Daedalus in the Dark: Designing for Non-Visual Accessible Construction of Laser-Cut Architecture

Ruei Che Chang, Chih An Tsao, Fang Ying Liao, Seraphina Yong, Tom Yeh, Bing Yu Chen

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Design tools and research regarding laser-cut architectures have been widely explored in the past decade. However, such discussion has mostly revolved around technical and structural design questions instead of another essential element of laser-cut models - assembly - a process that relies heavily on components' visual affordance, therefore less accessible to blind or low vision (BLV) people. To narrow the gap in this area, we co-designed with 7 BLV people to examine their assembly experience with different laser-cut architectures. From their feedback, we proposed several design heuristics and guidelines for Daedalus, a generative design tool that can produce tactile aids for laser-cut assembly given a few high-level manual inputs. We validate the proposed aids in a user study with 8 new BLV participants. Our results revealed that BLV users can manage laser-cut assembly more efficiently with Daedalus. Going forth from this design iteration, we discuss implications for future research on accessible laser-cut assembly.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationUIST 2021 - Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages344-358
Number of pages15
ISBN (Electronic)9781450386357
DOIs
StatePublished - 10 Oct 2021
Event34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, UIST 2021 - Virtual, Online, United States
Duration: 10 Oct 202114 Oct 2021

Publication series

NameUIST 2021 - Proceedings of the 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

Conference

Conference34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, UIST 2021
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityVirtual, Online
Period10/10/2114/10/21

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST110-2218-E-002-029, 110-2218-E-002-025, 110-2634-F-002-026), and National Taiwan University. We thank our anonymous reviewers for their suggestions, all participants of our study, and especially Che-Chia Chang, from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, for his visual designs for Daedalus.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 ACM.

Keywords

  • Accessibility
  • Assembly
  • Assistive Technology
  • Fabrication
  • Laser Cutting
  • Prototyping
  • User-centered Design

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