Feeling Numbers

My Counting Book is a product that aims to teach counting numbers to k-3 kids with visual impairments with the use of tactile engagement and audio feedback.

Methodology

The evaluation of this product was conducted through an initial contextual inquiry into the field at the Sri Rakkum School for the Blind, Jakkur. A general understanding and interaction with the user lead to identifying the criteria of evaluation. This generated an evaluation protocol that was measured against naturalistic observations of a user testing walkthrough conducted at two different locations. Heuristic evaluations of the product from various perspectives were carried out. The evaluation was concluded with iterations and a prototype for the areas of development that have been identified.

Img 1. Image of the child sitting in front of the tactile book. A stand with a phone is set in front of the book. The phone app reading the pages as markers for detection.

Evaluation Protocol

Product: An app and a tactile learning book
Target user: parents/facilitators and visually challenged children of the age of 4-6
Aim: Helping young children's cognitive development before they learning to read and write – counting, animals, birds, etc.

Most material for kids at this age is aimed at building visualisation skills with whole-to-parts (learning to visualise and identify a whole elephant, then proceeding to identify parts of the elephant). Children who use touch to learn to identify things, need a part-to-whole approach to visualisation. This can be aided with other sensory triggers like differentiating textures, patterns, sounds, etc.

Evaluation Methods:

Heuristic evaluation of the app for parents
Heuristic evaluation for voice interface for kids
Understanding independent learning vs facilitator assistance
Testing error rate and human intervention
Designed research for testing information retention
Wizard of oz –testing feedback and error delivery

Observations

Img 2. Mind map of observations made during the field study

Results from Heuristic Evaluation

1. The interface is not modified to support visually impaired facilitators. Provide alternative equivalents

2. The positive responses are not distinctive from the negative responses. Provide user control for presentation

3. Only a part of the page is described, the overall theme of the page is not expressed to the visually impaired child. Provide user control for presentation

4. The description, questions and answers of the book depend on the app and cannot be accessed any other way(braille). Provide device independent interaction

5. The app does not correct the user, if he/she is orienting the book in an incorrect manner.

6. A similar texture used could represent similarity, similarly, voice can be used or reused for grouping. Provide reusable components.

Insights and Findings

Direct and indirect ways of impact -Understanding that with this platform we had to empower the people providing assistance to the kids. (Tool has to be designed for the persona and the persona network- who assist the persona)

1. Mediums and modes of communication can be used to instruct who the content caters to. (The same tool can provide visual communication to the facilitator and voice to the child without interfering in each other’s product journey.)

2. Not to remove expression from communication. Rather create another sensory means of expression.

3. Information architecture has a cultural aspect – we noted the language the teachers/facilitators speak.

Task Analysis

Img 3. Flow chart showcasing step by step interactions required to use the learning tooklit.

Conversation Design

The language of the voice interface is now-

1. Closer to the language of the facilitators(Persona Network). 

2. has a sentence structure mimicking how the facilitators instruct the children while teaching/facilitating. 

3. using Tone and language to show differentiation between the success and failure of a task(System Status). 

4. using language and sounds to motivate and engage the child(success sounds- bells, etc.). 

5. creates distinction in the language of the success and failure states so the child is not confused.

6. helps the child gain independence in using the book by giving instructions on the next steps. For example, calling out “turn to a new page” instead of the child waiting for the facilitator to turn it for them.

OLD: “The counting book, let us count to begin from 0 to 9”
NEW: “The counting book. On this page you feel the numbers from 0-9” 

OLD: “How many apples can you catch?"
The sentence is describing the visual action of catching apples from the tree which is a print on the page
NEW:“You are on the first page. This is an apple. Can you count the number of apples on the right page.” 
Helps the child familiarise with the shape and texture of the apple first then go on to give the task of counting them(reducing complexity). 

OLD: “Yes, these are two butterfiles”
NEW: "You did it!  **Hurray music**. Turn to a new page."

OLD: “Oh no! that’s not correct”
NEW: “Did you put 6? Oh no, that’s not correct, Try counting again!” 
Reading the card the kid has matched. Sometimes the child has the right answer but has accidentally placed the wrong card without knowing. (Error Handling) 

Iteration and Implementation

Img 4. Picture of the original book with purely visual cover and the new prototype with visual and tactile cover with higher contrast and open dyslexic font.	Img 5. Adding the element of distinct texture to the tactile elements so to give real world tactile understanding of the objects. Added braille.

Img 6. Removing the background print that was affecting the contrast of the text to the background, initially only catering to the persona network and not the child.

Img 7. Organising the tactile counting key cards in a key ring so the cards are not all over the place for the child to find. The key ring also puts the cards in a sequence giving the child another way to associate numbers, which is sequence.