(C4A) Use Cases

Owned by Dana Ayotte
Last updated: Dec 09, 2014

Please Note

The following use-cases are under development. Our goal is to develop a broad range of use-cases reflecting users with a wide variety of needs and preferences. These use-cases inform the design of the Preference Management Tool and the Personal Control Panel on the Cloud4all project.
Your feedback is welcome! Please contact us if you are interested in contributing your experience as a use-case.

Sam (inspired by Sunaura Taylor)

Sam is an artist and an instructor at a local art college.  She teaches three classes per week, and spends approximately 20 hours outside of teaching marking papers, preparing her lectures, and updating the online forums for her classes.  Outside of her teaching duties she dedicates about 15 hours per week to her art practice, including online research.  Sam makes a point of going to see local art shows at least once every two weeks. In her spare time she enjoys going to the theatre and to movies with her partner, reading fiction, taking walks in her neighbourhood, and shopping for vintage clothing with friends.  In the morning she often goes to her favourite coffee shop where she reads or catches up on emails.  Occasionally she meets a friend for coffee.

Sam uses a her laptop on a daily basis to organise images of her artwork, to keep her website up-to-date, to manage email and to give slide presentations in class. She also has a desktop computer at her office, with a joystick, that she uses when she is at the college to manage her courses, including grading papers from students and managing her online course forums. She does not currently have a smartphone as she found the small touch-screen difficult to use. She has been considering getting a tablet though, because they are lighter than her laptop and easier to carry around, and she knows she could use it for her lecture presentations.  Sam's sister lent her one to try out a few days ago but she has not used it yet.  After her smartphone experience she is worried that she won't like using the touchscreen, but her sister offered to help her set it up in a way that would make it easier for her.   They have agreed to meet up on the weekend to do so.

Sam usually goes to the coffee shop every day around 9:00 am.  She likes to avoid the early morning rush of people on their way to work, since when the coffee shop is too crowded she finds it difficult to maneuver freely in her wheelchair. This morning Sam has some emails she needs to respond to.  After she gets her coffee and wheels over to her table, Sam gets out her laptop from the pouch at the side of her chair.   She stores it in a sleeve which has a stiff handle that she keeps sticking out of the top of the pouch. The handle allows her to grab the sleeve and pull it up from the side of her chair more easily.  Once on the table she slides the laptop out of its sleeve and sets it up.  Sam gets out her type-aid from the side pocket of the sleeve and straps it to her right hand.  The type-aid allows her to type on the keyboard more quickly and with better accuracy than would be possible with her hand alone.  When she is using her laptop she relies on keyboard input alone as she does not use a mouse.  Sam prefers to use speech recognition rather than typing, but isn’t comfortable doing it in a public place.  She also occasionally likes to use text to speech because she likes to give her eyes and neck a break from looking up at the monitor, especially when reading long research papers.

Cloud4all Scenarios

Scenario 1: Creation of Base Set (Preferences Management Tool)

Sam recently used her desktop computer to register her Cloud4all account and set up her base preference set*.  When she logged into the preference management tool she was asked if she wanted to create her base preference set from the device settings, using the editor, or with a step-by-step guided setup.  She chose to create her base preference set using the device settings on her desktop computer, as she already had it set up the way that she likes it. 

The following settings were detected in the preference management tool*:

  • speech recognition turned on (gathered from system preferences)
  • optional text to speech turned on (gathered from system preferences)
    • sub-settings including voice selection, speaking rate, and customized control keys
  • slow keys turned on (gathered from system preferences)
    • with medium-short delay setting
  • mouse control (gathered from system preferences)
    • double-click speed set to slow
    • cursor movement set to "no inertia"

Based on the detected settings, the Cloud4all matchmaker recommended that sticky keys also be turned on.  Sam had tried the sticky keys setting in the past but had not found it to be helpful to her, so she declined the recommendation and reviewed her detected preferences in the overview.  Since everything looked good to her, she confirmed her settings and her base preference set was saved.  She then exited the preference management tool and carried on with her work.

