Augmented User Interfaces for Illiterate and Semi-literate Users

The digital divide is a term often used to describe differences between rich and poor communities. This term however is more encompassing than that, as it relates to the divide between those who have access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) and those who don’t. Since their appearance in the early 1980s, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) have become the standard paradigm for human computer interaction. Although their name suggests a move away from text, GUIs are designed primarily for use by literate users, with their reliance on text across all interface components, including icons, menu options and buttons. This heavy use of text on everything poses access barrier to illiterate and semi-literate users. Although there is growing interest in research focused on providing user interface (UI) alternatives for illiterate and semi-literate users, but as of yet there has been no consistent way of providing augmented UIs to bridge this digital divide. This book describes an investigation into UIs to develop an augmented user interface (AUI) that can be used by illiterate and semi-literate users.