Accessibility Problems: Online Broadcasting and Museums - Essay Example

Compare Usability and Accessibility issues related to Online Broadcasting and Museums Usability is outlined by Gaskell and Hollinworth (2007, slide 25) as dealing with “how easy an interface is to understand and use” and the ease “to map user intentions to system actions in order to achieve some goal”. The (ISO) International Organization for Standardization defines usability as the “extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction in a specified context of use” (ISO 9241-11, 1991, part 11). Web Accessibility is defined by Shawn Lawton (2006, p 2) “that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the web”. Since Web Accessibility is mainly focused on people with disabilities, it also benefits people without disabilities in order for the web site or application to be accessible by all users. For example; “people with low-bandwidth connection” and “new and infrequent web users” (Jim Thatcher, 2006, p 8). This essay will compare Usability and Accessibility issues related to the use of multimedia in the areas of museums, the ArtStart Kiosk at The National Gallery and British Museums COMPASS Database, and BBC Online Broadcasting. Multimedia guides, software applications, organization of links and information, graphics format and style, navigation systems, screen resolutions, interface, browsing facilities, interactivities, communication access and user applications are the points by which this paper will discuss. British Museum’s COMPASS (Collections Multimedia Public Access System) and National Gallery’s ArtStart Kiosk; are both database-driven multimedia guides to a selection the Museums’ paintings or objects. Both systems provide users with electronic catalogues of pictures on the application using multimedia touch screen. The technology museums’ system are user-friendly, such that visitors can use the technology even if they do not have previous experience of the collections by providing indexes as common terms and organized information. Organization comes in the form of links to collections of varied interests; virtual tours of groups of objects in familiar themes; objects of the month from the Home page and thousands of links between the objects and to background information. The textual links however could create confusion to the graphical image links at the menu page. This confusion is also brought by lack of site map facility. Instead of a full site map browsing facility, the user can browse specific areas such as browsing paintings by A-Z Artist and paintings title at the ArtStart Kiosk. With the BBC there is an alternative similar to a site map in which sitemap navigation is facilitated by A-Z Index. This provides textual links in which the user can select from the alphabetical list, which page they want to navigate to. For example BBC Radio name and Series name. With ArtStart Kiosk other navigation links include ‘Today’s events’ and ‘Highlights’ which are some of the options at the Menu Page. Specific information links are also provided. The search function can be accessed from a textual link at the menu page. This however, limits the user to provide the accurate data or text for the search to be effective when using the search function. Therefore the search function mainly benefits users who know what they’re looking for when searching for painting, object or artist name. Otherwise if the user enters inaccurate data or text; the search results wouldn’t be effective. In parts of the paintings, interactive hotspots are also available in which a small pop up screen appears which displays information about part of an area in the painting. It lists the detail, image and technique the Artist has used. Browsing is quickly facilitated by a ‘cover flow’ browsing facility. This involves displaying and browsing the image by year of painting in a dynamic flowing effective way. The images can be scrolled from left to right or right to left by year of painting. These features therefore provide easy navigation. This simplicity in navigation is also present in BBC Online Broadcasting progressive downloading in a manner that the video clip is downloaded but begins playing as soon as a part of the file has been received. Therefore the user won’t need to wait for the whole video clip to be downloaded. With the ArtStart Kiosk application; the user can view ‘high pixel resolution’ JPEG images, and most of the painting information including painting title information, listen to audio and watch videos relating to painting information. The system also allows the users to create a tour and print out a tour (refer fig 6); find out from the tour, the painting’s location, see the events at the museum at that day e.g. ‘Today’s events’, what’s on at the gallery and news at the latest happenings at the gallery. The user can also use the zoom facility in the image by clicking the ‘zoom in’ or ‘zoom out’ button icon and view it in high quality and detail. Intuitive and readable interface is used because quality of the content is emphasised. Therefore, the content includes high quality images, 3D reconstructions, animations and specially-written text narratives. There are also print facilities, email access, gallery plans and personal folders. “At every stage users are given the opportunity to explore deeper into the content, or move in a new direction without having to return to search or return to homepage.” (Press Release 2005). These usability features however have some weaknesses. One of this is the availability of the technology anytime, anywhere. Unlike BBC Online Broadcasting which uses ‘convergence technology’ of internet media to reach out to online users, museums can only be viewed in the museum itself within the scheduled time of visit. Another factor for BBC Broadcasting against museums is the variety of information covered. While online broadcasting can focus in a wide range of purposes: corporate uses, health care, human resources and internal relations and specific organizations, the museum can only cater to educational activities. ArtStart Kiosk and COMPASS uses media assets in JPEG formats for the painting and Macromedia Flash and QuickTime for the audio and videos. BBC Online Broadcasting however, has many video file formats to choose from which includes the following: Windows Media, Real media, QuickTime, MPEG, Video and Audio and Adobe Flash. Therefore if the user doesn’t have Windows player installed they would still be able to view the video in alternative supporting player. For people with disabilities, COMPASS is designed with “full text-only version fully accessible with screen readers and speech synthesizers used by people with visual impairments. There is a link to the text-only version on nearly every page of the site” (Cock, 2002). This feature provides access for users which need the information without the distraction of the unnecessary graphic and pictures. This also ensures focus to the highlighted information. This advantage of text-only interface is taken into account when accessibility for individual with visual impairment is considered, “accessibility for users with visual impairments was a key factor in the design of the graphical and text-only interfaces.”