Scenario 2: New Device - Apply Base Set (Personal Control Panel)

Some time after creating her base set, Sam is working at home on her laptop and logs into Cloud4all. The matchmaker detects a new, personal device and determines that the settings in her base preference set are different than those on the device.  As a result, the system gives her the option of applying the base preference set to this device, or of creating a new set using the device settings.  Sam chooses to apply her base preference set because she hasn't had her laptop all that long and has never fully configured it to the best of her liking.  She figures that all of the settings in her base preference set will work well on the laptop too.  Sam selects "apply base preference set" and is prepared to carry on with her work when she gets interrupted by a phone call.  She decides to finish her work the following day at the coffee shop.

Scenario 3: Base Set Modifications - Create New Set (Personal Control Panel)

The next day, Sam goes to the coffee shop.  When she starts working on her laptop she notices that when she applied her base preference set yesterday, her Mouse Keys setting got turned off.  Sam had turned Mouse Keys on in her laptop device settings because she usually doesn't use a mouse with her laptop.  When she's at home on her laptop she uses voice commands and relies on keyboard input.  Sam wants to turn mouse keys back on.  Using voice commands, she opens the personal control panel* (PCP) in Cloud4all and enters "no mouse" in the search pane.  In the drop down search menu she finds and selects Mouse Keys and turns it on, and at the same time notices the Speech Recognition preference in her PCP.  Sam turns Speech Recognition off, because she  prefers not to use it in a public place, and now that she has mouse keys turned on she can rely entirely on keyboard input.   When she makes these modifications to her settings, a modified base set is created and an indicator appears in the upper left corner of her PCP.  She ignores this and carries on with her work.

Sam has a lot of emails to respond to today and notices that her hand is getting tired.  She decides to try adjusting the Slow Keys setting to maximum delay to see if that helps. Sam opens the Cloud4all personal control panel again, goes to Slow Keys in her list of preferences, and increases the delay setting to maximum.  She then closes the PCP and carries on with her work.  

That night, when Sam prepares to work on her laptop at home, she opens the PCP in order to change her preference set back to her Base Set - since she is no longer in a public setting, she wants to use voice commands.  However, because Sam is still using a Modified Base Set (with the changes she made earlier at the coffee shop), before she can switch sets she is asked if she wants to save her recent settings modifications to the Base Preference Set, or if she wants to create a new set.  Sam decides to save her updated settings to a new preference set so she can apply it every time she is on her laptop in a public place (or whenever she must rely solely on keyboard input).  She saves her settings in a new set that she nams "Keyboard Only".  At that point her base preference set is applied to her laptop and she carries on with her work.  After some time, Sam realises that Mouse Keys are off (as Mouse Keys = On is not stored as a preference in her base set).  This time, Sam uses the keyboard shortcut to turn Mouse Keys back on.  Later, Sam opens the PCP to save this change as a new set titled ‘Laptop Home’, because she knows that she'll want to use this preference set every time she is working on her laptop at home.     (would the matchmaker prompt her to save the location as a context? would it recognize the word "Home"? or would it automatically save location?)

Scenario 4: Application of Existing Set and Custom Set Modifications (Personal Control Panel)

On a typical Tuesday Sam arrives at her office prepared to give a lecture using slides on her laptop.  However, when she goes to power up her laptop she finds that it keeps getting hung up and that PowerPoint keeps crashing. Since she is in a rush and does not have time to figure out what the problem is, she decides to borrow a laptop from IT services at the college.  Unfortunately all of the Mac laptops have been signed out and she needs to use a Windows-based laptop.  When she powers up the borrowed laptop, she logs into Cloud4all and the matchmaker detects a new, public device and that it is a laptop.  As a result, the matchmaker asks Sam if she wants to apply her "Laptop Home" or "Keyboard Only" set, because these two sets are associated with a laptop device. Sam chooses "Keyboard Only" and the matchmaker matches her Mac preference to the Windows system.  When she goes to open her presentation, however, she notices that the slow keys setting is slightly different on the PC than it was on the Mac.  Sam quickly opens the personal control panel to adjust the setting (the Slow Keys preference appears in her PCP because she has modified it in the past).  Sam then opens her slide presentation and begins giving her lecture. (When prompted Sam does not save this set as it is only a temporary adjustment).

