Issues in the User Interface Design of a Content Rich Vocational Training Application for Digitally Illiterate Users
This paper discusses our preliminary experiences in the design of a user interface of a computerized content-rich vocational training courseware meant for users with little or no computer experience. In targeting a growing population with limited access to skills training of any sort, we faced numerous challenges, including language and cultural differences, resource limits, gender boundaries and, in many cases, the simple lack of trainee motivation. With the size of the unskilled population increasing much more rapidly than the numbers of sufficiently skilled teachers, there is little choice but to develop teaching techniques that will take advantage of emerging computer-based training technologies. However, in striving to serve populations with minimal computer literacy, one must carefully design the user interface to accommodate their cultural, social, educational, motivational and other differences. Our work, which uses computer based and haptic simulation technologies to deliver training to these populations, has provided some useful insights on potential user interface design approaches.
[1] C. K. Basu, and S. Majumdar. "The role of ICTs and TVET in rural
development and poverty alleviation." International Handbook of
Education for the Changing World of Work. Springer Netherlands, 2009,
pp. 1923-1934.
[2] J. Karade. Development of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in
India. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
[3] A. Mitra. Informal economy: Training and skill formation for decent
working the informal sector: case studies from South India, International
Labor Office, 2002.
[4] N. Akshay, K. Sreeram, A. Anand, R. Venkataraman, Rao R. Bhavani,
"MoVE: Mobile Vocational Education For rural India”, In Technology
Enhanced Education (ICTEE), 2012 IEEE International Conference on,
pp. 1-5. IEEE, 2012.
[5] A. Chand. "Designing for the Indian rural population: Interaction design
challenges." Development by Design Conference. Vol. 4. 2002.
[6] I. Medhi, A. Sagar, and K. Toyama. "Text-free user interfaces for
illiterate and semi-literate users." In Information and Communication
Technologies and Development, 2006. ICTD'06. International
Conference on, IEEE, 2006. pp. 72-82.
[7] I. Medhi, A. Prasad, and K. Toyama. "Optimal audio-visual
representations for illiterate users of computers." In Proceedings of the
16th international conference on World Wide Web, ACM, 2007. pp.
873-882.
[8] M. P. Huenerfauth, "Developing design recommendations for computer
interfaces accessible to illiterate users." 2008.
[9] T. Parikh, K. Ghosh and A. Chavan. "Design studies for a financial
management system for micro-credit groups in rural india." In ACM
SIGCAPH Computers and the Physically Handicapped, ACM, 2003. no.
73-74, pp. 15-22.
[10] M. Kam, A. Mathur, A. Kumar and J. Canny. "Designing digital games
for rural children: a study of traditional village games in India." In
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing
systems, ACM, 2009. pp. 31-40.
[11] M. Jones, W. Harwood, G. Buchanan and M. Lalmas. "Storybank: an
indian village community digital library" In Proceedings of the 7th
ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries, ACM, 2007. pp.
257-258.
[12] I. Medhi, S. Patnaik, E. Brunskill, S. N. Gautama, W. Thies and K.
Toyama. "Designing mobile interfaces for novice and low-literacy
users." ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI),
2011. vol.18:1, no. 2.
[13] B. Bhavani, Srividya Sheshadri, R. Unnikrishnan. "Vocational education
technology: rural India." In Proceedings of the 1st Amrita ACM-W
Celebration on Women in Computing in India, p. 21. ACM, 2010.
[14] N. Akshay, S. Deepu, E. S. Rahul, R. Ranjith, J. Jose, R. Unnikrishnan,
Rao R. Bhavani, “Design and Evaluation of a Haptic Simulator for
Vocational Skill Training and Assessment”, IECON 2013-39th Annual
Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. IEEE, 2013.
[15] D. S. Katre. “Unorganized Cognitive Structures of Illiterate as the Key
Factor in Rural eLearning Design”, I-Manager’s Journal of Education
Technology, March 2006, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 67-71.
[1] C. K. Basu, and S. Majumdar. "The role of ICTs and TVET in rural
development and poverty alleviation." International Handbook of
Education for the Changing World of Work. Springer Netherlands, 2009,
pp. 1923-1934.
