Ferramenta auditiva 3D (audio binaural): desenvolvimento de um protótipo para o estudo da satisfação das pessoas com deficiências visuais na interação com interfaces digitais (smartphones)

Abstract

Understanding satisfaction in performing user tests for evaluating digital interfaces is essential, as it signals the emotions felt during the interaction, providing relevant information for the development of new systems and interfaces. In this sense, the inclusion of people with visual impairments in these tests is an indispensable point, since it is a public that has been enjoying a lot of information and communication technologies and, have expanded their participation in the social and digital environment. Understanding the characteristics, peculiarities, difficulties and expectations of this group are, therefore, essential points so that designers can serve them better and develop more accessible products. It is in this perspective that this research proposes the development of a tool for collecting satisfaction data in 3D binaural auditory format, whose purpose is to expand the participation of people with visual impairments in tests with users in the evaluation of digital interfaces. For the development of this tool, the methodological steps of the research were divided into four, based on the methodology of participatory design: the first step is the initial exploration of the work, in which the researcher's familiarization with the participants occurs through a conversation circle. and semi-structured interviews; the second is the discovery, when the process is initiated in order to know the opinions and difficulties of users when using smartphones, and in the use of tools that assess satisfaction in tests with users, in meetings in the format of workshops and focus groups. The tools used were the SUS (System Usability Scale) questionnaire, widely used in usability tests, transcribed for Braille and the Onomatopoeic Tool, which is an auditory tool that uses onomatopoeia. The third stage is prototyping, when together with volunteer participants the tool was developed, in meetings in the form of workshops and semi-structured interviews. Finally, the fourth step was pre-validation, when the tool was evaluated in a test with users with and without visual impairments. The results achieved in this research include the identification of some barriers encountered by the visually impaired in the use of smartphones, the main ones being the absence of reading of images by the screen reader, the absence of system feedback and the size of the screen. Other result includes the difficulties of this audience in interacting with the existing tools used to understand satisfaction and emotions in tests with users. It was identified in the use of the SUS questionnaire the difficulty of handling the questionnaires in braille, and the inconsistency in the use of some terms; in relation to the Onomatopoeic Tool, there was a lot of difficulty in identifying emotions. As for the development of the prototype proposed in the research, the main result, achieved in the pre-validation, explained that the use of 3D binaural audio helps in the choice of options, since the direction of the sound refers to an auditory scale and improves the identification of emotions. Thus, it was understood that the 3D Hearing Tool is effective to assess the satisfaction of users with visual impairments, enabling greater participation of this audience in usability tests.