Helen's Calendar
Overview
Title
Helen’s Calendar
Summary
Helen, a legally blind 56-year old woman with muscle atrophy, needed an integrated scheduling system so she could independently track her incredibly busy schedule. As a team of three, we worked with Helen to develop an iPad solution so that she can easily read, navigate and remember her schedule.
Date
Ongoing
Tools + SKILLS
User interview, usability testing, wire framing, rapid prototyping, iOS app development
Video
Exposition
Who is Helen?
Our team got to know Helen over the course of three months. She is one of the most dedicated, active, and passionate people I have had the fortune of meeting. She is considered legally blind, but has decent peripheral vision. As a result of her muscle atrophy, she uses a wheelchair. At age 5, she underwent an ear surgery that prevents her from having any sort of device in her ears like headphones. The combination of these disabilities narrows the scope of assistive technologies available for Helen to use.
She is heavily dependent on is her iPad which she has been using for 4 years. Despite her low vision, Helen prefers to read independently with high magnification rather than with voice over.
She also enjoys rowing, sailing, reading at the library, and spending time with her husband and son. Helen is always busy and always on the go.
Challenge
Helen’s primary strategy is to memorize her weekly schedule because she does not have a useful tool to keep track of it. This is burdensome and results in her forgetting or over-scheduling.
Sometimes, she records event details in the notes section on her iPad or takes photos of appointment cards and bus schedules. Despite certain accessible features on the iPad, Helen has a difficult time getting into apps efficiently, hitting targets, seeing all the important features on the screen and reading necessary content. Specifically on the Apple Calendar app, the low contrast and insufficient magnification prevents her from being able to see the dates, input fields or text. She cannot add or manage calendar events.
Process
We started by meeting with Helen regularly to better understand her day-to-day life. We were also able to observe her using her iPad. As she took us through, we got to witness the many strategies and complex workflows she has in order to overcome the barriers created by her impaired vision and weak muscles.
“There are things I should show up to but I cannot balance or keep track of everything”
We then gave her the task of adding a new event on the Apple Calendar to see how she performs and uses the current scheduling system at her disposal. We were sure to record how many attempts and how long it took to reach targets on the screen. She utilized a lot of contextual clues to make predictions about where different elements and affordances were on the screen. Ultimately, she was unable to add an event successfully.
"I have to move very, very carefully across the screen”
We then began an idea board and organized design variables into a graphical framework. Upon listing out design restraints, we arrived at our defined problem.
PROBLEM DEFINTION: Helen needs an integrated scheduling system that she can easily read, navigate and add events to so she can independently track both regular and irregular activities or appointments.
Next, we researched any existing solutions but were unable to find something that worked for all of Helen’s needs so we started wire-framing potential screens and solutions for an iOS app.
Using InVision, we turned into these screens into a testable prototype. Qualitatively, we wanted Helen’s approval of the contrast, layout, font, font size, color combinations, and input menus. Quantitatively, we measured the time it took for Helen to read or add events, the number of hits/misses when trying to hit targets and the % of readable events or icons. This would allow us to uncover the root of Helen’s pain points, get us closer to her ideal UI experience and inform how we would go about building out the app.
UI Results
Interview results
After the first round of user testing, we began developing the app. The application was written in JavaScript and HTML. Events are stored in DynamoDB on Amazon Web Services. We chose to reduce the number of screens on the app to simplify navigation. We also adjusted coloring, font size and typeface to Helen’s liking (which really meant to the most legible variation).
Prototype 2
Although Helen was able to read everything on the screen and navigate the app easily, it became clear that, when she was trying to add a new event, the default iOS scrollers for number and date inputs were not usable. Additionally, she needed a way to remember how colors represented different types of events on her week view.
We continue to iterate and improve our app so it best fits Helen’s needs and preferences.
Solution
In the end, we strived for simplicity. We stripped all the unnecessary features and clutter from a typical calendar app to afford a streamlined experience that was not overwhelming for Helen. We prioritized legibility with size and contrast. We needed to strike a balance with sizing so that Helen did not need to crawl and scroll around a page to see everything. She needed to see all the important information and see it clearly in one view.
Additionally, we developed custom date, number and time input buttons to overcome the unusable iOS scrollers. A key was added to the bottom of the main page to reinforce color representations.
Helen has told us that she uses her Calendar at least once a day. We could not be happier to have met Helen, gotten to know her story and provided a solution that makes her daily life simpler and more organized.