[2] J. Karade. Development of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in
India. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
[3] A. Mitra. Informal economy: Training and skill formation for decent
working the informal sector: case studies from South India, International
Labor Office, 2002.
[4] N. Akshay, K. Sreeram, A. Anand, R. Venkataraman, Rao R. Bhavani,
"MoVE: Mobile Vocational Education For rural India”, In Technology
Enhanced Education (ICTEE), 2012 IEEE International Conference on,
pp. 1-5. IEEE, 2012.
[5] A. Chand. "Designing for the Indian rural population: Interaction design
challenges." Development by Design Conference. Vol. 4. 2002.
[6] I. Medhi, A. Sagar, and K. Toyama. "Text-free user interfaces for
illiterate and semi-literate users." In Information and Communication
Technologies and Development, 2006. ICTD'06. International
Conference on, IEEE, 2006. pp. 72-82.
[7] I. Medhi, A. Prasad, and K. Toyama. "Optimal audio-visual
representations for illiterate users of computers." In Proceedings of the
16th international conference on World Wide Web, ACM, 2007. pp.
873-882.
[8] M. P. Huenerfauth, "Developing design recommendations for computer
interfaces accessible to illiterate users." 2008.
[9] T. Parikh, K. Ghosh and A. Chavan. "Design studies for a financial
management system for micro-credit groups in rural india." In ACM
SIGCAPH Computers and the Physically Handicapped, ACM, 2003. no.
73-74, pp. 15-22.
[10] M. Kam, A. Mathur, A. Kumar and J. Canny. "Designing digital games
for rural children: a study of traditional village games in India." In
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing
systems, ACM, 2009. pp. 31-40.
[11] M. Jones, W. Harwood, G. Buchanan and M. Lalmas. "Storybank: an
indian village community digital library" In Proceedings of the 7th
ACM/IEEE-CS joint conference on Digital libraries, ACM, 2007. pp.
257-258.
[12] I. Medhi, S. Patnaik, E. Brunskill, S. N. Gautama, W. Thies and K.
Toyama. "Designing mobile interfaces for novice and low-literacy
users." ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI),
2011. vol.18:1, no. 2.
[13] B. Bhavani, Srividya Sheshadri, R. Unnikrishnan. "Vocational education
technology: rural India." In Proceedings of the 1st Amrita ACM-W
Celebration on Women in Computing in India, p. 21. ACM, 2010.
[14] N. Akshay, S. Deepu, E. S. Rahul, R. Ranjith, J. Jose, R. Unnikrishnan,
Rao R. Bhavani, “Design and Evaluation of a Haptic Simulator for
Vocational Skill Training and Assessment”, IECON 2013-39th Annual
Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. IEEE, 2013.
[15] D. S. Katre. “Unorganized Cognitive Structures of Illiterate as the Key
Factor in Rural eLearning Design”, I-Manager’s Journal of Education
Technology, March 2006, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 67-71.
@article{"International Journal of Business, Human and Social Sciences:65328", author = "Jamie Otelsberg and Nagarajan Akshay and Rao R. Bhavani", title = "Issues in the User Interface Design of a Content Rich Vocational Training Application for Digitally Illiterate Users", abstract = "This paper discusses our preliminary experiences in the design of a user interface of a computerized content-rich vocational training courseware meant for users with little or no computer experience. In targeting a growing population with limited access to skills training of any sort, we faced numerous challenges, including language and cultural differences, resource limits, gender boundaries and, in many cases, the simple lack of trainee motivation. With the size of the unskilled population increasing much more rapidly than the numbers of sufficiently skilled teachers, there is little choice but to develop teaching techniques that will take advantage of emerging computer-based training technologies. However, in striving to serve populations with minimal computer literacy, one must carefully design the user interface to accommodate their cultural, social, educational, motivational and other differences. Our work, which uses computer based and haptic simulation technologies to deliver training to these populations, has provided some useful insights on potential user interface design approaches.
", keywords = "User interface design, digitally illiterate, vocational training, navigation issues, computer human interaction, human factors.", volume = "7", number = "10", pages = "2688-6", }
