Mobile interface design for low-literacy populations

Abstract

Despite the proliferation of mobile health applications, few target low literacy users. This is a matter of concern because 43% of the United States population is functionally illiterate. To empower everyone to be a full participant in the evolving health system and prevent further disparities, we must understand the design needs of low literacy populations. In this paper, we present two complementary studies of four graphical user interface (GUI) widgets and three different cross-page navigation styles in mobile applications with a varying literacy, chronically-ill population. Participant's navigation and interaction styles were documented while they performed search tasks using high fidelity prototypes running on a mobile device. Results indicate that participants could use any non-text based GUI widgets. For navigation structures, users performed best when navigating a linear structure, but preferred the features of cross-linked navigation. Based on these findings, we provide some recommendations for designing accessible mobile applications for varying-literacy populations.