User Centred Method to Design a Platform to Design Augmentative and Alternative Communication Assistive Technologies

TL;DR

This paper presents a user-centered co-design methodology for developing an online platform, WebSoKeyTo, aimed at improving the design process of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) assistive technologies through collaboration between therapists and researchers.

Contribution

It introduces a novel co-design approach involving therapists and HCI researchers to create an AAC design platform, emphasizing usability and iterative development.

Findings

Initial evaluation revealed poor usability of existing AAC design tools.

Collaborative phases included focus groups, brainstorming, and prototyping.

Evaluation of WebSoKeyTo is currently underway.

Abstract

We describe a co-design approach to design the online WebSoKeyTo used to design AAC. This co-design was carried out between a team of therapists and a team of human-computer interaction researchers. Our approach begins with the use and evaluation of an existing SoKeyTo AAC design application. This step was essential in the awareness and definition of the needs by the therapists and in the understanding of the poor usability scores of SoKeyTo by the researchers. We then describe the various phases (focus group, brainstorming, prototyping) with the co-design choices retained. An evaluation of WebSoKeyTo is in progress.