Research & Development
”My WeeK” project
A user-centered design of an “online diary to gather information on Out of School Activities for Disabled Children and Young people” In partnership with Leeds City Council and Leeds Learning Network.
Barugh Green primary School Research Collaboration
usability north, in collaboration with Barugh Green primary School , intend to undertake research into the early stages of reading skills acquisition. The research will explore how children learn how to read. The methodology will involve the use of state of the art eye tracking equipment and video recording devices to explore the nature of the children’s eye movements and other interactions during this process. A successful pilot study (up to 3 children) has already been undertaken to assess the feasibility of such a study using the university’s Tobii eye tracker. A further study is planned in the near future such that by the end of the project data from up to 30 children will have been collected. All the eye tracking and video recording is done under the supervision of the teaching staff, on site at Barugh Green School . The questions to be explored in this study are
- What strategies of text and picture integration do children utilise as they learn how to read?
- How frequently are the words referred to,
- How much time is spent on the pictures as opposed to the words?
- Are there differences in eye movements between good readers and poor readers (as assessed by the teacher)?
Access Through Design Research Group
This group is interested in case study research that explores designing accessible interfaces through interactive design. We are interested in studies that explores the disabled users’ experience of interactive technologies, engaging the disabled user in the design and evaluation process (Email Elizabeth Allgar if you are interested in joining the Access Through Design Research Group)
The group is currently involved in the following projects:
- Engage disabled children in the user centred design process are the ”My Week” project
- Evaluating Skills for Learning Website with disabled students.
- Exploring eye tracking as a tool for identifying and measuring interaction and communication skills with children and adults with pMLD and Retts Syndrome. This research is in collaboration with Stephen Hay from the University of Leeds.
Games & Eye Tracking research
Eye tracking gives us a unique insight into a player's involvement and experience within a game. We intend to conduct research into a range of techniques to determine which in addition, to providing signifiers of satisfaction or frustration, gives us a detailed, re-playable record of how the player has interacted with the game. As well as the immediately obvious applications for play testing this also allows us to explore aspects of level design and usability.
In the rapidly expanding area of e-sports the eye tracking facilities allow us to compare experienced and naïve players and identify techniques for success in much the same way as an athlete might analyse video footage of their performance.
Advertising is an increasingly important revenue stream for games development but there is little evidence as to its effectiveness. Our current work with eye tracking in games allows us to accurately examine player's experience of in-game advertising.