditory menus have the potential to make those devices more accessible to a wide range of users. However, auditory menus are a relatively new concept, and there are few guidelines that describe how to design them. In this paper, we detail how visual menu concepts may be applied to auditory menus in order to help develop design guidelines. Specifically, we examine how to optimize the designs of a new contextual cue, called "spindex" (i.e., speech index). We developed and evaluated various design alternatives for spindex and iteratively refined the design with sighted users and visually impaired users. As a result, the "attenuated" spindex was the best in terms of preference as well as performance, across user groups. Nevertheless, sighted and visually impaired participants showed slightly different responses and feedback. Results are discussed in terms of acoustical theory, practical display design, and assistive technology design.

Comparative Evaluation of Sighted and Visually Impaired Subjects using a Mobile Application for Reducing Veering during Blindfolded Walking

“…Following this, the test was repeated. Figure 5 shows the directions and the numbering of the runs (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8). A 40-meter long track was selected for walking, and if subjects walked off the path 0.75 meters to the left or right, the experiment was stopped.…”

“…Loss of vision affects all areas of everyday life, including activities such as (safe) navigation and entertainment. Assistive devices have been developed and introduced to the blind community for many years, focusing on different problems such as reading (text-to-speech applications), navigation (Electronic Travel Aids [2][3][4][5]), and user interfaces for movement in computer environments and through menu structures [6][7][8][9], etc.…”

A Survey on Hardware and Software Solutions for Multimodal Wearable Assistive Devices Targeting the Visually Impaired

“…These speech-like sounds, including spearcons, spemoticons, spindexes, lyricons, etc. are a type of tweaked speech sound, which uses part of the speech or the combinations of speech and other sounds [56][57][58][59][60][61]. Spindexes are a predesigned prefix set and can be automatically added to speech items.…”

“Spindex” (Speech Index) Enhances Menus on Touch Screen Devices with Tapping, Wheeling, and Flicking

“…The most well-known types of enhancement cues are categorized as auditory icons [Gaver 1986], earcons [Blattner et al 1989], and spearcons . In addition to these, a new concept, the spindex [Jeon and Walker 2011], has recently been introduced.…”

“…The benefits of such auditory displays have been demonstrated in a wide range of different applications, from systems for blind people [Edwards 1989;Jeon and Walker 2011;Kane et al 2008;Raman 1997] to mobile devices [Brewster and 14:2 M. Jeon et al Cryer 1999; Brewster et al 1998;Jeon and Walker 2011;Klante 2004;Leplâatre and Brewster 2000;Li et al 2008;Palladino and Walker 2007Pirhonen et al 2002;Vargas and Anderson 2003;Zhao et al 2007], and ubiquitous/wearable computers [Brewster et al 2003;Sawhney and Schmandt 2000;Wilson et al 2007]. Despite much explorative and empirical research, auditory displays have not yet developed a generic, robust theory compared to visual displays, such as visual menu navigation [Norman 1991] or visual search theory [Treisman and Gelade 1980;Treisman and Gormican 1988].…”