A FRAMEWORK FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF HUMAN COMPUTER

INTERACTION FOR THE VISUALLY IMPARED USING ADAPTIVE USER

INTERFACES

By

KHATUSHI SHEILLAH MULIRU

SIT/G/01-53890/2019

A RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND

INFORMATICS IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD
OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OF MASINDE MULIRO
UNIVERSTITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

January 2022
ii
 DECLARATION

This is my original work and has not been submitted for examination in any other institution.

Signature: _______________________ Date: ___________________________

khatushi S. Muliru

APPROVAL

We confirm that this proposal is submitted with our approval as the University supervisors:

Signature: _______________________ Date: ___________________________

Signature: _______________________ Date: ___________________________

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my Supervisors Dr. Ondulo and
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx for their continuous support of my research work, for their patience,
motivation, and immense knowledge. Their guidance helped me in all the time of research and
writing of this proposal.

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 ABSTRACT

Effective interfaces and their interaction styles are considered to play a major role towards mass
and massive adoption of technology. More recent Human Compute Interaction research
objectives are concerned with tasks, shared understanding, and with explanations, justifications,
and argumentation about actions, and not just with interfaces. The new essential challenges are
improving the way people use computers to work, think, communicate, learn, Critique, explain,
argue debate, observe, decide, calculate, simulate, and design. Focus will be those who are blind
where it is estimated that 600 million people or approximately 10% of the worlds population
have a disability of one form or another and over two-thirds of these live in developing countries.
In Kenya, in a population of 38 million 4.6 of Kenyans experience some form of disability, and
most of them reside in rural areas. Many people persons with disability often cite experiencing
discrimination when trying to interact effectively with computers. The main aim of this research
will be to develop come up with a framework that enhances human computer interaction through
the use of intelligent and adaptive user interfaces along with its associated components. This
study shall investigate Attention will also be given to interaction styles enriched with good
expression capabilities and natural characteristics to achieve higher user acceptance, usability
and satisfaction level. A review of relevant literature is explored regarding intelligent and
adaptive interfaces both in developed and developing countries. Data shall be collected This
research will collect data from the population characterized by three sets of respondents; the
blind computer user, the cyber café owner merchant and the computer trainer. An experimental
research design will be employed to collect data from the respondents that include the students in
a at Aluor School for the Blind and in particular, the blind computer user and computer trainers.
To analyze data, an appropriate computer software package will be employed where tabulations
and summaries will be analyzed and graphs drawn. Findings and information from the study can
be used to come up with a framework and add to the field of knowledge that is in intelligent and
adaptive user interfaces. Also, this research aims to stress that for intelligent and adaptive user
interfaces to be widely accepted, interactivity must be ensured and enforced at all times and that
all users must have confidence in the interface in order to use it.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION........................................................................................................................................ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT....................................................................................................................iii

Definition of Key Terms.........................................................................................................................vi

ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................................vii

CHAPTER ONE........................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................1

1.1 Background to the Study.......................................................................................................................1

1.2 Statement of the Problem.....................................................................................................................2

1.3 Research Objectives...............................................................................................................................2

1.4 Research Questions...............................................................................................................................2

1.5 Significance of the Study........................................................................................................................3

1.6 Limitations of the Study.........................................................................................................................3

1.7 Assumptions of the study......................................................................................................................3

CHAPTER TWO.......................................................................................................................................5

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................................................5

2.1 Introduction...........................................................................................................................................5

2.2 Intelligent Interfaces and Intelligent Systems.......................................................................................5

2.3 Assistive Multimodal Systems................................................................................................................6

2.4 Benefits and criticisms...........................................................................................................................7

2.5 User modeling in the Intelligent user interfaces...................................................................................12

2.6 Applications and usage for the intelligent user interfaces...................................................................14

2.7 Definition and Related Areas...............................................................................................................14

2.8 Research gap........................................................................................................................................15

CHAPTER THREE...................................................................................................................................17

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY..................................................................................................................17

3.0 Introduction.........................................................................................................................................17

3.1 Research Design...................................................................................................................................17

3.2 Target Population................................................................................................................................17

3.3 Sample size and Sampling techniques................................................................................................18

3.4 Data collection Procedures..................................................................................................................19

3.5 Research instruments..........................................................................................................................19

3.6.1 Validity of research instruments.......................................................................................................20

3.7 Reliability of research Instrument........................................................................................................20

3.8 Expected Output..................................................................................................................................20

3.9 Plan of work needed to develop the framework.................................................................................21

REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................................22

APPENDICES.........................................................................................................................................26

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 ABSTRACT

Effective interfaces and their interaction styles play a major role towards mass and massive
adoption of technology. In Kenya, in a population of 38 million 4.6 of Kenyans experience some
form of disability, and most of them reside in rural areas. Many people with disability cite
experiencing discrimination when trying to interact effectively with computers. The main aim of
this research will be to develop a framework that enhances human computer interaction through
the use of intelligent and adaptive user interfaces along with its associated components. The
study will be guided by the ollowing specific objectives: to explore the current research on
intelligent and adaptive user intefaces, to investigate whether a variety of user and task
characteristics impact user performance and satisfaction in different visualization contexts, to
develop a framework that enhances human computer interaction for the blind persons and to
evaluate the developed framework in order to ensure it addresses the drawbacks presented by the
existing frameworks.

