©2008 IBM Corporation Personalizing the User Interface of a Web Browsing Tool Takuya Ohko, Reiko Nagatsuma, Shinji Iizuka, Masakazu Takizawa, Takuji Wada, Takashi Saito (Speaker) IBM Accessibility Center, IBM Research - Tokyo, Japan

©2010 IBM Corporation 2 Accessibility Center Expanding to “human ability” “Disabilities” are no longer confined to traditional definitions, especially with growing need to embrace multi-generational and multi-cultural populations. World population: 6 Billion* Worldwide Number Disabled: ~1 Billion (16%)*

©2010 IBM Corporation 3 Outline  What’s Easy Web Browsing (E W B) ?  Efforts on expanding target users  Issues  Personalization of UI  Conclusion

©2010 IBM Corporation 4 IBM Easy Web Browsing TM – a Web Browsing Tool An assistive technology which provides user-friendly operations and accessibility features that enable a variety of end users to easily access Web sites. Uneasy to read for … - Small fonts - Inappropriate color combinations - Long articles Various barriers on the Web Read aloud at the location pointed with the mouse Customizable the background and text colors Enlarge the pointed text here E W B Target Users: Seniors, people with low vision, novice users, …

©2010 IBM Corporation 5 Efforts to provide features for target users and others EWB V1 EWB V2 EWB Next Ruler Highlight/Masking Read out Magnify Color changing Ruby for Kanji Line Height Colored overlay Writing assist New Succeed Enhanced Feature Color blindness Amblyopia IT beginner Foreigner Children Seniors Dyslexia other learning disabilities *1. Takizawa et al.: CSUN *2. Nagatsuma et al.: CSUN *1*1 *2*2 Target user Seniors

©2010 IBM Corporation 6 E W B V1  Large buttons  Basic features  Setting panel for all the feature parameters

©2010 IBM Corporation 7 E W B V2  More features  Sub setting panels for each feature category  One collective setting panel Reported in Takizawa et al.: CSUN 2008.

©2010 IBM Corporation 8 E W B V2 with new features for LD  New features for LD  More panels  More parameters * Nagatsuma et al.: CSUN 2009.

©2010 IBM Corporation 9 Features for dyslexia Ruler Masking Reading out Word spacing Ruby Line spacing Colored Overlay Word separation ふじ さん 富 士 山 富 士 山富 士 山 IBM Easy Web Browsing IBM Easy Web Browsing --- 岸に小さな学校がありました。 Letter spacing Easy Web Browsing is an easy-to-install software package that can help you The quick brown fox jumps over IBM Easy Web Browsing The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog IBM Easy Web Browsing I B M E a s y W e b B r o w s i IBM Easy Web Browsing

©2010 IBM Corporation 10 Comments by trial users with LD Each feature is really good for us! But …. “It is troublesome to go through so many steps only to turn on and off the feature, because I want to do that frequently.” (might be caused by short-term memory) “Please show only my favorite features on the control panel.” “Features should be laid out most effectively for me, since there is a possibility of pushing invalid buttons if many buttons are shown at once.” (might be caused by distracting layouts) Personalization is required, and it would be also good for conventional users. (These issues are not unique to LD people.)

©2010 IBM Corporation 11 What is the key issue? Expanding target users Enhancement of features Increase complexity Essential to have a flexible UI

©2010 IBM Corporation 12 Diverse requirements from diverse users  Conventional users Conventional features –Color blindness, I T beginner, elderly people … Old PC platforms Keeping same usability as before  New users, potential or prospective users New features –Dyslexia, other learning disabilities … New PC platforms Attractive appearance

©2010 IBM Corporation 13 Design points of the new UI  Personalizable Button Layout Features are selectable on the panel by users. Some basic features are kept at fixed places.  One-feature One-button One feature is allocated to one button, and also the setting panel is allocated to one button.  Understandable Button Descriptions of buttons are provided to users in various ways: Label/Icon/Tooltip/TTS/Description field/Help  E W B Compatibility The basic concept is pursued from prior versions of E W B, “Easy-to-use by large & simple buttons”

©2010 IBM Corporation 14 Conclusion Target users of a Web browsing tool, E W B, have been expanded by enriching features for each user group. Key issue behind is how to incorporate diverse user groups without losing easy-to-use concept.  An approach to UI personalization (User-initiated personalization) was presented. We are planning to perform evaluations thru pilots. Personalization by integrating user-initiated & system- initiated schemes is a next topic to investigate.