Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  "I Hear the Pattern" - Interactive Sonification of Geographical Data Patterns (09 Jan 2005) The two new interfaces were tested with two completely blind subjects and one low vision subject. All are keyboard users and never used a tablet before. Simulated 5-category data was used to create 5 types of patterns (vertical strip, horizontal strip, diagonal strip, cluster, and no pattern) on maps. An example of monotonic diagonal strip and cluster patterns is shown in Figure 2(c) and Figure 3(b) respectively. In the study, subjects explored the data, described the pattern perceived, reported their current locations on the map when inquired, and answered questions regarding the map geography and their experience with the interfaces. The study shows that the two completely blind users were able to recognize patterns on both familiar and unknown maps in both interfaces. They were also able to gain geographical knowledge about unknown maps through exploration using only a keyboard or a smooth surface touch tablet. For the low vision user, seeing the overall shape of the map and simple patterns was possible but he only perceived 3 shades of color instead or 5. While his residual vision provided an overview, he thought that “the sound is helpful in augmenting what I can see” and “it is especially helpful for small areas or when the map is small”. We will continue user testing with more blind users but this pilot study has already provided useful insights. In our previous studies with sighted users, subjects’ knowledge about the map has caused significant difference in pattern recognition performance. The blind users in this study did equally well in pattern recognition with both familiar and unknown maps. In fact, they were able to quickly learn new maps in the two interfaces and use the newly acquired knowledge to help constructing their mental images. Article URL: ftp://ftp.cs.umd.edu/pub/hcil/Reports-Abstracts-Bibliography/2004-35html/2004-35.htm Read 62 more articles from University Of Maryland sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: AppLens and LaunchTile: Two Designs for One-Handed Thumb Use on Small Devices     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy