A heuristic-based approach for assessing usability in electric powered wheelchairs: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

Objective: An important issue related to electric powered wheelchair (EPW) is usability. Recent studies did not use heuristic evaluation and did not consider users' and developers' participation in the usability evaluation process of the EPW, especially when it has to be driven using alternative commands. Thus, this study investigates the use of heuristics to evaluate the usability of EPW driven by alternative commands, considering the opinion of users and assistive technology (AT) development professionals.

Methods: The study was carried out with 54 participants: 28 EPW users (Group I) and 26 AT developers (Group II). We built a set of 25 heuristics that affects EPW usability. Participants rated each of the 25 heuristics according to their importance for the usability of EPW using the five-point Likert scale. We used the R Software to perform the Wilcoxon Mann-Whitney test as a statistical comparisons test between Group I and II.

Results: The results showed a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between Group I and II in the evaluation of 16 heuristics. We identified an important set of heuristics that could help evaluate and improve the usability of EPW.

Conclusion: The findings highlighted the importance of considering users' and developers' points of view in developing an EPW and its evaluation criteria. It could help the design of the device match the user's needs and expectations. The set of heuristics in this study can be adapted to evaluate other devices' usability using the heuristic evaluation approach.

Keywords: Assistive technology; Electric powered wheelchair; Heuristics; Heurística; Silla de ruedas eléctrica; Tecnología asistencial; Usabilidad; Usability.