Inclusive Design

Niamh Gleeson & Aaron Doyle

Fuel Friend & what it is…Incl. diagram of product

Overview

Introduction Definition of Inclusive Design Reason for the chosen area/product

Background Research User Groups

Problems

Solutions

Literature Application to Everyday Life

IntroductionEveryday products for everyday people

“Inclusive design applies an understanding of customer diversity to the design of mainstream products to better satisfy the needs of more people” (Inclusive Design Toolkit, 2011).

Inclusive Factors Inclusion of potentially isolated groups

Those with literacy difficulties Help to counteract possible everyday stressors,

e.g. finances/budgetsEconomic downturn Mental health & anxiety

Background Research

Use of Qualitative research methods in initial stages of research Questionnaire Phone Interview

Proposed Research Methods Interviews – passenger perspective Focus Group – Local Literacy Groups -NALA Survey, e.g. on the types of icons used

Design of Questionnaire - NALA

PersonaPaddy is in his early 70’s and has basic literacy skills, he left school and started work at 15 on the home farm. He has difficulty in understanding large amounts of text. He’s able to medicate the animals, due to his father showing him ways of measuring the dosage without reading the bottle. Paddy has difficulty with small print and often asks his neighbour to read out new information on his medication. He often puts this information into iconic format or symbols, so that he can easily understand it.Due to difficulties in the agricultural sector and his age, Paddy finds it hard to walk across the fields on a daily basis, however he also finds the price of diesel costly and is reluctant to use the tractor when travelling through the fields.He has adapted to using a Smartphone, as it enables him to learn and understand information through icons.Fuel Friend can assist Paddy with many daily stressors, like helping him budget for fuel he uses prior to undertaking his daily routine and keeping a log of it. It would also allow him to gain more understanding of minimalist text when using icons.

The Experts’ OpinionsNational Adult Literacy Agency

Difficulties with literacy groups Fluctuating Profile

Difficult to include everyoneVarying degrees of literacy difficulties“One Size Does Not Fit All”

Not all members have reading and writing difficulties

Advice Keep text to a minimum The use of generic icons very beneficial to those with

literacy difficulties Easier to understand

Focus Research around Specific Areas Targeting hard to reach groups in the local area e.g. men

and older adults Assists in breaking the participation barrier for these

groups WWW.WRITEON.IE

Evaluated annually This Approach could be taken toward Fuel Friend –

utmost benefit to users

The Experts’ Opinions

Focus Group Gain User Perspective Help break barriers into participation

Call out/Assist participants with questions Keep test to a minimum – interactive questionnaire

Proposed Research Methods Interviews – passenger perspective Focus Group – Local Literacy Groups -NALA Survey, e.g. on the types of icons used

NALA

NALA Research Findings

IALS (1997) Study showed in Ireland 1 in 4 working adults had problems with

the simplest of literacy tasks 500,000 were found to be at or below literacy 1 of a 5 level scale e.g.

print on medicine packaging Another 30% of Irish adults were at level 2, meaning they could cope

with very simple material Public shocked at these findings Only official document of literacy trends in Ireland Follow up of research opted out of by government Government did however opt in to PIAAC in 2000 Fuel Friend can help break barriers to allow these isolated groups

become more included and involved when creating new technologies

NALA Research Findings

PIAAC (Profile of adult literacy learners in Ireland 2000 – 2009)

Almost 200% increase in the number of literacy participants over the period 2000-2008 (17,150 to 49,962).

Proportion of participants with Level 1 literacy has dropped slightly

Proportion of early school leavers (>16 years) dropped slightly.

Comparison of VECs’ referral networks and marketing strategies to participant profile to help establish best practices moving forward.

Apply principles of Fuel Friend research e.g. Marketing strategies; benefits of using generic icons in communication

Previous Research & Designs

GasBuddy: An android application that finds cheap fuel prices from a database of petrol stations. More than 22million people have downloaded it. Has a corresponding website and frequent updates.

Previous Research and Designs

Logo on above slide is clean and crisp with good contrast of colour. Screenshot(right) is easy to read and navigate.

GasBuddy does not however have a future- orientated function. The product we areproposing does.

Gas Hog, Gas Cubby, FuelFinder, iGasUp,TripTik, Waze, Route4me, & c. all offersimilar uses, but, again, none to date havehad a future-orientated function.

*Research Findings

User Group & Trends

Word Cloud

Psychological Literature

Research suggests that economic circumstances are negatively associated with individual’s mental health and well-being.

Zivin, Paczkowski and Galea (2010) • Economic downturn and population mental

health• Results consistently demonstrated that

economic crises are negatively associated with population mental health.

Fuel Friend Alleviates stressors Prior budgetary planning Inputted information retained in a diary format

Easily retrieved

Support from other research which suggests that the area of financial satisfaction is very important to people

Vera-Toscano, Ateca-Amestoy and Serrano-Del-Rosal (2006) reviewed research on Financial Satisfaction (FS) Results showed that it provided

strong arguments that FS is a specific domain of satisfaction with life.

Again Fuel Friend can help users gain satisfaction from forward planning and budgeting, while also alleviating stress factors

Diagrams of Data

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 140

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Vehicles per Household

Participant Number

Num

ber

of V

ehic

les

Diagrams of Data

Petrol61%

Diesel39%

Diesel vs. Petrol

Further Research

Hallmark, Sperry and Mudgal (2011) Fuel economy of hybrid-electric school buses Found significant difference in the hybrid school

buses vs. control buses Implications of study:

Very little information about actual on-road fuel consumption or costs is available

Hybrid bus much more costly than conventional bus (initially)

Fuel Friend Acts as a intervention for costs Suggests most economic route Budgeting and forward planning

Potential Issues with Design

o Bad colour contrasto Accidental plagiarismo Unnecessary and/or over use of semioticso Not inclusive enougho Usability (complexity)o Navigation issues

Feasibility of Design

Constant and quick updates to ever changing fuel costs Vehicle database Detailed maps and routes

References

Hallmark, S., Sperry, B., & Mudgal, A. (2011). In-Use Fuel Economy of Hybrid-Electric School Buses in Iowa. In Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association: 61, 504 –

510.

Inclusive Design Toolkit. (2011).

Retrieved from: http://www.inclusivedesigntoolkit.com/betterdesign2/whatis/whatis.html#p30

Vera-Toscano, E., Ateca-Amestoy V., & Serrano-Del-Rosal, R. (2006). “Building Financial Satisfaction.” In Social Indicators Research: 77 (2), 211-243.

Zivin, K., Paczkowski, M., & Galea, S. (2011). “Economic downturns and population mental health: research findings, gaps, challenges and priorities.” In Psychological

Medicine: 41, 1343-1348.