The interaction experiences of visually impaired people with assistive technology: A case study of smartphones

Abstract Globally, the number of visually impaired people is large and increasing. Many assistive technologies are being developed to help visually impaired people, because they still have difficulty accessing assistive technologies that have been developed from a technology-driven perspective. This study applied a user-centered perspective to get different and hopefully deeper understanding of the interaction experiences. More specifically, this study focused on identifying the unique interaction experiences of visually impaired people when they use a camera application on a smartphone. Twenty participants conducted usability testing using the retrospective think aloud technique. The unique interaction experiences of visually impaired people with the camera application, and relevant implications for designing assistive technologies were analyzed. Relevance to industry The considerations for conducting usability testing and the results of this study are expected to contribute to the design and evaluation of new assistive technologies based on smartphones.