A heuristic-based approach for assessing usability in electric powered wheelchairs: A preliminary investigation

Q3 Medicine

Rehabilitacion Pub Date : 2023-12-22 DOI:10.1016/j.rh.2023.100831

L.R. Borges, A. Abreu Rosa de SÁ, E.L.M. Naves

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective

An important issue related to electric powered wheelchair (EPW) is usability. Recent studies did not use heuristic evaluation and did not consider users’ and developers’ participation in the usability evaluation process of the EPW, especially when it has to be driven using alternative commands. Thus, this study investigates the use of heuristics to evaluate the usability of EPW driven by alternative commands, considering the opinion of users and assistive technology (AT) development professionals.

Methods

The study was carried out with 54 participants: 28 EPW users (Group I) and 26 AT developers (Group II). We built a set of 25 heuristics that affects EPW usability. Participants rated each of the 25 heuristics according to their importance for the usability of EPW using the five-point Likert scale. We used the R Software to perform the Wilcoxon Mann–Whitney test as a statistical comparisons test between Group I and II.

Results

The results showed a statistically significant difference (p < 0.05) between Group I and II in the evaluation of 16 heuristics. We identified an important set of heuristics that could help evaluate and improve the usability of EPW.

Conclusion

The findings highlighted the importance of considering users’ and developers’ points of view in developing an EPW and its evaluation criteria. It could help the design of the device match the user's needs and expectations. The set of heuristics in this study can be adapted to evaluate other devices’ usability using the heuristic evaluation approach.

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基于启发式的电动轮椅可用性评估方法：初步调查

目的：电动轮椅（EPW）的一个重要问题是可用性。最近的研究没有使用启发式评估，也没有考虑用户和开发人员在电动轮椅可用性评估过程中的参与，尤其是当电动轮椅必须使用替代指令驱动时。因此，本研究考虑到用户和辅助技术（AT）开发专业人员的意见，对使用启发式评估替代命令驱动的 EPW 的可用性进行了调查：本研究有 54 名参与者：28 名 EPW 用户（第一组）和 26 名辅助技术开发人员（第二组）。我们建立了一套影响 EPW 可用性的 25 种启发式方法。参与者使用五点李克特量表对 25 种启发式方法中的每一种方法对 EPW 可用性的重要性进行评分。我们使用 R 软件对第一组和第二组进行了 Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney 检验：结果表明，第一组和第二组之间存在显著的统计学差异（p）：研究结果强调了在开发 EPW 及其评估标准时考虑用户和开发人员观点的重要性。这有助于设计出符合用户需求和期望的设备。本研究中的启发式评估方法可用于评估其他设备的可用性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Rehabilitacion Medicine-Rehabilitation

CiteScore

0.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： La revista que es desde hace más de 40 años la publicación oficial de la Sociedad Española de Rehabilitación y referente de la mayoría de las Sociedades de la Especialidad de los países americanos de habla hispana. Se publican 5 números pluritemáticos al año y uno monográfico sobre un tema del mayor interés y actualidad designado por el consejo de redacción.