Course:LIBR559A/Lazar, J., Feng, J., & Allen, A. (2006)

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Citation

Lazar, J., Feng, J., & Allen, A. (2006). Determining the impact of computer frustration on the mood of blind users browsing the web. Paper presented at the pp. 149-156. doi:10.1145/1168987.1169013

Annotation

Dr. J. Lazar is a professor and founder of the Universal Usability Laboratory at Towson University. He has expertise and a multitude of publications including articles and books on human-computer interaction, accessibility and usability for people with disabilities. He takes a user-centered design approach to include users with disabilities in the design and development of web content.

In this article, Lazar reports on a different portion of his study of one hundred blind web users, previously summarized in Annotated Bibliography 1. This time, he focuses on the relationship between computer frustrations and mood change for pvds, the general purpose being to emphasize the importance of exploring the emotional experience of pvds with web content. As reported by Lazar, in this portion of the study, mood before, during and after the participant session was measured. According to a regression analysis on the results, he found that change of mood before and after the sessions was most affected by the impact of the frustrations on the ability to get work done. Then, comparing this study to a previous study on fully able users’ frustrations and mood change while browsing the web, the researchers found that blind users dealt more effectively with frustrations, using better coping strategies such as not rebooting the computer right away and not letting the frustration affect their mood as greatly. Based on these findings, Lazar points out that responsibility for the web browsing experience still falls on the shoulders of the user, and that those who have better coping strategies when dealing with frustrating problems have a more enjoyable browsing experience.

This study contributes to understanding how different users interact with web content, which is useful to improving the study and practice of user experience design in libraries and information organizations. Although Lazar had the purpose of pushing for more inclusive design, his focus on individual differences failed to support this purpose. Focusing on how differences between users affected their emotional experience lead to an individualistic interpretation putting responsibility on the user. This focus may be due to a bias or choice by the author, or it may be due to the limits of the results found. Either way, further studies with a “social model of disability” approach are warranted, examining how the degree of accessibility of design features affects emotional experience, and putting responsibility on web designers and developers. This is the type of research required for social change towards real inclusion of people with visual disabilities.

References

Lazar, J. (Ed.). (2007). Universal usability: Designing computer interfaces for diverse user populations. John Wiley & Sons.

Homepage of Dr. Jonathan Lazar. (d.d.). Retrieved June 09, 2017, from http://orion.towson.edu/~jlazar/

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