CASE STUDY - WEB GAME APP
ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
2013 - 2014
PROJECT OVERVIEW
I conducted this qualitative research with the collaboration of Tohum Autism Foundation and Istanbul Technical University Institute of Science and Technology.
It is about the design and implementation of a special purpose game-like software for autistic individuals to help in treating some of their main weaknesses like face memorizing and facial expression interpreting.
Our motivation to choose this topic was to contribute to the translation of autism disease with a visual language by designing a game-like software. Computers are one of the suitable windows for autistic people to look through to the real world. Different experiments proved that the computer-based approach was more efficient in teaching ASD children new words, and it was able to motivate them much more than a teacher- based approach.[1]
In this sense, my classmate, Naseem and I decided to conduct this UX research study by following the steps below:
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Literature review: Autism condition and treatment methods
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Creating Personas and User Tasks
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Selection of the methodology and technique
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Low-fidelity and High-fidelity prototyping
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A usability testing session at Tohum Autism Foundation
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Analysing results and final discussion drawing insights
GOAL AND OBJECTIVE
One of the major challenges in this study was communication with the target user in order to gather user requirements since the autistic people have impairment in social communication, the alternative was to meet their special education teachers to gather the required data [2].
Autistic individuals are not on the same level of ability or disability of perception, thinking, and acting, so the design should meet each case, so it should be a user-driven application where it will adapt to each user abilities.
The face is an important channel of communication through facial expressions. It reflects the private feelings and thoughts of an individual to others, and it plays a crucial role in social relations [3].
By conducting this study, we aimed to reach three main goals:
Exploration: A Better understanding of autism conditions and design for autism.
Creating personas: Representing different level of ability or disability of perception and thinking in autism condition, and so contributing to future studies in designing a game-like software for autistic children.
Delivering requirements: If Tohum Autism Foundation designed such a game-like application, what elements would be significant to create the best experience for autistic children?
TEAM
Prof. Dr Gokhan Ince,
Institute of Science and Technology | Istanbul Technical University
Naseem Al Housani,
Design Researcher, Institute of Science and Technology | Istanbul Technical University
Eylem Yilmaz
Design Researcher, Institute of Science and Technology | Istanbul Technical University
Eylem Yilmaz: Design Researcher
Literature review about autism
Conducting interviews with Tohum Autism Foundation
Creating Personas
Designing user tasks and low-fidelity prototypes
Designing and coding a high-fidelity prototype online
Conducting a usability testing session at Tohum Autism Foundation
Final discussion drawing insights
METHODOLOGY
In this study, we conducted a qualitative UX research by combining different methods and techniques: interviewing; cognitive walkthrough; moderated usability testing. The usability testing session was conducted on a high-fidelity prototype of the web-based game application, named MatchMyFace.
Before conducting the session, I interviewed with the teachers to learn about their current solutions to teach and find out children's habits and experience with computer technologies. By using the findings of the interviews and the result of the literature review, I created user personas representing different levels of autism conditions and then created user tasks for each level of the disease.
Phase-1: A detailed literature review for understanding autism conditions and treatment methods
Phase-2: Interviews with the teachers, and creating user personas and user tasks
Phase-3: A usability testing session at Tohum Autism Foundation, and final discussion
LITERATURE REVIEW
Autism is a heterogeneous disorder, ranging from lower to higher cognitive and from mild to severe behavioural problems. In autism syndrome, every situation has its specific case. That means no autistic is similar to another one, maybe they will share some symptoms, but they are different -not typical- according to the degree of their severe [4] [5].
As autism includes variable deficits and characteristic in three symptoms domains which are; 1) communication, 2) social interaction, 3) repetitive behaviour.
Communication: In verbal communication, they can speak slowly and not immediately after they are asked, or they output incomprehensible sound. On the other hand, the severe case shows that some autistics are not able even to open their mouth to say anything [6].
In non-verbal communication, they suffer from a deficit using and understanding the nonverbal forms, because of that they use instead of an aggressive way to express their needs [6]. The education of nonverbal communication is through social-emotional communication. For example, some autistics cannot associate their names to their selves; when you call them they do not respond, they don't know their names.
Social Interaction: According to the abnormalities of language improvement includes speech, gestures and stereotyped activities that begin within the first few years of life. These problems will lead to difficulties in social initiation and social-emotional understanding. In contrast, they have highly inner interactions; they have their special world which is isolated from the outer one. So there is a barrier stand between them and the others that they can't reach each other.
Repetitive behaviour: The wide range of behaviors can classify into two categories:
- Lower-level behaviours: stereotyped movements, repetitive self-injurious behaviour, and repetitive manipulation of objects.
