Interface design to address the constraints of situational visual impairments: the context of a nautical application

Abstract

As technology evolves, it also reaches maritime navigation through the use of mobile devices in outside environments. Nonetheless, the use of mobile devices in this domain leads to issues concerning data visualization, since maritime navigation takes place in environmental-conditioned contexts, namely the direct incidence of sunlight, which constrains the interface data visualization on the smartphone screens. The study presented in this paper was made in the scope of the SisMAR project, which aims to support safe navigation in uncharted inland waters influenced by the tides. To achieve this a dedicated mobile application was designed to enable the simulation of the navigability conditions using routes shared by other navigators.The focus of this study was to design and evaluate the mobile application interface, aimed to be adapted to external environments assuring and adequate user experience.Preliminary evaluations highlight the favorable response of a contrasting color palette to mitigate situational visual impairments.

Keywords: Human-Computer Interaction, Maritime Navigation Systems, Situational Visual Impairments, Guerrilla Test, Mobile Devices

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100901