Later, when Sam is back in her office, she decides to go into the PMT on her desktop because she wants to attach her home location to her "Laptop Home" set.  She doesn't want to use this preference set anywhere but at home, and in order to save time in the future, she wants to avoid being asked if she wants to apply this set in any other location.  In the PMT, Sam enters her home location and this context is added to her "Laptop Home" preference set.  From now on, this preference set will be automatically applied to her laptop device whenever she is at home. 

Scenario 5: New Device - Create New Set (Preference Management Tool)

On the weekend Sam goes over to her sister's place to set up the tablet.  Sam's sister is not familiar with the Cloud4all system, but is quite knowledgeable about the system preferences that are available in the tablet and how to adjust them.  They fire up the tablet and without logging into Cloud4all, they begin to play around with the tablet system settings until Sam is fairly happy with them. They don't have enough time to explore every possibility, but they get it to the point where Sam should be able to use it in class with relative ease.

When Sam gets home she decides to try using the tablet for a while in order to get used to it.  She has a lecture to deliver tomorrow and she wants to be familiar with the device and make sure that everything is working smoothly before she gets to class.  When Sam logs into Cloud4all on the tablet, the matchmaker detects a new, personal device, and determines that the device settings are different than her base preference set.  Sam is asked if she wants to create a new set using the current device settings or apply a different set.  Sam chooses to create a new set with the device settings because she and her sister had set the tablet up the way she likes it. 

The following settings were detected in the preference management tool:

  • larger icons (gathered from system preferences)
  • scrolling set to "no inertia" (gathered from system preferences)
  • scroll speed setting low (gathered from system preferences)
  • swipe speed set to low (gathered from system preferences)

Sam confirms these settings in the overview and when prompted, saves this new set as "Tablet".

*Note: these are temporary names

Summary of Sam's Preference Sets

Base Set:

  • speech recognition turned on
  • optional text to speech turned on
    • including voice selection, speaking rate, and customized control keys
  • slow keys turned on
    • with medium-short delay setting
  • mouse control
    • double-click speed set to slow
    • cursor movement set to "no inertia"

"Keyboard Only" Set (exceptions from Base):

  • Mouse Keys ON
  • Speech Recognition OFF
  • Slow Keys Delay set to max

"Laptop Home" Set (exceptions from Base):

  • Mouse Keys ON

"Tablet" Set (exceptions from Base):

  • large icons
  • scrolling set to "no inertia"
  • scroll speed setting low
  • swipe speed set to low
  • speech recognition OFF
  • other?
Other Scenarios
  • Sam uses a train ticketing kiosk with her Tablet Set .  She finds that the settings are good enough but after using the kiosk a number of times she realises she'd like to tweak a couple of settings and make a permanent set for all future ticketing kiosk use.  Next time she's on her desktop she adjusts her Tablet Set to create a Ticket Kiosk Set.
  • Sam goes to an interactive museum and uses a touch-screen kiosk.  Her touch-screen set is applied by the matchmaker and she is happy with it!
  • Sam goes to interactive museum and uses a touch-screen kiosk.  She applies her Ticket Kiosk Set, and makes an adjustment for a brighter screen.  She does not save this set, but when she goes to another kiosk she realises that she should have so  that she can apply it at each kiosk. She makes the adjustment again, saves the set, and applies to the rest of the kiosks she uses.  She later deletes it from the PMT because she doesn't imagine needing it again soon and wants to keep her list of sets as short as possible.

Ivan

Cloud4all Registration & Preference Set Setup

Ivan registers for Cloud4all through the Preference Management Tool on his laptop. He chooses to create his base preference set using the current device settings on his computer. The following settings are detected to be modified from their default value:

  • flash/visual to sound alerts (gathered from system preferences)
  • muted audio (gathered from system preferences)
  • captions on when available in English or automatic captions through translation or speech recognition (gathered from YouTube account settings)

Ivan receives an overview of the settings he has modified and a recommendations from the matchmaker for:

  • vibration to sound alerts (based on his detected settings)
  • ASL when available (based on his detected settings)

With the overview, Ivan is able to see the detected and recommended preferences. He can make changes to the detected preferences and activate the recommended preferences. Ivan is happy with the detected preferences and activates the two recommended. He confirms these changes and creates his Base Preference Set.

Not all preferences in Ivan's base preferences set are available in all devices; however, the matchmaker will try to find the closest match. For instance, vibration is not available on Ivan's laptop - but later when Ivan uses his phone that preference will be available. For now, Ivan is content with his base preference set as it is and closes the Preference Management Tool.

