Orientation terminal for visually impaired older adults

This thesis discusses the design process of tactile symbols for visually impaired older adults. During the design process, I employ User-Centered Design methodology and create three iterations of the low-fidelity prototype and one iteration of the high-fidelity prototype. All iterations were evaluated in total 26 times in four different experiments with 23 unique participants from the target user group. 18 women and five men participated in experiments, mean age 84.9 (MED=86, MIN=52, MAX=98, SD=9,7). The result of this thesis is a design and prototype of indoor orientation system terminal which provides voice information enhancing spatial orientation, time and situational awareness as well as provides navigation back to safety and call for help option. This thesis shows a way how to design tactile symbols whose meaning is understandable by visually impaired older adults. The tactile symbols are the main interaction between the user and the orientation terminal.