by Sha Liang  - Research Degree Student

Human factors is the study of investigating the people's characteristics, attitudes and interactions with technology, environments or etc. The goal of human factors is to make human-machine system error-free, productive, safe, comfortable and enjoyable. User experience is an important criterion for designers to measure a human factors system.

Augmented reality (AR) as a technological enabler is becoming very popular in different fields such as education, design, navigation and medicine. It combines virtual information onto the real environment in real-time performance and enhances the user’s perception such as vision, hearing, touch and smell with the combination of real world. We can speculate further whether tools such as memory aids represent augmentations to other human capabilities (like cognition). With the development of mobile devices, the new generation of smart phone enables AR application to run on its machine. Due to the growth of elderly mobile users, increasing trends in using AR systems among older people have been observed.

To ensure the acceptance and success of future AR systems for older people, it is vital to understand the end users’ experience and requirements. Some previous research discusses the AR application design for older people in terms of memory, navigation and collaboration. However, there is a little knowledge of how well AR applications have been accepted and what kind of user experiences they have evoked.

In my PhD thesis, I would like to examine the ageing population experience while they interact with augmented reality system. In order to achieve that, the core aim of this research is to develop an array of human factors approach (e.x. user experience framework) for older people interacting with AR technology.

According to the research purpose, the methodology plan of this research is based on three steps including preparation, user engagement and validation. The objective of preparation is to identify the existing user experience framework for developing AR and explore the framework within the context of the ageing population. The user engagement process aims to assess the older people’s experience who are engaged in an AR environment.

The last step, validation, is to establish and justify a new user experience framework to enable AR developer to design more acceptable AR system for older people and allow older people to achieve more benefits from use of augmented reality system.

Project Supervisors

• Dr Chris Roast  (Director of Study)
• Dr Luigina Ciolfi  (Second Supervisor)
• Dr Elizabeth Uruchurtu (Third Supervisor)