STS on Designing Non-Visual Interactions with Haptic and Multimodal Interactive Displays
Introduction
While visual and audio user interactions are well researched, and there are well established guidelines, tools, etc., there is still a gap for non-visual design involving the sense of touch, in particular for digital inclusion. Recent advances across a broad range of touch technologies – from surface haptics to multiline pin displays and other tangible devices – provide an opportunity to explore such interactions and design principles. This STS aims to ground itself on the European accessibility project ABILITY1 experience and bring together interdisciplinary researchers, designers or professionals working with haptic and multimodal interfaces. The goal is to gather existing knowledge on how to design the interaction in such systems, test hands-on some examples and to formulate a joint set of guidelines for non-visual UI and UX. We are aiming both to present recent achievements, derive guidance to support participants in the different phases of the design process, and identify gaps in research for future directions. The outcome of the session will be a manifesto outlining those for non-visual and inclusive design, which will be further elaborated into a joint publication with the interested participants after the workshop.
Invitation for contributions
This Special Thematic Session on Designing Non-Visual Interactions with Haptic and Multimodal Interactive Displays is intended for haptic, tangible and HCI researchers, interaction designers and professionals who want to explore and discuss the challenges of designing non-visual touch interactions. In this Special Thematic Session, we welcome presentations addressing research or technical development around designing digital non visual interaction, together with key research challenges and lessons learnt that arise in their work. Topics include, but are not limited to:
- non-visual digital inclusive design, participative design (e.g. targeting the visually impaired people, deafblind users, people with other visual and/or auditory sensory disabilities),
- emerging and innovative assistive technologies relying on haptic, audio, tactile and/or tangible interaction (e.g. surface haptics, pin displays, other tangible displays)
- interfaces or interactions for digital accessibility (e.g. user interactions for accessibility, such as research on zooming / panning or other digital interaction techniques for the visually impaired, alternative communication languages on touch surfaces, etc.)
- artificial Intelligence for the support of non-visual interaction
- interactive displays relying on the combination of various innovative technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence and haptics)
Chairs
The chairs are from various backgrounds (UI/UX, novel technologies and artificial intelligence researchers) and are from the ABILITY consortium, which focuses on developing a haptic tablet for the visually impaired and deafblind relying on emerging technologies such as surface haptics, large pin displays and artificial intelligence.
Sabrina Panëels, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, List, France, sabrina.paneels@cea.fr
Taqwa Saeed, University of Lund, Sweden, taqwa.saeed@design.lth.se
Wilko Heuten, OFFIS, Germany, wilko.heuten@offis.de
Other members of the consortium will serve as a co-organisers of the workshop:
Lucie Pantera, Université Paris-Saclay, CEA, List, France, lucie.pantera@cea.fr
Charlotte Magnusson, University of Lund, Sweden, charlotte.magnusson@design.lth.se
Kirsten Rassmus-Gröhn, University of Lund, Sweden, kirsten.rassmus-grohn@design.lth.se
Mazen Salous, OFFIS, Germany, mazen.salous@offis.de
Amélie Galcera, H-Lab, France, amelie.galcera@h-lab.fr
- Haptic tablet for the accessibility of digital content to the visually impaired. Online: https://www.abilityproject.eu/ ↩︎