Enhancing the Usability of Graphical User Interface by User Manipulative Auditory Display

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research supports the proposition that the addition of audio displays can reduce subjective workload. With the growing use of touchscreen displays and the increasing of complexity interface, the addition of audio display is expected to reduce users’ workload. This study intended to develop an additional audio system which can be handily manipulated by users who need. A dedicated graphic audio switch was adapted at the corner of screen. Users may initiate audio output by dragging the audio switch to the icon where he/she would like to listen to the audio instructions. Farther detail instructions will be prompted if the user ‘long press’ the transparently overlapped audio switch. To test the feasibility of the additional audio system, an experiment was carried out by testing 15 respondents including different visual status groups. The result indicates that there are 13 respondents consider the auditory interface is an effective auxiliary and confirm its feasibility.