Week 2: Universal Usability

This week we looked at universal usability, the idea that we could make technology accessible and usable for everyone in society, regardless of culture, language, impairment, etc. The concept was pioneered by the computer scientist Ben Schneiderman and is now a huge area of research in the HCI field. Universal usability is in fact an incredibly challenging task (in fact I think true universal usability may be impossible). For example since symbols are almost always culture/language specific, how do we create symbols that everyone relates the same semantics to? Also how do blind users understand the 2D/3D space of a system interface? One interesting possibility for blind people is multimodal technology. Research has shown that through the use of a head mounted camera and a touch simulator on the back or tongue, the visually impaired user is able to represent visual information tactically, a truly interesting feat that demonstrates an incredible possibility for technology, and more incredibly the adaptiveness of the human mind. It seems to me that the best way to achieve universal usability is simplicity in design and transparency between the user and interface. No user should have to think about how to use technology; it should come to them like an instinctive sense. Technology such as haptics and Direct Brain Interface are surely then important areas of research!