The Web has evolved over time to accommodate new types of devices and usage scenarios, but still it remains a visual experience. This doesn’t apply well to all types of users and scenarios: for example to Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) users. The first question here is what is wrong with how we browse the Web today and do we need a new paradigm? The main problem related to Web navigation is accessibility: most of the websites are not designed to satisfy all the needs of specific communities, mostly because designing artifacts without including them first-hand is an issue that could generate unsuccessful results. This thesis highlights the importance of both UX and Participatory Design in a human-centered process that led to the design of an inclusive paradigm for accessing the Web, and the importance of proposing guidelines for the design of accessible conversational paradigms to support designers and developers of inclusive services. We could refer to the principles proposed by WCAG or the guidelines for Human-AI Interaction proposed by Microsoft, but as shown by this thesis, some needs are still not covered, especially about Conversational UX Design. To overcome these problems we conducted a 3-phase user research involving BVI users that led us to identify the major challenges users face during Web navigation. The direct observation of the experience of BVI users with assistive technologies and Conversational Agents (CAs) helped us define a well-structured summarization of insights, needs and challenges about Web Navigation. All these aspects led to the development of the final version of the Conweb Guidebook, which aims to be an essential tool for designers and developers while prototyping and developing CAs for Web Navigation. The Guidebook contains a total of 15 guidelines, generated from the definition of 6 macro-challenges and divided according to the 4 phases of the Web navigation user journey they refer to. The idea is to provide specific instructions on how to design CAs for the Web, in order to elaborate a new paradigm for Web browsing in which low-level visual actions are replaced by natural-language requests contextualized within fluid dialogs.
Il Web si è evoluto nel tempo per accogliere nuovi tipi di dispositivi e scenari d'uso, ma rimane ancora un'esperienza visiva. Questo non si applica bene a tutti i tipi di utenti e scenari: per esempio agli utenti non vedenti e ipovedenti (BVI). La prima domanda da farsi è cosa c'è di sbagliato nel modo in cui navighiamo sul Web oggi e abbiamo bisogno di un nuovo paradigma? Il problema principale legato alla navigazione sul Web è l'accessibilità: la maggior parte dei siti web non sono progettati per soddisfare tutte le esigenze di comunità specifiche, soprattutto perché progettare artefatti senza includere gli utenti è un problema che può portare risultati fallimentari. Questa tesi evidenzia come UX e Participatory Design hanno portato alla progettazione di un paradigma inclusivo per l'accesso al Web, e l'importanza di proporre delle linee guida per la progettazione di paradigmi conversazionali accessibili per supportare i designer e gli sviluppatori di servizi inclusivi. Potremmo fare riferimento ai principi proposti da WCAG o alle linee guida Human-AI Interaction di Microsoft, ma alcuni bisogni non sono soddisfatti, specialmente in riferimento al Conversational UX Design. Per superare questi problemi abbiamo condotto una ricerca in 3 fasi coinvolgendo gli utenti BVI che ci ha portato a identificare le principali sfide che gli utenti affrontano durante la navigazione Web. L'osservazione diretta dell'esperienza degli utenti BVI con le tecnologie assistive e gli agenti conversazionali (CAs) ci ha aiutato a definire una sintesi ben strutturata di insights, needs and challenges sulla navigazione Web. Tutti questi aspetti hanno portato allo sviluppo della versione finale del ConWeb Guidebook, che mira ad essere uno strumento essenziale per i progettisti e gli sviluppatori durante la prototipazione e lo sviluppo di CAs per la Navigazione Web. Il Guidebook contiene 15 linee guida, generate a partire dalla definizione di 6 macro-challenge e suddivise in base a 4 fasi della User Web Journey. L'idea è quella di fornire istruzioni specifiche su come progettare CAs per il Web, al fine di elaborare un nuovo paradigma per la navigazione sul Web distaccato dal modello visuale.
Guidebook for conversational agents for the Web. A thorough study of habits and challenges of BVI people and first guidelines to improve the Web Browsing Experience
Cutrupi, Claudia Maria
2020/2021
Abstract
The Web has evolved over time to accommodate new types of devices and usage scenarios, but still it remains a visual experience. This doesn’t apply well to all types of users and scenarios: for example to Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) users. The first question here is what is wrong with how we browse the Web today and do we need a new paradigm? The main problem related to Web navigation is accessibility: most of the websites are not designed to satisfy all the needs of specific communities, mostly because designing artifacts without including them first-hand is an issue that could generate unsuccessful results. This thesis highlights the importance of both UX and Participatory Design in a human-centered process that led to the design of an inclusive paradigm for accessing the Web, and the importance of proposing guidelines for the design of accessible conversational paradigms to support designers and developers of inclusive services. We could refer to the principles proposed by WCAG or the guidelines for Human-AI Interaction proposed by Microsoft, but as shown by this thesis, some needs are still not covered, especially about Conversational UX Design. To overcome these problems we conducted a 3-phase user research involving BVI users that led us to identify the major challenges users face during Web navigation. The direct observation of the experience of BVI users with assistive technologies and Conversational Agents (CAs) helped us define a well-structured summarization of insights, needs and challenges about Web Navigation. All these aspects led to the development of the final version of the Conweb Guidebook, which aims to be an essential tool for designers and developers while prototyping and developing CAs for Web Navigation. The Guidebook contains a total of 15 guidelines, generated from the definition of 6 macro-challenges and divided according to the 4 phases of the Web navigation user journey they refer to. The idea is to provide specific instructions on how to design CAs for the Web, in order to elaborate a new paradigm for Web browsing in which low-level visual actions are replaced by natural-language requests contextualized within fluid dialogs.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2022_04_Cutrupi.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/188251