Data shall be collected from the population characterized by three sets of respondents; the blind
computer user, the cyber café owner merchant and the computer trainer. An experimental
research design will be employed to collect data from the respondents that include the students in
a School for the Blind and in particular, the blind computer user and computer trainers. To
analyze data, an appropriate computer software package will be employed where tabulations and
summaries will be analyzed. Findings and information from the study can be used to come up
with a framework and add to the field of knowledge that is in intelligent and adaptive user
interfaces. Also, this research aims to stress that for intelligent and adaptive user interfaces to be
widely accepted, interactivity must be ensured and enforced at all times and that all users must
have confidence in the interface in order to use it.

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 Definition of Key Terms

User Adaptivity - Techniques that allow the user - system interaction to be adapted to different
users and different usage situations.

User Modelling - Techniques that allow a system to maintain knowledge about a user.

Natural Language Technology - Techniques that allow a system to interpret or generate natural
language utterances, in text or in speech,

Dialogue Modelling - Techniques that allow a system to maintain a natural language dialogue
with a user, possible in combination with other interaction means (multimodal dialogue),

Explanation Generation -Techniques that allow a system to explain its results to a user.

Computerization -is the use of computers to assist humans in carrying out specific tasks.

ICT- is the general term used in relation to Information and communications technology

Data Base-A database is a collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. It
could be hierarchical or horizontal as in a network.

Service delivery- refers to the mode of exchange of information items and other services
between the public and the government departments.

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x
xi
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

In the current technological era, many applications are developed and released to the market for
users to purchase and use (Zahmatkesh & Al-Turjman, 2020). The main aim of any application
software is being to address a particular need for the user (Yang, et al.,2020). Though to some
extent this has been achieved, many applications still exhibit many lots of challenges in terms of
how they interact with the users (Khan & Khusro, 2021).. Some of These challenges include are
poorly planned menus, improper use of colors, icons that do not make sense to the users, lack in
ability to personalize, adapt the user interfaces as per the users desires amongst others (Khan &
Khusro, 2021).(Carroll, 2008) These deficiencies slowly but surely lead towards user
inconvenience, disruption and dissatisfaction. As a result usability, acceptability and user
satisfaction of the system hampers adversely. Therefore, definitely there is a need of enhanced,
intelligent and adaptive next-generation interfaces enriched with many more attributes (Khan &
Khusro, 2021). For applications however sophisticated as they may seem, their success is
measured by the way they are capable to interact with the users in as comfortable way as
possible (Hussain, et al., 2018).

In the present technological era, computers are available everywhere and for everyone,
challenges are presented across computer science in the design and engineering of systems, in
systems modelling, and in the design of user interface (Machado et al., 2018 Niitsuma et al
2009) . Contemporary human-computer interaction models, whether command-line, menu-
driven, or GUI-based, are inappropriate and inadequate to the ubiquitous case. This suggests that
the "natural" interaction paradigm appropriate to a fully robust ubiquitous computing has yet to
emerge - although there is also recognition in the field that in many ways we are already living in
a ubicomp world. The natural user interface enables the user to be transformed from being
novice to an expert.

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The challenges experienced with the traditional software are even more stressful to the persons
living with disablities where it is estimated that 600 million people or approximately 10% of the
worlds population have a disability of one form or another and over two-thirds of these live in
developing countries (Khan, & Khusro, 2019)Degener & Quinn, 2000). Around 80 per cent of
them live in developing countries and evidence suggests that they tend to be poorer than their
counterparts without disabilities. It is well established that there is a gap, a digital divide, within
and between societies in the degree to which different groups have access to and use information
and communications technologies (ICT) (DiMaggio et al. 2004; Hargittai 2003; Lenhart et
al.2003; Norris 2001; van Dijk 2005; Warschauer 2003 Iqbal, Ahmad, Shahzad, Naqvi, & Feroz,
2018). One such groups of people are people living with disabilities and, hence, has led to the
coining of the term, disability divide. For those who live on less than one dollar a day, one in five
is a person with disabilities (United-Nations, 2007). In Kenya, in a population of 38 million 4.6
of Kenyans experience some form of disability. , and ...........

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Most of the application software today are complex in terms of their interactivity with the users,
which has in most cases led to user inconvenience, disruption and dissatisfaction. The situation
becomes even worse when the blind persons attempt to use the applications. Hence in the long
run, usability, satisfaction and acceptability by user of the system hampered adversely. It is
hence definite that there exists a need of enhanced, intelligent and adaptive next-generation
interfaces enriched with many more attributes to take care of this special group of blind persons.

1.3 Research Objectives

The main aim of this study will be to come up with a framework that enhances the human
computer interaction using intelligent and adaptive user interfaces. Specifically it will seek:

i. To explore the current research on do an investigation on some of the existing research

works on intelligent and adaptive user intefaces
ii. To investigate whether a variety of user and task characteristics impact user performance
and satisfaction in different visualization contexts.

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 iii. To develop a framework that enhances human computer interaction for the blind persons
iv. To evaluate the developed framework in order to ensure it addresses the drawbacks
presented by the existing frameworks

1.4 Research Questions

i. What are the some of the existing research works on intelligent and adaptive user
interfaces?
ii. What are some of the user and task characteristics that can impact user performance and
satisfaction?
iii. What are some of the notable advancements that have taken place in the area of adaptive
user interfaces?
iv. What are some of the tools for evaluation of new frameworks to ensure their conformity
to the needs of the users?

