A Sign Language Self-Report Instrument for Research on Emotional User Experience

The motivation of proposing an instrument to collect self-report of D/deaf persons’ emotions after interacting with technology was the evidence of the non-existence of emotional experience data collection instruments suitable for autonomous use by D/deaf persons who are sign language users. In this paper, we report findings from a user study, where a focus group was conducted with five D/deaf participants to collect their perceptions about the three instrument prototypes to self-report emotional experience. Our goal with this work was to learn the potential users’ perspectives about the instrument to ensure a proper development based on the evaluation of the three design alternatives. From the participants’ feedback on the instrument, we identified four main potential gaps to improve: video quality, language choice, written labels and user control. Regarding the research technique with a group of sign language users, we perceived a pressing relevance of including Sign Language Community members as collaborators in the research team.