Later, Ivan logs to Cloud4all on to his phone. The system detects that his Base Preference Set is the same as the preferences currently on his phone. The system links the Base Preference Set to the Phone, but to Ivan nothing is changed.
While reading at night on the phone, Ivan wants to increase the text size to ease eye strain. Ivan has three options to do so: through the application settings, through the devices settings, or through the Personal Control Panel. In all three cases, the system records his change as an modification to the base preference set. Ivan chooses to make the change through the PCP. From Ivan's interaction with the PMT and the Matchmaker, the PCP prioritizes the following preferences:

  • sound alerts alternatives
    • turn on flash/visual alerts
    • turn on vibration alerts
  • audio volume
    • mute or adjust volume level
  • speech to text
    • when available captions on in English
    • when available ASL visible

Note: Ivan can change the preferences available through the PMT. For instance, Ivan knows he would never adjust the volume control. To remove it from the PCP, Ivan unchecks it from the PMT. Likewise, he can add a preference in a PCP by checking it on the PMT. However, all preference are still available in the PCP through the search.

To access text size, Ivan does so through the PCP search feature. He increases the text size. By doing so, text size is added as a prioritized PCP preference. This change creates a temporary Modified Base Preference Set. Ivan can save this as a new set through the PCP, or to do nothing. Ivan does nothing and closes the PCP. The preference he modified remains as a temporary Modified Base Set, visible on his phone only. Later in the morning Ivan no longer requires larger text size, so he turns it back down to default using the PCP. The system is learning from this interaction.

The next time Ivan is using his phone at night, he receives a message indicating that text size has been increased. He can either undo or accept the change. The system presents this prompt to determine whether an context specific set should be automatically created. Ivan accepts the change. As a result, a new set is created in the PMT: Phone Night (automatically named). The set is a modification on top of his base set that is activated under the following contexts:

  • device: phone
  • location: home
  • time: 9:00pm - 6:00am

Next time he encounters this situation, the set would automatically change without a prompt to accept or undo. If Ivan were to undo the change, this automatic adjustment would not happen again. Ivan can also manually activate this set on any device using the PCP. Ivan has now set up all his personal device preferences in the cloud.

Daily Device Interactions

Ivan likes to wake up early to go to the gym for an hour before heading to work. His phone is set up with an alarm to wake him up at 5am. The night before, Ivan places his phone beneath his pillow so he could feel the vibration in the morning. In the morning to help him get ready, Ivan turns on the TV to his favourite morning show. He finds it useful to keep track of the clock, see the weather report, and check for any traffic delays. When he see's an interesting news story, he reads the automatically captions. They aren't always perfect but in combination with the reading headlines and seeing the news anchor talk Ivan is able to determine what the story is about. Today, there's some delay on Ivan's usual route to the gym. Ivan's car GPS determines a new route for him to take. He spends some time studying the new route, so he would have to look at it as little as possible during the ride. But just in case he needs to, Ivan switches to his larger text size preference set - so he can quickly read the next turn to take.

Ivan arrives at the gym. There he uses two devices the equipment display and the television in the background. Because the TV is viewed publicly, Ivan can not apply his preference set - luckily the captions are already turned on. However, the gym equipment recognizes Ivan and loads his base preference set. For the sound alert that would otherwise play at the end of the timer, Ivan receives a bright flash on the screen letting him now to move to the next exercise in his routine. After an hour at the gym Ivan get in the car to head to work. He no longer requires the larger text preference set, so he switches the car's GPS back to the base preference set. Ivan generally prefers the smaller size because more of interface could fit on one screen.

Ivan arrives at the office. His base preferences set that he created using his home laptop is applied to his office desktop computer as close as possible by the matchmaker. Ivan is happy with the preferences applied and does not need to make any changes using the PCP.

At the end of the day, at home Ivan uses his laptop to play a quick game and then his phone to read read a quick article before going to bed. At 9:00pm Ivan's phone automatically switched the Phone Night set. This makes it easier on his eyes to read a few more articles, but also serves as gentle reminder that it is time to go to bed.

