Increase the usability and accessibility of mobile devices through the design and experimentation of advanced auditory menus.

My current data collection in-progress is supporting the use of spearcons (compressed speech icon) in mobile device auditory menus.

flash demo coming soon

The present study extends previous studies in order to: (1) verify that spearcons improve performance on auditory-enhanced menus; (2) explore the generalizability of spearcons to mobile handsets; and (3) explore subjective perceptions of the spearcon.

Future studies will look at performance and preference for these interfaces while the user is actually walking a path while making menu selections. I expect that in those cases the auditory menus will show dramatically greater performance, and preference, as compared to visuals-only, and as compared to the stationary data collection used in the present study.

Another study will compare spearcon learning of familiar names versus unfamiliar names. We expect familiar names will require a shorter learning period.