1.5 Significance of the Study

We live in a technological era where most of computer programs, applications software together
with associated interactive interfaces seem to be complicated, hard to understand and use. While
the prime objective of these user interfaces is to make the users interaction with the
computational system as optimum as possible, many times even an experienced professional user
bumps into problem during interacting with a computer, can’t make full use of system and does
not enjoy the interaction at all due to ill-designed interfaces .
The study also highlights other core issues pertinent to the disabled in the ICT sector where the
majority of their entrepreneurs are concentrated with the aim of providing a comparison with
their peers who do not necessarily have physical or sensory challenges to scholars. The core
issues highlighted in the recommendations may together with the findings of other similar
studies be used to influence government policy on the disabled entrepreneurs.

1.6 Limitations of the Study

The study will focus on the challenges that users face while using computers specifically the
blind. As such, the study findings will be limited to this area and may not be necessarily
generalizable. Also majority of the target respondents are not able to type using the keyboard and
hence the use of other input techniques such as e-speaking may prove hard for them. This is

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likely to present an interaction challenge. Availability of information will be made easier due to
presence of experienced civil servants on the issue of IT in government offices.

1.7 Assumptions of the study

The assumptions of the study are that the targeted groups have one or more information
technology related installation in place and that it is being used to serve the students. It is also
assumed that the respondents are fairly conversant with the issues at hand and will fully
cooperate with the study and will answer all the questions correctly and truthfully, and also that
the sample taken will be representative of the entire population of government departments in
Siaya town. In addition it is expected that the objectives stated will be met, and the research
instruments will meet the validity and measurement for the desired construct.

Another assumption is that other factors like industrial actions will not interfere with the research
and that there will be enough time to conduct the research; this will be mediated by the
delimitation of the research to a manageable area.

Finally it is assumed that the research will be successful financial constraints notwithstanding.

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 CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
This chapter looks at the transformations that adaptive interfaces have made since its inception.
It will also consider the different research efforts in this field as well as the challenges involved.
Finally the chapter will consider and discuss any promising lead in the area of adaptive user
interfaces.

More recent HCI research objectives (Fischer, 1993a) are concerned with tasks, with shared
understanding, and with explanations, justifications, and argumentation about actions, and not
just with interfaces. The new most pressing challenges are thus improving the way people use
computers to work, think, communicate, learn, critique, explain, argue, debate, observe, decide,
calculate, simulate, and design.

Adaptive systems are systems which can alter aspects of their structure, functionality or interface
in order to accommodate the differing needs of individuals or groups of users and the changing
needs of users over time (Benyon, Innocent & Murray, 1987). Adaptive systems seek to take
over the burden of tailoring systems to individuals and groups.

Though intelligent and adaptive user interfaces may be considered a new research field, we will
consider having an insight to the state of the art Intelligent User Interface applications. Of
interest will be most relevant Intelligent User interfaces applied in real domains. The researcher
intends to carry out methodological analysis of these systems, comparing their advantages,
limitations as well as domain dependence necessary for its success that can lead to its
unconditional acceptance by the user. The literature review will seek to uncover common
principles for effective Intelligent User Interface designs. Some of the techniques that will be
important to consider include the intelligent input technology, User modeling, User adaptivity,
Explanation generation, Personalization and Usage flexibility

2.2 Intelligent Interfaces and Intelligent Systems

A lot of discussion has since been fronted as to whether Intelligent User Interfaces are the same
as intelligent systems. A system that has some form of intelligence is not necessarily an

5
intelligent user interface. Many a times intelligent system exhibit very simple user interfaces
even to the point of having text-based text based user interfaces without any form of
intelligence. Mostly the technology in which the Intelligent User interfaces are based on has an
underlying connection with the core parts of the system, at times it is actually the system itself.
Traditionally, it is normal to find that many applications for specific domains for example power
plants do not get adequate attention to their user interface side. Also it is quite normal to find
that the process of developing an intelligent system may put on the inner parts, algorithms and
data manipulation while leaving out the user interface as another system component (Hook,
1999).

2.3 Assistive Multimodal Systems

As a result of disabilities of either hands or arms, many people are unable to operate a standard
computer mouse or keyboard. Therefore, one possible alternative for these persons is multimodal
system, which allows controlling a computer without using standard mouse and keyboard that
may either include using head movements to control the cursor across the computer screen or
using the speech for giving the control commands (Karpov et al, 2005). In this case, the
automatic speech recognition and head tracking in joint multimodal system are combined in the
system. A multimodal system has the ability to processes the input information thereby
controlling the PC devices. In order to get output, the standard means of PC are used including a
monitor for graphical output as well as sound card and speakers for audio output. A multimodal
system for blind people mainly concentrates on the emotion recognition, facial moves, eye
detection, etc. Speech and head-based control systems have a great potential for improving the
life comfort of disabled people, their social protectability and independence from other people.
Hands-free control devices such as hands-free mouse and keyboard for access to PC are effective
applications of these technologies. Users who have difficulties using the standard PC control
devices could manipulate cursor merely by moving their heads and giving the speech command
instead of clicking the buttons. Unfortunately, a person's disability may affect his neck and head
movements along with hands and arms. For instance, a person may have reduced active neck
rang.