Marnie

Marnie is 28 years old and lives in Toronto, ON.  She is an avid blogger and web designer, and also spends much of her time designing assistive devices.  Marnie does about 2 to 8 hours of volunteer work per week.  She likes to read and goes swimming once or twice a week.  She lives in a co-op building where she is expected to attend a committee meeting once a month; she puts in an additional 2 hours of work per week to complete her duties as a member of the co-op's membership committee.

Marnie does all of her design work on her laptop computer at home.  She has her laptop connected to a 19" monitor, and uses an external, ergonomic keyboard instead of the laptop's keyboard.  She carries a "pocket PC" portable word processor with her that she uses to input and store information (for example, email addresses of people she meets), and to send and receive emails. 

Marnie does not have a set schedule, but she starts each day by preparing and eating her breakfast at home.  Her attendant arrives between 9:30 and 10am to help her with bathing and skin care.  Afterwards she will often spend some time reading and sending emails on her laptop.  This can take anywhere from a half an hour to 2 hours.   She finds reading e-mails tiring, especially when there are a lot of them, and responding to e-mails can take her a long time as she types slowly.  Marnie uses an ergonomic keyboard that she lays on top of her laptop's keyboard because she likes the concave keys that cradle your fingers. She finds that her fingers tend to slip off the flat keys on her laptop.  Marnie tried various speech recognition software applications some time ago, but she was not satisfied with any of them. She found that they could not understand most of what she was saying, particularly when she got tired and her speech began to slur.

After checking emails Marnie will often do any web design work that she has to do, also on her laptop.  She uses NotePad to write code, then uploads her files using FileZilla; both of these programs are accessible for her NVDA screen reader and she finds them easy to use. If she has any design ideas on the go, she might spend the afternoon working on them.  She uses Wordperfect on her laptop, along with her larger monitor, to draw up her designs.  The large monitor allows her to see items when using applications for which her screen reader does not work.  Marnie uses a mouse when she has to (i.e. when the program she's using doesn't allow keyboard commands, or when she gets too tired to press a lot of keys), but she doesn't like to.  She has trouble seeing the cursor, and making it bigger or zooming in does not help as she has an extremely small field of vision.  Marnie  briefly tried adjusting the settings on her monitor (including brightness and contrast), but she didn't find that this helped much at all. 

Marnie would like to use a smartphone, but the ones she has tried so far have been inaccessible to her.  She would need a phone with effective voice-over, and would need a tactile keypad with large enough keys, and/or with good voice recognition. 

Cloud4all Scenarios

Scenario 1: Marnie and her Caregiver set up her Base Set (PMT)

Marnie would like to be able to use the computers at the library from time to time as she likes to search the database for audio books.  She will often just pop into the library on a whim and doesn’t always manage to search the database at home beforehand.  She also doesn’t like to carry her laptop around as she finds it heavy and awkward. Until now she has always had to ask the librarian for help in doing her database searches as the library computers are not set up in a way that she finds easy to use.  Recently she found out about the Cloud4all application and she decided to give it a try.  Her caregiver agreed to help her set up her base preference set on her laptop at home.

Marnie's caregiver logs her into Cloud4all and she is asked if she wants to create her base preference set from the device settings, using the editor, or with a step-by-step guided setup. Marnie and her caregiver agree to try the step-by-step guided setup, since they both feel quite uncertain about how to use Cloud4all, and because Marnie hasn't modified any of the system preferences on her laptop in a very long time.  She tried adjusting the brightness and contrast once, but didn't find it very helpful.  With the help of the guided set up and her caregiver, Marnie discovers a few settings that she didn't know about that she thinks might help her with typing and she decides to give them a try.  She also decides to limit the number of default keyboard shortcuts, as she finds she often accidentally hits them while typing and can't figure out what she's done.  She hopes too, that by adding a couple of custom navigational keyboard shortcuts in combination with Sticky Keys, she might be able to decrease her fatigue while typing.  Marnie also decides to reduce the speed of key repeat under keyboard settings.  In addition, the matchmaker detects Marnie's NVDA screen reader software and uploads her screen reader settings.  Marnie knows that the library uses JAWS screen reading software, and understands that Cloud4all will be able to match her NVDA settings as closely as possible to the JAWS system. 

When they are finished Marnie and her caregiver confirm the settings in the base preference set and save it. 

