Usability Study of Tactile and Voice Interaction Modes by People with Disabilities for Home Automation Controls

TL;DR

This study compares tactile and voice interaction modes for home automation control among disabled users, highlighting the need for multimodal interfaces and environment adaptation to improve usability and accessibility.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into the usability of tactile and voice controls for disabled users, emphasizing the importance of multimodality and customization.

Findings

Both interfaces are easy to learn

Usefulness and ease of use need improvement

Multimodal interaction is essential for accessibility

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative usability study on tactile and vocal interaction modes for home automation control of equipment at home for different profiles of disabled people. The study is related to the HIP HOPE project concerning the construction of 19 inclusive housing in the Toulouse metropolitan area in France. The experimentation took place in a living lab with 7 different disabled people who realize realistic use cases. The USE and UEQ questionnaires were selected as usability tools. The first results show that both interfaces are easy to learn but that usefulness and ease of use dimensions need to be improved. This study shows that there is real need for multimodality between touch and voice interaction to control the smart home. This study also shows that there is need to adapt the interface and the environment to the person's disability.