Research has shown that speech communication is an efficient way of transmitting information
between humans, who have communicated using spoken language for thousands of years. It is
evident that in direct manipulation interfaces, users interact by selecting linked texts or icons that
represent commands to the system. This in the long term limits users in that everything these
users want to do at any given time have to be represented in the GUI. In an attempt to fix this
limitation many GUIs have tried to make all commands available through keyboard shortcuts.
However, the meanings of the words used in menus, the icons in the tool bars and the keyboard

6
shortcuts all have to be learned by the users. This would not be necessary in a system where the
users could say what they wanted to do using unrestricted spoken language.

Though the speech interfaces of today can handle more complex syntax, they cannot understand
unrestricted spoken language hence in order to get a reasonable performance they have to use a
restricted dictionary and grammar, leading to a vocabulary problem. Similarly, users find it hard
to know the limitations of what they can say, and to explore the set of possible tasks they can
perform using speech (Yankelovich, 1996). There is recorded difficulty especially on the part of
the dialogue designer to anticipate how people will express what they want to do. According to
Furnas et al. (1987), there is an argument that even people interacting with computers via
command language are capable of using many different terms to express the same thing.
Furthermore, Brennan (1990) refers to a report from the HP Natural Language project 1986,
called “7000 variations on a single sentence.” Nonetheless, there are some general features of
spoken interaction that make it possible to predict what people will say when they engage in
spoken dialogue. There are regularities in dialogues that can be used when designing spoken
dialogue systems. People usually adjust their way of talking according to the receiver, hence also
when they interact with computers. Computer-directed speech has in previous studies been
shown to be simpler in syntax resulting in shorter utterances, has smaller lexical variation and
uses ambiguous pronouns and anaphoric expressions in a restricted way (Guindon 1988,
Kennedy et al. 1988, Dahlbäck 1991, Oviatt 1995, Bell and Gustafson 1999b). People also tend
to use the same words as the system when referring to various concepts in the dialogue (Brennan
1996, Gustafson et al. 1997).

Multimodal systems mainly use a higher level of abstraction from which they are capable of
generating output hence they transform the user input (Coutaz et al. 1994). Therefore, we can say
that multimodal systems can render the same information through different output channels, and
that they can fuse user input that was transmitted through multiple channels into a single
message. A benefit of multimodality is the fact that users can combine multiple modalities to
transfer a single message, which has been shown to decrease error rates (Bangalore and Johnston
2000, Oviatt and VanGent1996)

2.4 Some of the research works on adaptive user interfaces

Maes and Wernn explain that the research on intelligent user interfaces is considered a relatively
a new area that is not yet unified and is evolving steadily. Their argument is that the number of
challenges is bare and that better approaches and solutions are still needed in this field. In their
research, they present that the central problem can be reduced to the fact that intelligent user
interfaces tend to violate some of the long time established and accepted principles in the
traditional user interfaces development. Maes’s research work at the MIT Media Lab (Maes,
1994) and findings reported by Wernn (Wernn, 1997) present an extensive explanation of

7
potential applications and domains for intelligent user interfaces, clearly establishing the points
that have to be discussed and resolved before Intelligent user interfaces become widely accepted
and used in commonplace. Rothrock et al(2002) agrees with the concept presented by Maes. He
goes further to explain that the concept of adaptive User Interface is recognized as a promising
direction in intelligent system design for over the last few decades. It is established that many
HCI researchers (Shneiderman, 1997) claim that adaptive systems are unpredictable and less
transparent than a traditional user interface. They say that whenever a system is able to adapt its
response but cannot provide the same output twice for the same input, then such system becomes
unpredictable.
In their research about the Mixed-initiative interfaces, Amentano(2006) and Birnbaum(1997)
explain that intelligent and adaptable interfaces provide the user with full control over the
interface by letting him manage and even customize the adaptation through selections of
available options to personalize and adapt the interface. Never the less, we may find a situation
where the adaptive interfaces have sufficient intelligence and autonomy to evaluate the current
state and make a decision to achieve some kind of adaptation without the user's intervention. A
mixed-initiative or combined-initiative interfaces, is the situation where the interaction and
control over the interfaces is shared between the user and the system.

In their presentation, Ekaterina Vasilyeya,Mykola Pechenizkiy and Seppo Puuronen also explain
that the the concept of adaptive user interface is recognized as a promising direction in intelligent
system design for over the last ten years (Rothrock et al 2002). They argue that part of the
important goals of an adaptive user interface would be to take into account special perceptual
and physical impairments of users so as to enable them use a system more efficiently, with
minimal errors and frustration (Jameson, 2003; Weld et al, 2003). We can hence say that
adaptation exists in one of the interface subsystems such as information lay-out, human-
computer dialogue language, and navigation support. They further explain that one of the most
studied adaptive user interface techniques is the incremental one (Brusilovsky, 1999). Yet it
should be mentioned that there exists only some systems that support Adaptive User Interface
functionality (Paymans et al, 2004). At the same time, some HCI researchers are abit skeptical to
the whole concept of intelligent user interfaces. The skepticism is because of two major reasons
such as previous failures of AI to fulfill its promises, as well as lack of transparency and
predictability that are main principles of usability (Höök, 2000). Paymans (Paymans et al, 2004)

8
also show that a user do not experience any serious difficulty in building adequate mental models
of the systems with an adaptive user interface. The adaptive systems can be classified into either
adaptive and adaptable user interfaces. For example, in some internet portals a user can be
allowed to to single out the specific information he wants to see. Adaptation technologies are
aimed to provide amongst others content adaptation, structure adaptation and presentation
adaptation (Abidi et al, 2003; Brusilovsky et al, 2002). Such system provides content adaptation
by adaptive selection and prioritization of the most relevant items when a user searches for
relevant information. Content adaptation is organized via several techniques, for example via
page variants, fragment variants, adaptive stretch text, and adaptive natural language generation
methods (Brusilovsky et al, 2002). One example of adaptive navigation support is the
incremental management of hyperlinks (hiding, sorting, annotating, removing, and adding)
during a user navigation session. Presentation adaptation commonly includes the adaptation of
visible components layout (text positioning, graphics, multimedia inclusion/exclusion,
background, variations, and GUI interfaces).

