Usability evaluation on user interface of electronic wheelchair

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to focus on “User Interface Design of Electronic Wheelchair.” Two stages were set for this study. First, the questionnaire survey was used to discuss the interface design of an electronic wheelchair; second, the observation method was used to understand the participant’s operation of the electronic wheelchair and its operation time was measured. There were 27 participants in the first stage with convenience sampling from a design college in Far East University. In this stage, 49 icons were designed by the focus group, and the icons were divided based on the following functions: power, alarm, direction, speed adjustment, battery, and stop icon. In the second stage, there were 20 undergraduates with convenience sampling from the same college. All of them had no operation experience of the electronic wheelchair. The results showed that the power icon, alarm icon, speed adjustment icon, and the battery icon demonstrated that the new icons were better than the present icons. The results also showed that there was no significant variation in the usage of the wheelchair between the male and female participants. On the other hand, the correlation analysis performed for the operation concept revealed that the operation of power and the operation of speed adjustment exhibited a high correlation. The left/right operation and the forward/backward operation exhibited a significant direct correlation.