DuoRhythmo: Design and remote user experience evaluation (UXE) of a collaborative accessible digital musical interface (CADMI) for people with ALS (PALS)

Abstract

We present DuoRhythmo, a collaborative accessible digital musical interface (CADMI) that gives people living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (PALS) the experience of remotely and collaboratively creating music in real-time. We designed DuoRhythmo specifically to be utilized for eye tracking and optimized it for head- and computer mouse interaction, as well using a user-centered design approach. Together with five PALS, we completed a mixed-methods evaluation to assess the accessibility of DuoRhythmo. Participants described the CADMI using the Microsoft Desirability Toolkit (MDT) as fun, empowering, accessible, easy to use, engaging, and stimulating and gave an average System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 79.5. We suggest further research on remote collaboration within the field of accessible digital musical instruments (ADMIs) using the term CADMI to explore the positive effects of collaborative music-making on the quality of life of PALS.