Billsus and Pazzani explain that instead of some systems asking the user to assess his position on
a dimension explicitly, such systems try to infer user’s position on the basis of his explicitly
evaluative responses to specific issues. In such a scenario, such systems may present icons such
as “thumbs-down” and “thumbs-up” , checkboxes, or even rating scales. They further describe
that some of the items that the user evaluates may include items that he is currently experiencing
directly such as the current web page or actions that he has just performed (Billsus & Pazzani,
2000; Wolfman et al., 2001), and the items that the user must judge on the basis of a description
such as the abstract of a talk, a table listing the attributes of a physical product or the mere name
of an item such as a movie that they may have had some experience with in the past. Therefore
the physical effort required is usually that of a simple act like a mouse click. In such a case, the
cognitive effort depends in part on how directly available the item is.

In his work on Personalized and adaptive user interface framework for mobile application,
Nivethika details that user interfaces in mobile applications are complex due to the fact that they
need to provide sufficient attributes to users in a limited space where a small number of
components are available. He further explains that whenever a user acquires expertise in the

9
system, such user expect user interfaces which satisfy his/her unique needs. Therefore, user
interfaces in mobile applications should be adapted to different users.

The research works explained above agree on the concept that there exists a problem whenever
users with different characteristics attempt to access and use most applications therefore a
general solution is required to make such interfaces adaptive using user context history.
Nivethika for example in his framework introduces a conceptual prototype framework for mobile
applications to make the user interfaces adaptive to the user. This framework identifies suitable
experience levels to user by learning their history of interactions with applications and then
displays adaptive user interfaces.

The research works discussed however differ on the process of attaining adaptivity with some
researchers having an opinion that the adaptivity process is not flexible, and thus cannot be easily
transferred between applications. Nivethika for example is for the opinion that if only some of
the adaptivity constituents, determinants, goals, or rules need to be modified, then the adaptivity
process has to be redesigned. Billsus and Pazzani explain that in the case where the user’s
abilities are not included in the set of adaptivity determinants of a particular application, their
subsequent incorporation in an alternative version of the application that aims to address the
requirements of people with special needs is not straightforward.

In summary all the researchers agree that people with special needs need to factored in the
current technological dispensation of assistive technology especially in the area of adaptive user
interfaces. For the young blind persons, this technology increases a student’s opportunities for
education, social interactions, and potential for meaningful employment. It also supports a
student’s participation in learning experiences in the least restrictive environment. Intelligent and
adaptive user interfaces is considered a powerful tool that would help the students to benefit
from the general education curriculum, and access extracurricular activities in home, school, and
work environments.

2.5 User modeling in the Intelligent user interfaces

A user model is defined as a representation of the knowledge and preferences perceived by the
system about the user i.e. what the system believes that the user possesses. A user model is
separable by the system from the rest of its knowledge and contains explicit assumptions about

10
the user. The user model is used to provide adaptivity either by intervention or by co-operative
agreement with a user. Providing adaptive functionality requires that a user model controls an
inference engine and often implies that it samples user behavior. It may infer perceived goals and
courses of actions and act upon such decisions, altering features of the interaction to meet the
task and personal needs of individuals. User models may be highly pragmatic in that

They represent only what is required in order to facilitate the required adaptation. Other user
models may be orientated towards a realistic description of the user. (Murray, 1987) refers to
these as ‘Embedded User Models’ (EUMs). In contrast to mental models or designers’ models,
which are intangible, user models are representations of user features and decisions which are
accessible by the system software. The User interface and User Modeling are always seen as
related and as one entity. User model consists of the algorithms that are implemented in the
software level to show the personalization concept from the system's perspective.

When using a user modeling technique, each user’s profile is generated and grouped
appropriately Each user model represents and contains information about a group of users which
share common traits like similar type of personality, emotional states, habits, preferences,
objectives, interests etc. After collecting the knowledge and information about user it is
transformed into formats in which it can be stored in computer memory and later can be used
efficiently by Inference Engine for making new inferences and learning. Predicate Logic,
Bayesian Networks, Scripts, Fuzzy Logic, Semantic Networks, Frames etc are frequently used
knowledge representation schemes. The Inference Engine (equipped with efficient inference
making algorithm like resolution for predicate logic) processes this information/ knowledge and
deduces new information about the user. This learning is reflected in future interactions with the
user.

Over the last 20 years, User interfaces (UI) for the computing systems have changed. The first
UIs based on text that used a command prompt to access the operating system resources, have
been replaced for user graphics interfaces (GUIs) that are manipulated through entry devices like
keyboard and mouse. At present, user interfaces attempt to be more intuitive to the user by
presenting graphic elements visually associated with real elements by the use of metaphors (Dix
et al, 2003.)