- Higher-level behaviours: objects attachment, repetitive language, and obsessive desire for sameness.
Treatment methods
There is no known medicament which cures the cause of the syndrome, thus the treatment is for their behaviours to be controlled and to be able to get along with the community. Their treatment lets them interact with effects and technologies in which they are desired and liked.
Autism and Technology
Computers are considered to be a suitable window for autistic people to look through to the real world. Reinforcement learning through using music, variable tone intensity, character vocalization, and dynamic animations are the main features of computer-based learning where the ASD easily incorporated into the process [3].
GAME LEVELS
REQUIREMENTS
Function
Profile creation
Login
Level to treat face avoidance
Level to treat face weak memorizing
Level to treat weak facial expression interpretatio
Requirement
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Welcome screen
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User should add user name
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user should add user picture
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By username only
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User can choose among levels
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The screen consists of many pictures one of them is a human face
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User should select one of the pictures through the mouse left click.
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Correct feedback melody provided upon correct selection.
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Wrong feedback melody provided upon wrong selection.
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Upon the finish of this level, the user should be able to move to the next level.
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The screen consists of many human faces.
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One picture introduced by person name.
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User should select the target picture through the mouse left click.
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Correct feedback melody provided upon correct selection.
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Wrong feedback melody provided upon wrong selection.
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Upon the finish of this level, the user should be able to move to the next level.
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The screen consists of many human faces with different facial expressions.
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One facial expression introduced by expression name.
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User should select the target facial expression through the mouse left click.
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Correct feedback melody provided upon correct selection.
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Wrong feedback melody provided upon wrong selection.
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Celebration screen upon the accomplishment of all levels successfully.
INTERVIEW WITH THE TEACHERS
After we listed basic requirements according to our literature review, I conducted a couple of interviews with the teachers at Tohum Autism Foundation to find out whether their requirements and expectations from the application would match with our research, considering the target users' special needs and conditions.
What do you think about the sign-in process?
What do you think about the levels of the application?
FEEDBACK
"It would be better to add inter levels with mixed faces and objects to go on to the next level easily. This would encourage our children to play the game."
"Sign in without password would be easy to use for them."
USER PERSONAS
PERSONA 1
CLASSIC AUTISM
Photo
Fictional Name
Gender
Age
Condition
Skills
Goals and Tasks
Accomplishment with the technology
ONUR
MALE
4
Light Autism
Pointing, touching
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Need to be rewarded
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Each task is consuming a normal period of time
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Learn to remember people identity through looking to their faces
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Understand people emotional state through their facial expressions
PERSONA 2
SPECTRUM AUTISM
Photo
Fictional Name
Gender
Age
Condition
Skills
Goals and Tasks
Accomplishment with the technology
DENIZ
FEMALE
5
Severe Autism
Moving, touching
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Should very primitive tasks
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Repetition is highly needed
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Each task is consuming a long period of time
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Understand the feedback.
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Learn to recognise the human face
USER TASKS
We designed the following main user tasks to assess the usability goal of each level:
TASK 1: A FACE DISTINCTION
TASK 2: A FACE IDENTIFICATION
TASK 3: FACIAL EXPRESSION INTERPRETATION
User’s goals
To locate a face among many different objects.
Environmental requirements
Physical
Light: Normal sunlight.
Noise: The environment should be calm in order to avoid the distraction of the children. Weather: Normal room temperature (21 C).
Social
Privacy: no need for privacy.
Collaboration: no collaboration is needed. Coordination: require partial supervision.
Organizational
User support: for some of the users it will be needed more than others
Training: Will be provided through short tutorial videos.
Expected outcome
The autistic individual will be able to look directly to faces and recognize them among the other objects.
Frequency
The users need to repeat the level many times until they achieve the goal.
Importance
This task is important to encourage users to not avoid the faces.
Usability goals
The time should not be limited, the target users should take enough time since in most cases they will need a long time to learn how to play the game, and also they will take a long period to meet the application goals, this refers to the nature of the autism syndrome.
User experience goals:
To reach the evocative level which means autistic should not avoid looking to faces and also should not avoid eye contact just as a normal human does.
User’s goals
To match the face with the identity.
Environmental requirements
Physical
Light: Normal sunlight.
Noise: the environment should be calm in order to avoid the distraction of the children. Weather: Normal room temperature (21 C).
Social
Privacy: no need for privacy.
Collaboration: no collaboration is needed. Coordination: require partial supervision.
Organizational
User support: for some of the users it will be needed more than others
Training: Will be provided through short tutorial videos.
Expected outcome
The autistic individual will be able to look directly to faces and memorize them.
Frequency
The users need to repeat the level many times until they achieve the goal.
