Thesis
An investigation into how mobile apps can support increased independence for people with Down’s Syndrome
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2023
- Thesis identifier
- T16640
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201659219
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This research aimed to provide a technologically viable solution that can overcome barriers to performing daily independent activities for young adults with Down’s Syndrome. The research was conducted through a participatory action research process involving young adults with DS and their parents, family members and caregivers. In total, 53 participants with DS, 61 family members (mostly parents), 3 clinicians, 2 caregivers (from a charity organisation), 1 teacher (from an education centre) and 1 participant from a public health service took part in the different stages of this study and provided their valuable feedback. This research also explored barriers to independent activities for young adults with DS and solutions for overcoming some of those barriers using smartphones and technology through a series of semi-structured interviews, group discussions, co-design sessions, and observations through face-to-face, phone calls and virtual communication settings. The first outcome of this research was the identification of six key barriers to performing independent activities for young adults with DS. Initially, these six key barriers were recognised from four semi-structured interviews with four mothers of young adults with DS. After that, the survey (39 participants) results also reflected these six key barriers to independent activities. These key barriers are (1) safe use of mobile devices and travel safety concerns, (2) communication difficulties, (3) inability to self-navigate and difficulties with access to public transport (e.g. changing buses), (4) finding suitable technology that can support independent activities, (5) difficulties remembering tasks/activities, (6) lack of knowledge and experiences about the current advancement of smart devices and technology. The second outcomes were the usage pattern of technologies and smart devices, and barriers to perform daily activities by young adults with DS. iPads/Tablets and smartphones were the most used smart devices to support learning and remote communication for young adults with DS. Lack of suitable interface and technologies were found as barriers to perform an activity using smart devices through an online survey with 39 participants including parents, caregivers and clinicians, and each represented at least one young adult with DS. Thirdly, four key barriers to independent travel for young adults with DS were identified. The key barriers are (1) unfamiliarity with route, (2) difficulties accessing public transport, (3) lack of suitable technology and apps to support independent travel, (4) parents’ anxiety. This research outcome also revealed sketches/drawings and app requirements to design a prototype for a smartphone app to overcome these barriers to independent travel using smart devices and technology. In total seven group discussions were conducted with seven young adults with DS and thirteen parents (one of them was a family member) in home settings. A fourth outcome was revealed from the user testing and design validation of the designed prototype for a smartphone app to overcome barriers to independent travel for young adults with DS. This evaluation validated the previous (third outcome) findings such as the four key barriers to independent travel and requirements for an app to prototype. For example, the inclusion of a linear map, a progress bar for the journey to support walking path and ways to deal with unexpected situations during travel were included to reinforce and strengthen the support by the app. This outcome also revealed easy adoption of the main concept of the design by users with DS such as the use of a linear map interface, an interface that displayed the direction arrows as images for navigation support, a progress bar to show the progress from one turn to next, an image of the bus stop for easy recognition, the bus number and image to help identify the correct bus, etc. Also, this evaluation highlighted design gaps and usability issues for young adults with DS through the observation of the designed digital prototype. Later, the use of the paper prototype in the discussion session to identify the design gaps and bridge these issues for young adults with DS revealed the precise issues that also strengthen the support for the app. Such issues included unsuitable use of design alignment, small text size and icons which caused difficulties when reading and touching the screen, use of colours which caused distress (e.g., red) and access to public transport (the bus). A total of seven group discussions were conducted with seven young adults with DS and twelve parents (one of them was a family member). The fifth outcome reflected on the lessons learned from the user evaluation of the designed prototype app using the process of video walkthrough that inspired by pluralistic and cognitive walkthrough (Nielsen 1994). The designed app was measured against the following usability criteria a) the learnability of the interface, b) the practicality of the designed interfaces (does it serve its purpose) and c) the level of satisfaction by its users on interfaces which adopted methods used by McDonald et al. to uncover usability issues (McDonald et al. 2017). The outcome revealed that the users with DS showed could easily learn and understand navigation methods that appeared on the screens with relevant instructions to follow, for example: following instructions for turn-by-turn direction and walking, as well as processes and actions to recognise and access the bus. However, a few interfaces were had to explain, for example showing the mobile display to the bus driver for the bus ticket. During this walkthrough, most of the users with DS recognised the correct actions and they found relevant actions were available and visible to them. Nevertheless, the overall level of adoption of the navigation app was quite satisfactory, as most of the young adults with DS has showed their positive satisfactions. Furthermore, an alternative approach for the user evaluation was taken due to COVID-19, where participants used a recorded video of travel with the designed application and evaluated it through virtual (Zoom) group discussions with seven young adults with DS, nine parents and six experts (HCI researchers) to assess perceived effectiveness and the appropriateness of performing navigation. This research has implications for application developers, designers, researchers, parents and caregivers who wish to design and develop an interactive application that can support the performance of independent activities by young adults with DS. This study also reflects on the challenges of designing applications in the context of people with cognitive disabilities and recruiting participants for the study. This study can inform the broader Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community about holistic co-design process and its principles in the field, and the Down’s Syndrome communities about the current advancement of smart devices and technologies to support daily activities for young adults with DS.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Dunlop, Mark
- Lennon, Marilyn
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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