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An interaction paradigm widely used in the current operating systems is the use of multiple
windows to present information as well as the use of icons to represent environment elements
such as folders, files, devices, etc, and the use of menus and buttons, that facilitate the interaction
with the system. This paradigm known as WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointers) was
developed by Xerox PARC in the 80's, and was initially used by Apple Macintosh computers
and currently present in others operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, OS/ Motif, Risc
OS and X Window System (Shneiderman & Plaisant, 2004.) However, still with these advances
and the functionality offered by current GUIs, most of current GUIs are still limited as to how to
handle the differences existing between the different UI users, being clear that exists limitation in
the development of systems that can be personalized and adapted to the user and to the
environment.

Intelligent User Interfaces is a HCI sub-field and its goal is to improve the interaction human-
computer by the use of new technologies and interaction devices, as well as through the use of
artificial intelligence techniques that allow exhibiting some kind of adaptive or intelligent
behavior.

2.6 Applications and usage for the intelligent user interfaces

Intelligent user interfaces attempt to solve some of the problems that traditional user interfaces,
known as direct manipulation cannot handle appropriately (Shneiderman, 1997). The following
are some areas where intelligent user interfaces are very appropriate

2.6.1 Creating personalized systems:

In a scenario where there are two with each one having different habits, preferences and ways of
working. An intelligent user interface can take into consideration these differences and provide
personalized interaction methods.

2.6.2 Filtering problems and information over-load:

Since finding the required information in a computer or in the Internet can be a complicated task,
it is hence expected of an intelligent interface to reduce the quantity of relevant information to
look at in a large database.

12
2.6.3 Providing help for new programs:
As the users begin to understand the various program functionalities, new versions or upgrades
appear including new functionality. In this situation an intelligent help system can detect and
correct an inappropriate usages or sub optimal task accomplishments by explaining new concepts
and providing information to simplify the tasks.

2.7 Definition and Related Areas

Over ages, there are numerous definitions of intelligence that have been proposed when defining
systems and behaviors. However there is no consensus that exists on what needs to be considered
an intelligent system or behavior. Nevertheless, most of proposed definitions associate the
adaptation ability, ability to learn and handle new situations, ability to communicate and the
ability to solve problems (Russell & Norvig, 2003). A "normal" user interface is defined as a
communication between a user (human) and a machine (Meyhew, 1999.) An extension of this
definition for an intelligent interface is that computer uses some kind of human intelligence
component to complete the human-computer communication. Likewise, they are also known as
adaptive interfaces, since they have the ability to adapt to the user, communicate with him and
solve its problems. A formal definition is as follow: “Intelligent user interfaces (Intelligent user
interfaces) are human-machine interfaces that aim to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and
naturalness of human-machine interaction by representing, reasoning, and acting on models of
the user, domain, task, discourse, and media (e.g., graphics, natural language, gesture)”.
(Maybury, 1999).

Since adaptation and problem solving are core topics in the artificial intelligence research area, a
lot of Intelligent user interfaces are orientated to the use of AI techniques, however not all
Intelligent user interfaces have learning or problem solving capabilities. Many of the currently
denominated intelligent interfaces are aimed to improve aspects related to the communication
channel between the user and the system (machine) by applying novel interaction techniques
such as Natural Language processing, gaze tracking and facial recognition. HCI literature reveals
that a lot of research fields have influenced the intelligent user interfaces development to its
current state. Related areas to intelligent interfaces include disciplines such as psychology,
ergonomics, human factors, cognitive sciences and others. One of the most important properties

13
for intelligent user interfaces is that they are designed to improve the interaction and
communication channel between the user and the machine.

2.8 Research gap

Much of the research work reviewed is targeted towards modeling persons with physical and
sensory disabilities such as hearing and visual impairments. A number of the research efforts
have covered partially cognitive disabilities. In the light of accessibility of user interfaces, user
models are supposed to cover all aspects of disability. Some of the user models for example,
consider visual disabilities without looking at other types of disabilities such as hearing or
cognitive. Hence for user models to become complete while covering all disabilities, a lot of
work in user studies and statistical analysis is required. Users needs and their characteristics
need to be thoroughly researched in order for a particular model to be used for a particular group.
This helps in adequately getting as much information about the user as possible. Therefore, an
emerging challenge is the need for more intensified research efforts in discovering, documenting
and modeling user needs for persons who are blind in the way they can interact with computers.
The framework should hence be able to address the need for situated assistance systems that
monitor and support a users daily activities and Speech based multimodal dialogue systems

14
 CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction
This chapter describes specific procedures for the purposed research framework including
research design, population, sampling procedures and sample size, instrumentation, reliability
and validity of instrument, data collection procedures and data analysis techniques. It has been
organized systematically to reveal these procedures and their appropriateness for the study.

3.1 Research Design

The researcher will use analytical, descriptive and experimental designs in which case the subjects are
randomly assigned to an experimental group which receives the treatment or to a control group which
does not receive treatment. In this case the subjects will be classified as to those that are capable of
interacting computers using the available natural input technologies despite being blind and those that are
not capable to use computers at all. This is because Experimental research focuses mainly on the
relationships between known variables.

