Hey guys, I'm in a course at the Rochester Institute of Technology involving the development of software to explore software usability guidelines, standards and methods. Essentially we get graded at the end of the quarter on how user-friendly and intuitive the interface of our application is, as well as its overall functionality. I just barely started the course, and we were given a guideline that we have to follow in picking our project, this is what it says:

"An Android app (you do not need to own an Android phone). The domain of the app is such that it is helpful for someone with a disability to use to complete some meaningful tasks (e.g. navigation/travel, school, fun, etc.). This does not mean that the app cannot be used by those who are not disabled as such universal design helps everyone. I have a limited number of Droid phones to lona to teams for the duration of the project."

...I've got nothing, haha. I need ideas big time. My team hasn't come up with anything yet, and I'm racking my brain as well as the brains of my friends and family, but for some reason coming up with a decent project has been quite difficult so far. Hopefully that's where some of you creative individuals come in! Now keep in mind, RIT operates on a quarter schedule, and is quite rigorous with its courses. That means we'll only have limited free time during the week and weekends to complete a project, and merely 10 weeks to do it in. That being said any and all suggestions are MORE than welcome, just try to think within those time constraints please :)

One other note of importance: There's 8 or 9 other teams within this class, and we all essentially have the same guidelines for deciding on our project. I'm really trying to come up with something original here, because we have to give the teacher 3 project ideas, of which she'll pick the one most unlike what other teams are doing. So most likely something concerning simple GPS navigation, tracking etc. pertaining to RIT's campus itself is out of the question. We DO think that a small game might be appropriate considering that there's a lot of uniqueness there, but we're all still totally stumped on how to incorporate ease of use for the disabled into our project in some way.

Hopefully you guys pull through for me. In the meantime I'll be thinking some more and rapidly checking back here for any responses.

Thanks guys!

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions guys, my team has selected and has been approved to develop the Co-operative living helper / day planner application on the android OS. Hopefully in around 10 weeks I'll be able to show off how it went! Special thanks for taby for the idea.

[Edited by - ChugginWindex on September 13, 2010 11:09:38 AM]

I must say... your prof is brilliant. What an interesting project idea!!

How about a database app that helps someone with a disability help run/maintain a co-op living space / their personal lives? Kind of like a dayplanner / shopping route planner / household inventory program?

I mean, one person might have a physical disability that limits their mobility and ability to carry more than one or two items at a time... and another person might have an intellectual/mental disability that keeps them from remembering things for more than 5 minutes... but everyone's dayplanner is practically identical in function -- to keep information handy and organized. One aspect of the co-op is that there is usually more than one person living there. Perhaps one of the features of the database app would be to merge shopping lists of multiple people so that trips to the store can be minimized even further. Of course, you might want to mark some items as sensitive (non-shared)... like condoms or tampons, etc. :)

For information on co-ops, perhaps start with this link:
http://www.independentliving.org/docs3/stileng.html

Anyway, whether your prof agrees or not, this is a legitimate research topic. An old friend of mine just got her Master's degree in Psychology last month thanks to her studies of such co-ops.

Please be warned that a lot of people who run co-ops are very left wing, and might end up being slightly abrasive to your political feelings if you are very right wing. ;)

Thanks for the response taby. I read the page you linked to, and judging by the amount it that I truly understood, I'm not sure that I would be able to understand the system it describes enough to effectively develop software that applies to it within the time constraints I'm given. However if you wouldn't mind describing in simpler terms I might be able to give it better consideration. I'll definitely bring it up with my team either way and see what they think, and thanks again for the suggestion!

Quote: Original post by ChugginWindex
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I understand. The co-op thing is a pretty complex coating for something that should be relatively simple.

Consider it this way instead:

You and your friends buy a 6 bedroom mansion, and you must all share the same kitchen / food / laundry soap / etc, just like a family would. I am assuming that none of you suffer from any serious disabilities, but if you do, please do not take offense to what I say here: Imagine that you are all too lazy to go to the store. Quite literally, your database app will delegate everyone's small daily shopping tasks to just one person each day. This one person will buy all of the necessary items for everyone, thus saving the other 5 lazy people from ever having to leave the house. In fact, everyone's so lazy that they can't even be bothered to pass along their shopping lists in person -- it's all done through a computer network / database application.

One thing the database app will have to consider is when the disability transportation services are available throughout the day (like a bus schedule basically). Also, the database app should warn someone if they plan to go shopping during their regularly scheduled doctor's appointment, etc.

I suppose the database app would also have to take into consideration each shopping delegate's physical capabilities... like, don't send the smallest person by themself to go buy/transport the house's new 56" plasma TV. ;)

Heck, the shopper doesn't even have to be one of the co-op members. The database app could simply compile everyone's shopping list, which could then be giving to some 3rd party pickup/delivery/shopping service. This assumption would reduce the complexity of the database app significantly, since no in-house shopping delegates need to be analyzed for their physical capabilities, etc.

I don't know if that makes any more sense to you. This is all totally "on the back of a napkin", so to speak. :I

Thanks, that makes much more sense. That actually seems like a pretty unique and interesting idea. I'm definitely going to suggest this to my team and put it down on the list right now!

Anyone else have any ideas?

Quote: Original post by ChugginWindex
Thanks, that makes much more sense. That actually seems like a pretty unique and interesting idea. I'm definitely going to suggest this to my team and put it down on the list right now!

Anyone else have any ideas?

Best of luck with your project! It sounds like it'll be a lot of fun, no matter what you decide to do in the end. :)

Anyone else have any ideas? taby gave me a fantastic one, but the only other ideas I've come up with so far are not good enough for me to be confident if the teacher tells me I can't use what taby suggested.

Very interesting assignment indeed. I agree, Taby's suggestion is very interesting and a really useful Android app could be made on that idea.

You've mentioned games in your OP, I have some (rather obvious) suggestions for these - games for visually impaired. Take a simple popular game (e.g. Minesweeper) and make it really oversized. This would mean that the game would have to have some scrolling of the minefield, giving you a room for designing a really kick-ass UI to get around this problem such as some kind of automatic intelligent panning based on what mines is the user uncovering, in addition to manual panning with finger motion. A lot of room for great usability, I think this is what the class is focusing on. Also you can make the size of the mines to be adjustable by the user so that non-disabled players can enjoy the game with a more traditional interface.
Another idea that popped into my head is a game for completely blind people - I'm thinking something like the old text adventures (e.g. Zork), but in addition to text you would have a complete voiceover of everything. Or at least text to speech, but voiceovers would be definitely more interesting. Since this is just a class project, the game could be quite short and voiceovers would be feasible. Again, the interface would have to be really focused on the impairment (blindness), giving a lot of room for great usability. The game should be designed in a way that you would enjoy playing it blindfolded...

Both really interesting ideas, thanks for the reply!

While you're right that there is a lot of room for improving the usability of a minesweeper game geared towards the visually impaired, I'm not sure if that would be allowed for the class. My professor herself is actually visually impaired (probably the basis for the projects) and she specifically stated in class that she did not want to see any projects that simply reiterate classic apps with oversized interfaces and the like. That being said, she might make an exception given the rather detailed explanation you've provided of features and improvements that could be made, and like I said before all suggestions are welcome. Added to the list!

Quote: Original post by misi
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Those are great ideas! I love the idea of making a "serious" game.

The text to speech thing is interesting especially. I sense the need for artificial intelligence algorithms in there somewhere. I googled around for a bit and I found this product: Ultra Hal. The name is frightening, but it seems cool, and might be a good model to follow for a class project.