Inclusive Software Design and Its Methods for Beyond-WIMP User Interfaces

Abstract

While digital inclusivity researchers and software practitioners have been trying to address exclusion biases in Windows, Icons, Menus, and Pointers (WIMP) user interfaces (UIs) for a long time, little has been done to investigate if and how inclusive software design and its methods that have been devised for WIMP UIs can be used effectively to design and evaluate beyond-WIMP UIs. To that end, this dissertation investigated the use of inclusive software design on a selection of different beyond-WIMP UIs at 3 stages. In Chapter 3, we explored the applicability of inclusive software design as an evaluation approach with a social robot that interacts with diverse people in diverse social places. In Chapter 4, we examined using a particular inclusive software design method to evaluate and redesign a multiple robots controller. Finally, in Chapter 5, we investigated whether and how a family of inclusive software design methods can be used analytically to evaluate the multidimensionality of a Hands-Free Integrated Development Environment (IDE). This work contributes design implications, new technology development, and empirical contributions to designing beyond-WIMP UIs for diverse humans.