Investigating accessibility issues of UI mobile design patterns in online communities: a virtual ethnographic study

With the dissemination of mobile devices and the migration of activities that were once executed only on desktop computers to smartphones and tablets, the concerns related to accessibility in this environments have increased. However, the accessibility impact of mobile interface design patterns in the life of disabled people has not been widely addressed in academic works. At the same time, the community of mobile designers and developers has made significant advances in identifying accessibility issues with design patterns on mobile interfaces, reporting these findings in virtual spaces of discussions as forums, blogs, etc. Aiming at exploring the experiences and knowledge of professionals, this paper presents an ethnography study in 18 virtual communities of mobile design and development with the goal of identifying issues on the accessibility of Android mobile UI design patterns. As a result, we analyzed 127 documents in order to propose recommendations to improve the accessibility of mobile interfaces.

[1]  Christine Strauss,et al.  Web accessibility implementation in private sector organizations: motivations and business impact , 2014, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[2]  Lyn Richards,et al.  Using NVIVO in Qualitative Research , 1999 .

[3]  Jorge Ribeiro,et al.  Web design patterns for mobile devices , 2012 .

[4]  Raymond M. Lee,et al.  The SAGE handbook of online research methods , 2008 .

[5]  Martyn Hammersley,et al.  Ethnography : Principles in Practice , 1983 .

[6]  B. Nardi,et al.  Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method , 2012 .

[7]  A. Strauss,et al.  Grounded Theory in Practice , 1997 .

[8]  Erik G. Nilsson.  Design patterns for user interface for mobile applications , 2009, Adv. Eng. Softw..

[9]  Shawn Lawton Henry,et al.  Essential components of mobile web accessibility , 2013, W4A.

[10]  Lourdes Moreno,et al.  Accessibility to Mobile Interfaces for Older People , 2013, DSAI.

[11]  Melanie Birks,et al.  Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide , 2011, QMiP Bulletin.

[12]  K. Charmaz,et al.  Constructing Grounded Theory , 2014 .

[13]  Jan Gulliksen,et al.  Universal design, inclusive design, accessible design, design for all: different concepts—one goal? On the concept of accessibility—historical, methodological and philosophical aspects , 2014, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[14]  Helen Sharp,et al.  The Role of Ethnographic Studies in Empirical Software Engineering , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[15]  Steven Hoober,et al.  Designing Mobile Interfaces , 2011 .

[16]  T. Shakespeare,et al.  Editorial , 2011, Disability and rehabilitation.

[17]  Shawn Lawton Henry,et al.  Understanding Web Accessibility , 2006 .

[18]  W. Frontera.  The world report on disability. , 2012, American journal of physical medicine & rehabilitation.

[19]  Silvia Amélia Bim,et al.  Digital Accessibility: Systematic Review of Papers from the Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computer Systems , 2016, IHC.

[20]  Danah Boyd,et al.  Profiles as Conversation: Networked Identity Performance on Friendster , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[21]  Dongsong Zhang,et al.  Color adaptation for improving mobile web accessibility , 2014, 2014 IEEE/ACIS 13th International Conference on Computer and Information Science (ICIS).

[22]  Toni Granollers,et al.  Accessibility Evaluation of Design Patterns on Moodle Mobile , 2016 .

[23]  Frank Heidmann,et al.  A comparison of location search UI patterns on mobile devices , 2014, MobileHCI '14.

[24]  Shawn Lawton Henry,et al.  The role of accessibility in a universal web , 2014, W4A.

[25]  Mike Jones,et al.  Responsive Web Design , 2012 .

[26]  Mireia Ribera,et al.  Impact of Accessibility Barriers on the Mood of Blind, Low-vision and Sighted Users , 2013, DSAI.

[27]  C. Hine.  Virtual Ethnography: Modes, Varieties, Affordances , 2008 .

[28]  Jorge Ribeiro,et al.  Design and Evaluation of a Mobile User Interface for Older Adults: Navigation, Interaction and Visual Design Recommendations , 2013, DSAI.

[29]  Juliana Cristina Braga,et al.  Mobile device accessibility for the visually impaired: problems mapping and recommendations , 2018, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[30]  Giorgio Brajnik,et al.  Beyond Conformance: The Role of Accessibility Evaluation Methods , 2008, WISE Workshops.

[31]  A. Strauss,et al.  Grounded theory , 2017 .

[32]  George Allan,et al.  A critique of using grounded theory as a research method , 2003 .

[33]  Paula Alexandra Silva,et al.  Target and spacing sizes for smartphone user interfaces for older adults: design patterns based on an evaluation with users , 2012 .

[34]  Kevin F. Steinmetz.  Message Received: Virtual Ethnography in Online Message Boards , 2012 .