A VOICE-ASSISTED VISUAL LEARNING INTERFACE FOR LOW-LITERATE ADULTS: DESIGN AND USABILITY EVALUATION

Abstract

Low-literate adults are likely to struggle with traditional mobile learning systems, which often require reading and following instructions, navigating through multiple screens and layers, and participating in text-heavy feedback. This paper describes the design and usability study of the Voice-assisted Visual Learning Application for foundation literacy and numeracy learning of adults with limited reading and writing ability. The developed application is based on an Android prototype educational application and adapted to adult learners by adopting a text-light approach, Urdu audio instructions, familiar visual objects, large buttons, simple navigation, repayable voice instructions and immediate positive or corrective feedback. Four basic learning modules were employed in the system: alphabet recognition, numeracy learning, shape recognition and color recognition. 20 adult participants with low literacy skills participated in a task-based usability evaluation. They evaluated the percentage of tasks completed, time spent on task, error rate, assistance required, perceived usability, and qualitative user feedback by observing the subjects, conducting an orally administered usability questionnaire, and performing brief post-task interviews. The results showed the application to have a low mean error rate, 0.51 errors per task, a mean usability score of 83.4 out of 100, and a limited amount of assistance required, 10.6% and a mean task completion rate of 93.75%. The participants did well at the Audio Replay, Color Identification, and Shape Recognition tasks and needed more time and assistance in Arithmetic tasks. The results indicate that the voice-assisted, visual and text-light mobile learning interfaces can create a usable and acceptable learning environment for adults with low literacy skills. Future work should involve a larger field study to validate learning outcomes in the application, which should also include more adult-centered functional literacy activities