Experimental research is generally recognized as the most appropriate method for drawing causal
conclusions about instructional interventions, for example, which instructional method is most
effective for which type of student under which conditions. In a careful analysis of educational
research methods, it is concluded that from a scientific perspective, randomized trials are the
ideal for establishing whether one or more factors caused change in an outcome because of their
strong ability to enable fair comparisons (Shavelson &Towne, 2002)

3.2 Target Population

Siaya town was established by the British during the colonial era, is Kenyas 4 th largest town. It
has since grown into a cosmopolitan town whose township status was awarded in 1904 and
became a Municipality in 1952. It has witnessed tremendous growth over the years as a result of
being a transit town, a tourist destination and has favorable climatic conditions. Siaya is a fastest
growing town in east and central Africa. It is the former administrative headquarters of Rift
Valley province and now administration hub for Siaya County and also serves in the same
capacity for the district. The information technology industry in the town is also thriving. The
target populations are members of a real or hypothetical people to whom a researcher wishes to

15
generalize the results of the study (Gall, Borg & Gall, 2003). The target population will be
students and teachers at Aluor School for the Blindin Siaya. The targeted respondents in the
school will be 231 people

3.3 Sample size and Sampling techniques

Sampling may be defined as the selection or some part of an aggregate or totality on the basis of
which a judgment or inference about aggregate or totality is made. In other words, it is the
process of obtaining information about an entire population by examining only a part of it
(Kothari, 2004). Franked and Wallen (2000) defined sampling as a procedure of selecting
members of a research sample from the accessible population which ensures that conclusions
from the study can be generalized to the study population. A sample is a smaller group obtained
from the accessible population and each member has equal chance of being selected to be a
sample. It is also a finite part of a statistical population about the whole (Mugenda and Mugenda,
2003). Simple random sampling will be used to select the respondents so that each member of
the target population had an equal chance of being selected. The main factor that will be
considered in determining sample size is the need to keep it manageable.

3.3.2 Sampling Frame

These will then be distributed in the sampling frame according to the concentration of persons
with disabilities in the respective areas as shown in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Spreading the sample across the study area

Location Number of Percentage of total population

respondents
The School Teachers 10 2%
Students in the Secondary 119 55%
section
School students in primary 102 43%
section
Totals 231 100%

16
3.4 Data collection Procedures
Permission to conduct this research will be sought from the school heads in advance.
Questionnaires will then be administered by the researcher to the students upon their consent
after which explanation of the filling procedures will be administered. Data obtained will be
collected for further cleaning and analysis.

3.5 Research instruments

The reseacher will use experimental design as well as self-administered questionnaire (appendix
1) as data collecting instruments. Both closed and open ended items will be used in the
questionnaire.
This is a research instrument that gathers data over a large sample (Kombo and Tromp 2006). It
has quite a number of advantages which include: confidentiality; time saving; and reduced
interviewer bias. However, it requires careful preparation as it could easily confuse the
respondents, or discourage them, or simply fail to capture important information needed in the
study (Mugenda and Mugenda 2003). The questionnaires used in this study will contain both
structured and unstructured questions. They shall be administered by the researcher and the
research assistants which have the advantages of low cost, easy access, physical touch to widely
dispersed samples (Fowler 1993) and also the fact that the results are quantifiable. Data on the
academic the status of the ICT facilities will be obtained from the schools ICT managers.

3.6.1 Validity of research instruments

The study will adopt content validity which will be used to show whether the test items
represented the content that the test was designed to measure (Mugenda & Mugenda, 1999). In
order to ensure that all the items used in the questionnaires are consistent and valid, the
instruments will be subjected to scrutiny and review by experts in the faculty of Institute of
Computer Science and Information Technology of University. The items will be rephrased and
modified to avoid ambiguity before being used for data collection.

3.7 Reliability of research Instrument

The researcher will use the internal consistency to check the reliability of the research
instruments. This will be done by calculating the Cronbach’’s alpha coefficient for all the sections
of the questionnaire from the results of the pilot study. A value of 0.7 or below of the Cronbach’’s

17
alpha coefficient will show low internal consistency (Cronbach & Azuma 1962). The items that
will be found to lower the Cronbach’’s alpha below this value will thus be deleted.

3.7.1 Data Analysis

The Likert scale in the SQ will be converted to numerical codes and be scored on 1-5 point scale
in order of magnitude of the construct being measured, then be entered into a computer
spreadsheet. On the other hand, open ended responses in the SQ will be assigned into emerging
categories and the numbers representing various categories entered into the computer
spreadsheet.
Descriptive statistical analysis will be done using means, frequencies and percentages. Inferential
data analysis will be done using the Pearson’’s Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient. In
addition, the open ended items will be qualitatively analyzed. The results will be presented in
tables and discussed.

18
 CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 EXPECTED OUTPUT

4.1 Expected Output

4.2 Literature Review

The researcher expects to carry out extensive literature review in order to come up with as
reliable findings and conclussions as possible. The review will mainly focus on the research
works that have been done by various researchers in the field of adaptive user interfaces. Such
research works will be compared and contrasted. The researcher intends to summarise such
analysis made.
4.3 Results for the Analysis

The researcher intends to analyse all the data collected and present the results with utmost
sincerity. This will help in determining exactly the challenges experienced by the blind persons
in their quest to interact with computers. The findings made will be tabulated in a manner that
they will be easily understandable.
4.4 Framework

The researcher looks forward to come up with a framework that would enhance human
computer interaction at the end of research process. In order to ensure that the objectives of the
research are met, the researcher will administer a questionnnare that will be filled by the blind
persons.

19
4.5 Plan of work needed to develop the framework

Stages Research Objectives Result

Design

Stage Analytical To do an investigation on the existing Summary of research existing

One Research research works on intelligent and adaptive research works on adaptive user
user intefaces interfaces

Stage Descriptive To investigate whether a variety of user Summary of various levels of

Two research and task characteristics impact user user satisfaction and
performance and satisfaction in different performance affected by various
visualization contexts. task characteristics

Stage Experimental To develop a framework that enhances A framework that enhances the
Three Research human computer interaction for the blind level of human computer
persons interaction for the blind persons
using an adaptive and intelligent
user interfaces shall have been
developed.

