User requirements gathering stage of VICON project complete
Monday, 24 May 2010
CFIT has just completed the first stage of a European project called VICON: Virtual User Concept for Supporting Inclusive Design of Consumer Products and User Interfaces.
CFIT researcher, Antoinette Fennell, spent April and May interviewing 23 Dublin-based volunteers ranging from 65 to 91 years of age about their experiences – both positive and negative – of two every-day products: the washing machine and the mobile phone.
Equivalent research was carried out by our project partners in the UK and Germany, so we now have feedback from approximately 60 people in three different countries.
Using the information collected during the interviews, and in particular focusing on the key issues that people reported with the products, VICON aims to develop a Virtual User Model: a set of computer-generated characters that simulate humans. The movement and behaviour of these virtual humans can be programmed in such a way to mimic varying levels of impairment in vision, hearing and manual dexterity. In theory, a designer could test and improve the accessibility of a product before it is even prototyped!
VICON also gives CFIT the opportunity to work directly with product designers and manufacturers, to communicate accessibility information to them, and hopefully to influence future designs of mainstream products.
VICON is an EU-funded project including the following lead partners: University of Bremen (BIBA and TZI), Fraunhofer FIT, DORO, ARCELIK, RNID - Royal National Institute for the Deaf and NCBI’s CFIT. Further information can be found on the project website at: www.vicon-project.eu