Marnie's Base Set now includes the following settings:

  • screen reader application settings
  • custom keyboard shortcuts
  • reduced number of default keyboard shortcuts
  • Sticky Keys ON
  • Key Repeat speed set to SLOW
Scenario 2: Alternative Preference Set-Up at the Library

> See mock-ups following scenario

Marnie enjoys borrowing audio books from the local library. Lately the library has been busy and the staff can't spend too long walking Marnie through all the audio books currently available. Marnie has tried using the computer databases but it is a very frustrating experience as she has to constantly move her head around the screen to get a sense what's on the interface and where the cursor is.

Recently the library has updated their library cards to offer a more personalized experience of all the digital library material. Curious, Marnie goes to the librarian to change her library card for the new one. She is instructed to go to one of the available computers to complete her registration.

  1. With the help of the librarian Marnie goes up to a computer and scans her new card. The usual library home page launches, but there's a new pop-up up front. The librarian explains that this is where Marine could create her preference set, while handing her the headset. Marnie navigates through the keyboard as she usually does, while the item she has focus on is read out-loud to her. (application launched screen)
  2. Marnie selects 'get started' and is prompted to either 'add preferences' or 'import current device settings'. ('my preferences' instruction screen)
  3. This is Marnie's first time customizing her preferences so she is unsure what device settings means, so selects 'add preferences'. In her headphone she listens to a welcome message and four categories as she tabs through them. (categories, search activated screen)
  4.  'Visuals & substitutes' sounds most appropriate to Marnie. At the top top of the category page a few check boxes are presented to get her started. (visuals & substitutes screen)
  5. She check the first one 'larger with contrast'. The library website behind the window increases in size and contrast. She remembers she has tried this setting and found it more difficult to orient herself on the screen. (larger with contrast checked screen)
  6. She unchecks it and goes onto the next option: 'Spoken out loud'. Marnie has tried the screen reader on the library computers before and has found it quite useful. (speak content checked screen)
  7. She is prompted to customize the option further. Clicking it anchors the page to the Screen Reader preference panel. Marnie reads through the adjustments available but decides to come back to it later when she is more comfortable using the screen reader and know better what she wants. (page scrolled screen)

Marnie goes back to the category view and checks out what is available under 'use & controls'. At the top she checks a couple of presets that might be useful for her. After that she briefly goes through all the other categories to see what's else is available. Satisfied with her current customized preferences, she exits the window. Upon closing she is asked if she wishes to save these preferences to her library card for later use. In order to do so, Marnie must agree to the privacy policy which is outlined in a few bullet points. She clicks save the window minimizes and indicates how she can open it up at any point to make some tweaks later either using a button or a keyboard shortcut.

Scenario 3: Inferred Preference Set at the Museum

Marnie goes to a museum. She notices the museum kiosk is compatible with her library card from a familiar symbol she recognizes on the side. She scans her library card and a sound with a pop-up communicates that her preference set has been applied. With the kiosk being a touchscreen-only device, Marnie is unsure of how to interact with it. The matchmaker recognizes that Marnie may be a keyboard reliant-user and offers an alternative simple gesture mode of interacting. The pop-up provides detailed audio instructions and animations of how to interact. Marnie tests out the interaction and the keypad provides appropriate feedback on successful completion or hints where needed. At the end of the instructions the kiosk indicates where Marnie could bring up her preferences if she needed to make any adjustments.

Marnie goes on to interact with the kiosk material. Since this method of interacting is new, it takes Marnie a bit of time to get used to it. As she picks it up, she notices the allowed time interval between double taps is a bit too short for her. Marnie brings up her preferences to see if there's a way to adjust the settings. Marnie receives a list of her activated preferences, which is a bit different from the library computer. The keyboard interaction preferences are removed because the absence of the hardware and some gesture preferences have been created.

These changes have not overwritten her previously created set, but instead are created as a modification on top of it. When Marnie decreases the tap interval the matchmaker recognizes the change to the inferred set and will remember it on the next time Marnie comes across a similar device, even if Marnie doesn't save the changes.

The next kiosk Marnie goes to has the same touchscreen; she is quickly able to dismiss the instruction screen and go straight to the kiosk material. The matchmaker recognizes the similar device and applies the same inferred set but with the learned modification Marnie made at the last