20
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 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Letter of Transmittal

Khatushi S. Muliru
P.O Box 190 -50100
KAKAMEGA
Date:

The Education Secretary

County Government of Siaya
P.O Box xxxx-xxxxxx
Siaya
Dear Sir/Madam
RE: REQUEST TO CONDUCT RESEARCH WITHIN SIAYA TOWN
I am a post graduate student of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Main
Campus. In order to fulfill the requirement for the award of a Master of Science in Information
Technology Degree of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, I am conducting
a research entitled “A framework for the enhancement of Human Computer Interactionf or
the blind persons using adaptive user interfaces”

This study will target both persons with disability and persons without disability within Siaya
town CBD. The purpose of this letter therefore is to seek your permission to collect the relevant
data from respondents within your area of jurisdiction. The information obtained will be treated
with utmost confidentiality and will be used for academic purpose only.

Yours faithfully

Khatushi S. Muliru

25
Appendix 2: Questionnaire

I am a postgraduate student of the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Main
Campus conducting a study titled “A framework for the enhancement of Human Computer
Interaction for the visualy impared using adaptive user interfaces.
Please note that the information you give in this questionnaire will be kept strictly confidential
and used for academic purposes only. I thank you in advance for your support and participation
in this study.

Section A: Background Information

Please tick the appropriate answer or fill the blank spaces.

1. Gender:
a) Male () b) Female ()
2. In which bracket does your age fall?
a) Below 20years ( ) d) 41-50 years ()
b) 21-30 years () e) above 51years ( )
c) 31-40 years ()
3. What is your highest level of education?
a) None () d) Tertiary colleges ()
b) Primary School () e) University Degree ( )
c) Secondary School ()

4. Type of disability (if any )

........................................................................

26
SECTION B: Computer ownership and internet access of persons with disabilities

The following are statements related to the extent to which persons with disabilities computer
own and access internet. Please rate them according to your understanding by ticking (√) where
it is appropriate.
SA=strongly agree; A= agree; N= Neutral; D= disagree (3); SD= strongly disagree
Statements SA A N D SD

Most of us blind persons do not own personal

computers
The computers seldom have inbuiilt features to cater
for the blind persons
Lack of finance among blind persons makes it difficult
for them to purchase their own computers
Lack of cohesion and neworking among persons with
disabilities means that we cannot lobby for disability
user interface friendly ICT
Most resource centers and cybercafes are not PWD
friendly

SECTION C: Internet uses among persons with disabilities

The following are statements related to the extent of internet use among persons with disabilities.
Please rate them according to your understanding by ticking (√) where it is appropriate.
SA=strongly agree; A= agree; N= Neutral; D= disagree (3); SD= strongly disagree
Statements SA A N D SD

Most of us blind persons seldom use the internet in

public places
We often experience difficulties in getting assistance
from cyber attendants while using the internet
It is not easy to find online social networking sites for
persons with disabilities
Most persons with disabilities have to be accompanied
by able bodied persons often relatives when using the
internet in public places
Public internet facilities like cyber cafes are rarely
designed in a friendly way for persons with disabilities

27
SECTION D: Computer ownership, internet access and internet use differ by type of disability

The following are statements related to computer ownership, internet access and internet use
differ by type of disability. Please rate them according to your understanding by ticking (√)
where it is appropriate.
SA=strongly agree; A= agree; N= Neutral; D= disagree (3); SD= strongly disagree
Statements SA A N D SD

Blind persons are the most affected when it comes to

internet access and use
Persons without hands are always disadvantaged when
using online audio/visual applications
Persons without arms find it very difficult to own or
use computers
Public internet facilities are yet to train staff who can
handle persons with disability
Persons with disabilities have no resource centers of
their own where they can conveneiently access the
internet

28
SECTION E: Visually impared persons reaction to the developed framework

The following are statements related to the reaction of the blind persons in regard to the
developed framework. Please rate them according to your understanding by ticking (√) where it
is appropriate.
SA=strongly agree; A= agree; N= Neutral; D= disagree (3); SD= strongly disagree
Statements SA A N D SD

The developed framework adequately addresses the

needs of the blind persons
The developed framework makes it possible for the
blind persons to use the computers without the
assistance of other bodied persons
Resource centres using the developed framework can
ease the operations of the blind persons
The framework eliminates the need for having trained
staff and public internet places to offer assistance to
blind persons
Persons with disabilities have resource centers of their
own using such frameworks where they can
conveneiently access the internet

29
 Appendix 3: Work Plan

ACTIVITY 2022 2022

WORK DESCRIPTION JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JULY AUG SEPT

Proposal Defense

Proposal Correction

Proposal submission to Graduate

School

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Framework Developed

Project Writing

Project Defense

Project Correction

Handover Thesis

30
Appendix 4: Proposed Budget

ACTIVITY ESTIMATED AMOUNT (KSH)

Typing, Printing and Photocopy 10,000

Internet Services 10,000

Travelling for Principal Researcher 5,000

Travelling for enumerators 5,000

Airtime 3,000

Data Analysis 6,000

Publication Fees 25,000

Contingencies 5,000

Total 69,000

31