Importance
This task is important to encourage users to memorize their faces.
Usability goals
The time should not be limited, the target users should take enough time since in most cases they will need a long time to learn how to play the game, and also they will take a long period to meet the application goals, this refers to the nature of the autism syndrome.
User experience goals:
To reach the evocative level which means autistic should memorize people faces and their identities as a normal human does.
User’s goals
To understand the social meaning behind the facial expressions
Environmental requirements
Physical
Light: Normal sunlight.
Noise: the environment should be calm in order to avoid the distraction of the children. Weather: Normal room temperature (21 C).
Social
Privacy: no need for privacy.
Collaboration: no collaboration is needed. Coordination: require partial supervision.
Organizational
User support: for some of the users it will be needed more than others
Training: Will be provided through short tutorial videos.
Expected outcome
The autistic individual will be able to read the others facial expression and understand the social meaning of that expression.
Frequency
The users need to repeat the level many times until they achieve the goal.
Importance
This task is important to encourage users to pay attention to facial expressions.
Usability goals
The time should not be limited, the target users should take enough time since in most cases they will need a long time to learn how to play the game, and also they will take a long period to meet the application goals, this refers to the nature of the autism syndrome.
User experience goals:
To reach the evocative level which means autistic should be able to interpret facial expressions as a normal human does.
LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
Competing sketches with different layouts:
According to the feedback from the interviews, we selected a disordered layout (E, the one shown below) not making their selection movement too smooth but keeping the difficulty levels simply.
Adding profile pane:
We also decided to display user photos during the usage of the application in order to let them distinguish their own photos from other people photos.
USABILITY TESTING
Even if we were aware that testing with the target users would provide us more valuable insights about our application design, we had no chance to conduct the usability session with actual users because of their special and sensitive natures. Therefore, we combined two usability evaluation techniques: cognitive walkthrough and moderated usability session techniques. The participant was an expert teacher of the foundation. I sit next to her to moderate the session, and my classmate, Naseem took notes about the session. In this way, we could have more insights by benefiting from her experience with the treatment of autistic children.
The usability testing session;
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conducted at Tohum Autism Foundation.
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was 60 min.
The participant was;
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one of the expert teachers of the foundation.
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given a high-fidelity prototype of the web app to test against and assess.
Moderators: Naseem, Design Researcher and I, Design Researcher
Interview: We sit in the class with the teacher and introduced the web application, MatchMyFace - facilitating tasks, asking questions and see her live reactions and actions.
KEY INSIGHTS
The one-click mission was all they need to do. Answering to the questions at each level, and then to simply clicking on it.
If we designed complex tasks for them, it would be very difficult to use the app.
Adding inter levels with mixed faces and objects would be beneficial for them to go on to the next level easily. This would encourage them to play the game.
The user could repeat each task many times until they reach the correct answer. This was suitable for our target users as they like repetition so much.
They adapted to the routine easily, because they were learning slowly.
Autistic people have their own speciality in slow learning, so we can’t force them to accelerate their learning. The app should encourage them to learn regardless of the time.
Rather than a standard melody in the correct answer, using a clapping sound was more attractive for autistic children.
As the profile creation for autistic children would be handled by their teachers or parents, there was no need to use a password step for the application.
REFERENCES
[1] Monique Moore, Sandra Calvert, Brief Report: Vocabulary Acquisition for Children with Autism: Teacher or Computer Instruction, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 30, No. 4, 2000
[2] Gianluca De Leo, Suffolk, VAGondy Leroy, Smartphones to Facilitate Communication and Improve Social Skills of Children with Severe Autism Spectrum Disorder: Special Education Teachers as Proxies, Proceeding IDC '08 Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Interaction design and children Pages 45-48 ACM N8ew York, NY, USA ©2008.
[3] Tanaka, J.W., Lincoln, S., & Hegg, L. (2003). A framework for the study and treatment of face processing deficits in autism. In: Leder, H., &Swartzer, G, editors. The development of face processing (pp. 101–119). Berlin: Hogrefe Publishers.
[4] T Clark, C Feehan, C Tinline, P Vostanis, Autistic symptoms in children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 8 (1999), pp. 50–55
[5] Wendy L. Stone, Opal Y. Ousley, Paul J. Yoder, Kerry L. Hogan, Susan L. Hepburn, Nonverbal Communication in Two- and Three-Year-Old Children with Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders December 1997, Volume 27, Issue 6, pp 677-696
[6] Benjamin L. Handen, Cynthia R. Johnson, Martin Lubetsky, Efficacy of Methylphenidate Among Children with Autism and Symptoms of Attention- Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, June 2000, Volume 30, Issue 3, pp 245-255