Web Ergonomics Lab Research

The Web Ergonomics Lab Research ranges in diversity from aiding visually impaired users navigate the Web, through to the use of eye trackers to analyse how users perceive Web pages and their complexity. Below is a list of themes within which projects of the Web Ergonomics Lab operate. While the themes are varied, all the research that is undertaken has a central aspect of empowering the user in their use and navigation of the Web.

Hypertext and Open Hypermedia

Hypertext is the linking (both statically and dynamically) of documents and information to build up complex associations and cross-references between resources. By creating relations between elements, information can be enriched and enhanced as users can serendipitously discover new knowledge or combine facts and information in new and novel ways. Projects related to Hypertext and Open Hypermedia include:

COHSE: Conceptual Open Hypermedia Service

Funded by Sun Microsystems, COHSE investigates methods to improve significantly the quality, consistency and breadth of linking of WWW documents at retrieval time (as readers browse the documents) and authoring time (as authors create the documents). It produced a COHSE (Conceptual Open Hypermedia Services Environment) using three leading-edge technologies: an ontological reasoning service, a Web based open hypermedia link service and the integration of the ontology service and the open hypermedia link service.

HuCEL: Human Centred Event Linking

Part of a University pilot project, HuCEL investigates methods to extract keywords from the main content of a news Web pages to automatically generate search queries that scan the Web for related events, and display this additional information to users next to the original story. A technical evaluation of the methods indicates that users found queries to be related to the story, demonstrating that the algorithm produced quality keywords. A qualitative and quantitative user study of the links generated by the HuCEL platform also demonstrates that users found these associations to be related to the story under discussion.

Web Accessibility

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities including people with visual, motor, and cognitive impairments. By investigating the needs of such groups, Websites can be adapted or presented in ways that are more suited to the specific needs of the user, allowing all users of the Web, regardless of ability, to have access to the same content. Projects related to Web Accessibility include:

DANTE: Mobility Support for Visually Impaired Web Travellers

Part of a University pilot project, DANTE is looking at how visually impaired people access Hypermedia environments, of which the Web is the most popular example. The main goal is to devise a tool that uses a model-driven approach to analyse and transform Web pages to increase mobility in virtual environment.

SADIe: Structural-Semantics for Accessibility and Device Independence

Part of a University pilot project, SADIe is an investigation into a solution to transcode web pages in order to aid visually impaired users based on an annotation of the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) of a Website. SADIe provides the accuracy of semantic transcoding, without the time consuming tediousness of annotating every web page. Yet we also get the ability to transcode thousands of webpage in a similar fashion to rule-based transcoding, but with a higher degree of accuracy.

SASWAT: Single Structured Accessibility Stream for Web 2.0 Access Technologies

Funded by the EPSRC, SASWAT is investigating supporting visually impaired users as they interact with Web 2.0 technology. this is achieved by understanding how sighted users interact with such content and mapping that interaction to the audio required for visually impaired users.

SCWeb2: Senior Citizens On The Web 2.0

Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, SCWeb2 aims to understand the interaction of older people with Web 2.0 technologies. The objective of SCWeb2 is to create a cognitive model of ageing users’ Web 2.0 interactivity and suggest interventions, realised as an experimental assistive advisor, to overcome their interactivity problems.

TOWEL: Real World Mobility on the Web

Part of a University pilot project, TOWEL seeks to find solutions to problems encountered by both visually impaired and sighted users when traveling in the World Wide Web. Drawing similarities between real-world travel metaphors of visually impaired people and web-based travel metaphors of both visually impaired and sighted people, enhances an understanding of the problem and therefore enables solutions to these travel problems to be more easily identified.

Perception and Cognition

The Web can be complex and daunting, especially for new users or those with disabilities. In order make full use of the Web, users must develop understandings of navigation, search, page structure and hierarchy, and complex associations between documents. Through relating a user’s implicit understanding of, and interaction with, complex Web pages, we can develop methods of supporting and enhancing uses as they interact with Websites and effectively acquire the information they need. Projects related to Perception and Cognition include:

EIVAA: Empirical Investigation of Visual Aesthetics and Accessibility

Part of a University pilot project, EIVAA investigates the link between visual aesthetics and Web accessibility with the goal of supporting the delivery of aesthetic and accessible Web contents.

SASWAT: Single Structured Accessibility Stream for Web 2.0 Access Technologies

Funded by the EPSRC, SASWAT is investigating supporting visually impaired users as they interact with Web 2.0 technology. this is achieved by understanding how sighted users interact with such content and mapping that interaction to the audio required for visually impaired users.

ViCRAM: Visual Complexity Rankings and Accessibility Metrics

Part of a University pilot project, ViCRAM aims to relate the user’s implicit understanding of a visually complex Web page with its layout. In this way, Web page designs can be associated with a common Web behaviour and visual complexity that will give further insight into accessible Web page design.

ViSAS: Visual Sequencing for Audio Serialisation

Part of a University pilot project, ViSAS’ objective is to understand the characteristics of visual serialisation including its extent, variability and limitations, then use this understanding to predict a person’s path through a visual resource, thereby allowing the content to be accurately and effectively moved from a visual to an auditory presentation.

Mobile Web

The Web is becoming ubiquitous. No longer is access to Web content confined to a Web Browser running on a desktop computer but instead a raft of Web enabled devices are being developed that are not bound by location or large amounts of computing power. The Mobile Web investigates solutions that ensure device independence and place the Mobile Web in a position to access the entire Web. Projects related to the Mobile Web include:

RIAM: Reciprocal Interoperability of Accessible and Mobile Webs

RIAM investigates ways in which to integrate, to mutual advantage, research into the Accessible and Mobile World Wide Webs (Web), to develop a common infrastructure, and to validate this infrastructure using existing Web documents and Mobile client simulators. The research will investigate the use of Web documents and document objects in order to ensure device independence and place the Mobile Web in a position to access the entire Web. We assert that if the Web is accessible then it is also Mobile, and will validate our assertions by running a series of iterative experiments, testing the results of these experiments against our objectives, and using the results to refine our models and software tools.

Infrastructure and Frameworks

The Web is built upon a series of technologies that are constantly evolving. These technologies include the underlying structure of documents (using technologies such as XML and HTML), the presentation and rendering of documents (through the use of CSS and XSLT), and the development of online applications (by applying JavaScript and AJAX). By analysing the frameworks and infrastructures that the Web is composed of, Websites can be adapted to further enhance the user experience. Projects related to Infrastructure and Frameworks include:

SADIe: Structural-Semantics for Accessibility and Device Independence

Part of a University pilot project, SADIe is an investigation into a solution to transcode web pages in order to aid visually impaired users based on an annotation of the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) of a Website. SADIe provides the accuracy of semantic transcoding, without the time consuming tediousness of annotating every web page. Yet we also get the ability to transcode thousands of webpage in a similar fashion to rule-based transcoding, but with a higher degree of accuracy.

WIMWAT: Widget Identification and Modification for Web 2.0 Access Technologies

Part of a University pilot project, WIMWAT investigates the analyses the code associated with a Web page to identify Web 2.0 widgets through the use of tell-signs. By automatically identifying widgets, assistance techniques can be developed for those users who may have difficulties accessing and interacting with such components.