UniversalUsability.org

Supporting a broad range of hardware, software, and network access

The first challenge is to deal with the pace of technology change and the variety of equipment that users employ. The stabilizing forces of standard hardware, operating systems, network protocols, file formats, and user interfaces are undermined by the rapid pace of technological change. The technological innovators delight in novelty and improved features. They see competitive advantage to advanced designs, but these changes disrupt efforts to broaden audiences and markets. Since limiting progress is usually an unsatisfactory solution, an appealing strategy is to make information content, online services, entertainment, and user interfaces more malleable or adaptable.

The range of processor speeds in use varies by a factor of 1000 or more. Moore's Law, which states that processor speeds double every 18 months, means that after ten years the speed of the newest processors are 100 times faster. Designers who wish to take advantage of new technologies risk excluding users with older machines. Similar changes for RAM and hard disk space also inhibit current designers who wish to reach a wide audience.

Other hardware improvements such as increased screen size and improved input devices also threaten to limit access. Research on accommodating varying processor speed, RAM, hard disk, screen size, and input devices could help cope with this challenge. How could users run the same calendar program on a palm-sized device, a laptop, and a wall-sized display?

Another hardware related research topic is software to convert interfaces and information across media or devices. For users who wish to get web page contents read to them over the telephone or for blind users, there are already some services, but improvements are needed to speed delivery and extract appropriately (Thomas, Basson, and Gardner-Bonneau, 1999). Accommodating assorted input devices, by a universal bus would allow third party developers to create specialized and innovative devices for users with disabilities or special needs (Perry, Macken, Scott, and McKinley, 1997).

Software changes are a second concern. As applications programs mature and operating systems evolve users of current software may find their programs become obsolete because newer versions fail to preserve file format compatibility. Some changes are necessary to support new features, but research is needed on modular designs that promote evolution while ensuring compatibility and bi-directional file conversion. The Java movement is a step in the right direction, since it proposes to support platform independence, but its struggles indicate the difficulty of the problems.

Network access variety is a third problem. Some users will continue to use slower speed (14.4Kbps) dial-up modems while others will use 10Mbps cable modems. This 100-fold speedup requires careful planning to accommodate. Since many web pages contain large graphics, providing user control of byte counts would be advantageous. Most browsers allow users to inhibit graphics, but more flexible strategies are needed. Users should be able to select information-bearing graphics only or reduced byte count graphics, and invoke procedures on the server to compress the image from 300K to 80K or to 20K.