Designing aural information architectures

Abstract

Nowadays websites use, above all, the "visual channel" to communicate content, functionality and navigation/interaction capabilities. Users who, permanently or temporarily, cannot use their eyes to interact with an application (not only visuallyimpaired but also people who cannot look at the screen while interacting) need a new paradigm of interaction, based on an "aural" access to information. Current technological approaches for developing "aural hypertexts" (such as speech markup languages, or code optimization techniques for screen-readers) provide technical solutions to transform a visual interaction into an aural one, failing to support adequately the overall design process. This paper presents an overview of critical design issues to consider when conceiving aural hypertexts, namely when designing "aural" information architecture, navigation and interaction features. Examples of possible "aural" design solutions are also discussed to support specific requirements. The work is based upon real-life project experience in both designing web applications and developing applications for visually-impaired users

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