Using Personas to Support Augmentative Alternative Communication Device Design: A Validation and Evaluation Study

ABSTRACT

Interactive computing devices are increasingly being deployed to support individuals in improving and managing health, aging in place, and as assistive devices for those with functional limitations. Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) aids are devices that help individuals with speech impairments communicate. They are typically prescribed by clinicians (speech–language pathologists) based on a specific individual’s physical needs and disease classification. While personas have been used in the design of other consumer technologies, they have not been frequently deployed in the design of clinically oriented technologies, including AAC devices. Instead, a clinical/rehabilitation engineering approach to AAC design is typically used, focusing on the physical and symptomatic needs of a diverse group of individuals, and involving the consumer on the level of making feature recommendations and/or testing the technology near the end of the design and production process. To address this challenge, three personas of individuals with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were developed, intended for use in AAC device design. This article presents results from two studies which evaluated the personas. In the first study, personas were validated using an online survey of eight speech–language pathologists, and interviews of seven individuals with ALS that were not involved in the development of personas. In the second study, AAC device designers were asked to assess the potential utility of the personas for AAC device design. Results showed that developed personas had validity in representing individuals with ALS and that the personas would be useful for AAC device designers. The methods used can be extended for validation and assessment of personas developed for other purposes.

Acknowledgments

Sincere thanks to all the participants for their time and feedback. Special thanks to Lisa Bardach for connecting us with great participants.

Funding

This research is funded under grant #H133E080011 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Additional information

Funding

This research is funded under grant #H133E080011 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Notes on contributors

Neeraja Subrahmaniyan

Neeraja Subrahmaniyan is a Human Factors Research Engineer at GE Global Research, New York. She works on human factors and user-experience research initiatives on next generation locomotive cab displays and rail operations. She has also worked as a User Experience Researcher at Microsoft Corporation.

D. Jeffery Higginbotham

D. Jeffrey Higginbotham, for over 30 years, has researched the interactions of individuals who use augmentative communication technologies and developed technologies to facilitate face-to-face communication. His work has focused on the influence of computer interfaces on social interaction and the basic efficiency characteristics of augmentative technologies.

Ann M. Bisantz

Ann Bisantz is a Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University at Buffalo and a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Her research interests include cognitive engineering, information visualization, decision-making, and human factors in health care. Her PhD is from the Georgia Institute of Technology.