Interactive technology solutions for prisoners: An environment where sub-optimal user interfaces can have significant impact?

Abstract

As a work in progress, we are currently investigating if current offender technology used in prisons worldwide meets the needs of prisoners who have low computer and reading literacy. In addition to the obvious requirements of a prisoner’s persona, researchers have identified that emotions in prisons can be heightened and usability issues with technology can be disruptive and result in unwanted behavior. With this in mind, we aim to evaluate the user interfaces using validated usability testing protocols.