(Marshall, 2001) Using wide screen format touch screens, users can access information without the need of mouse, keypad, or pointers. This system therefore ensures accessibility of information to a wide range of users: children, adults, family groups, professionals and even physically impaired clients. In museums and gallery, there is wheel chair access, low height chairs and tables with good lighting and air conditioning. With the BBC Online Broadcasting provides ease of navigation for visually-impaired user using search facility compatible with a Screen Reader or magnification software ZoomText. The BBC’s disabled users have given positive comments about the website overall. “The low graphics version is more linear with the information being in one column and is therefore easier to read”. “Another useful accessibility feature I use is resizing page text via the browser view menu in Internet Explorer because it helps me to read things like lists and lines of small text more easily” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/bbc/case.shtml). Accessibility feature of the BBC Online Broadcasting emphasizes communication links to physically impaired users through the headset and on-screen keyboard. The media player (radio & video) gives these physically-impaired individuals independence to swap between programs without constantly asking other people to do it (http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/bbc/case.shtml) The gallery and museum can provide access to English speaking users while online broadcasting can cater to different language speaking users. Overall, ArtStart and COMPASS serve their function in terms of usability and accessibility to a certain extent. Though ArtStart and COMPASS are highly usable in terms of image resolution and key features like interactive hotspots, and interactivity and personalized tours, these museum/gallery systems however have inferior usability features than BBC online broadcasting with its wide range of multimedia applications such as MPEG images, Adobe Flash, Windows Media, real media, Quicktime, MPEG, Video and Audio. BBC’s use of progressive downloading and convergence technologies provides online broadcasting access to information ranging from broad and general to specific. Galleries and museums’ accessibility systems provide specific users access to the database information. BBC’s systems however prove to be far superior in responding to a variety of users especially to physically handicapped individuals. Therefore having compared the museums/galleries and online broadcasting site; the BBC has greater strengths in the context of accessibility and usability. Appendix A Table 1. Comparison of ArtStart Kiosk/COMPASS database and BBC Online Broadcasting. ArtStart /COMPASS (museum/gallery Kiosk) BBC Online Broadcasting (website) Usability Quality high resolution JPEG images, uses Macromedia Flash & QuickTime (COMPASS only) for audio and video, and animations; video icons are also used (ArtStart); interactive hotspots Information links are specific Browsing is quick through ‘cover flow’ browsing facilities For educational purpose only multimedia touch screen systems; database driven; Intuitive and readable interface Low resolution MPEG images, uses Adobe Flash Windows Media, real media, Quicktime, MPEG, Video and Audio. Information links ranges from broad and general to specific Browsing information is fast due to progressive downloading variety of information covered commonly geared in news information uses convergence technology of internet media to reach out to online users Accessibility Access is limited to English-speaking users only Headset is available for audio Search facility is limited to touch screens having design of the graphical and text-only interfaces suited to hearing and visually impaired users. Screen readers and speech synthesizers are also available in COMPASS. High pixel image resolution of paintings with zoom in facility in ArtStart Environment is set so that sounds, lights and atmosphere suit the user; wheel chair access, low height chairs and tables with good lighting and air conditioning Users in different languages is available headset and on-screen keyboard are used as communication links for hearing and visually impaired users Search facility compatible with a Screen Reader or a magnification software ZoomText. Environment provides familiarity and comfort depending on location where the program is accessed Appendix B ArtStart Kiosk, Compass Database and BBC Website Screenshots Fig.1: An object record from the touch screen version of COMPASS. Fig.2: General Index from the touch screen version of COMPASS. Figure 3. Screen shots of ArtStart Kiosk Figure 4. Hotspots in the Interface of ArtStart Kiosk Figure 5. BBC Online Broadcasting Screenshot Appendix C Glossary Term Definition Accessibility Features which ensure that the content of sites or presentation for example can be accessed by people with disabilities of any kind. Convergence Technology Refers to a trend where some technologies having distinct functionalities evolve to technologies that are overlapping, i.e. telephone calling are made through internet Hotspot Is an area on an image map that is ‘active’, such that a mouse event in that area will trigger some form of action. Intuitive interface A concept in which users can verify the function and capabilities of the application and its controls through their own intuition. JPEG Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group that describes a digital image file format standard in which the size of the file is reduced by compression. MPEG Motion Picture Expert Group Refers to set of standards for video and multimedia defined by this group. A method used for DVD video, and MPEG-4, a high quality, low bit rate codec. Navigation bar A set of links, often using rollovers, placed on a collection of Web pages to provide standard navigational access to each page. Streaming Is when data moves from one computer to another and doesnt have to be completely downloaded for the receiving computer to do something with it. Usability The extent of how easily anything, but mainly computer application, can be operated by users for the purpose for which it was intended. References Cock, Matthew. (2002). The British Museum COMPASS Project. Artcyclopedia. www.artcyclopedia.com/feature-2002-01 Accessed: December 3, 2007 Gaskell, M. and N. Hollinworth (2007) Understanding Users and Usability. Pen Lister Ed. [PowerPoint Presentation] Jim, T (2006) Web Accessibility for section 508 www.jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm Accessed: December 3, 2007 Jim, T (2006) Web Accessibility http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dlJ94KZqwqcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=jim+thacher+understanding+accessibilty [Online Google Book] Accessed: December 3, 2007 BBC Accessibility-case studies www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/bbc/case.shtml Accessed: December 3, 2007 National Gallery- About ArtStart www.nationalgallery.org.uk/plan/information/artstart.htm Accessed: December 3, 2007 Marshall, Fiona (2001). Making good use of user input: Incorporation of public evaluation. The British Museum. www.archimuse.com/mw2001/papers/marshal/marshal.html Accessed: December 3, 2007 Multimedia in public environments (n.d) Maureen Kendal Ed. [PowerPoint Presentation] National Gallery goes interactive. Accessed: December 3, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/technology/4228569.stm Press release: May 2005 Industry Accolades ArtStart Accessed: December 3, 2007 http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/about/press/2005/artstart_accolades.htm Multicast Read More