A Usability Study of Nomon: A Flexible Interface for Single-Switch Users
Name
bonaker-nbonaker-meng-eecs-2023-thesis.pdf
Description
Thesis PDF
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3.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
1c99f2de025529959c080d38291c5c92
Author(s)
Bonaker, Nicholas Ryan
Advisor(s)
Broderick, Tamara
Date Issued
September 2023
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Many individuals with severe motor impairments communicate via a single switch—which might be activated by a blink, facial movement, or puff of air. These switches are commonly used as input to scanning systems that allow selection from a 2D grid of options. Nomon is an alternative interface that provides a more flexible layout, not confined to a grid. Previous work suggests that, even when options appear in a grid, Nomon may be faster and easier to use than scanning systems. However, previous work primarily tested Nomon with non–motor-impaired individuals, and evaluation with potential end-users was limited to a single motor-impaired participant. We provide a usability study following seven participants with motor impairments and compare their performance with Nomon against a row-column scanning system. Most participants were faster with Nomon in a picture selection task, while entry rates varied more in a text-entry task. However, we found participants had to click more times per selection using Nomon, motivating future research into mitigating this increased click load. All but one participant preferred using Nomon; most reported it felt faster and had better predictive text.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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