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The SETUP09 system consists of both navigation and a computer-aided drawing technique for people who are blind and visually impaired (BVI). The purpose of this paper is to address the need for a screen navigation technique, which can facilitate a user’s ability to produce art, and scientific diagrams electronically, by introducing a compass-based screen navigation method.

BVI computer users were tested using different screen navigation tasks to assess the accuracy and efficiency of this compass-based navigation technique by using a prototype (SETUP09) and tactile paper grid maps.

The results confirmed that the compass-based navigation facilitates higher accuracy in screen-based moving and location recognition with a noticeable reduction in time and effort.

Improvements such as the addition of a sound layer to the interface, use of hotkeys, braille and user speech inputs are yet to be tested.

The current lack of suitable and efficient screen navigation technology is a limiting factor for BVI students and computer users in producing diagrams and drawings. This may place limitations on their career progression and life contentment. It is challenging for a BVI person to draw diagrams and art, which are commonly taught in education or used in industry. The compass-based screen navigation system was developed to address BVI users’ need to be able to create such content.

A compass-based navigation method enables screen navigation through a formal command language and enables intuitive movement to a screen location using matrix-style compass directions with zoom-in and zoom-out capabilities.

This paper aims to evaluate the accessibility of digital information systems as a key usability attribute in information retrieval by users with visual impairment (VI), to inform development of accessible information systems.

This study used a cross-sectional survey design based on the quantitative research paradigm. Data was collected from 117 students with visual impairments from selected public universities in Kenya, using a semi-structured questionnaire adapted from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

This study revealed that gender did not influence screen reader compatibility, alternative format preferences, perceptions of accessible content or digital library navigability. Instead, type of visual impairment, prior assistive technology (AT) training and digital library use frequency significantly impacted these attributes. Blind students reported positive experiences, favouring alternative formats, and expressed positive views on accessible content while those with low vision faced more challenges. Prior training in assistive technology and frequent digital library use resulted in higher screen reader compatibility and better navigability. Increased digital library use was linked to access to alternative content for those with prior assistive technology training.

This study contributes to the existing literature on accessibility of digital information systems for users with visual impairments. Further research is needed to explore other factors that may influence the accessibility of digital systems, such as the design of user interfaces as well as an evaluation of accessibility of digital systems for other categories of disabilities such as hearing impairment, physical impairment, autism and intellectual disability, among others.

The findings of this study have practical implications for the design and development of digital systems such as digital libraries. Developers can leverage findings of this study to enhance compatibility of digital platforms with screen readers and provide alternative formats and accessible content. User-centred design principles can be used to create interfaces that are easy to navigate and friendly to users with visual impairments. Training programmes on assistive technology should be provided to users to enhance their skills and confidence in using digital systems.

This study contributes towards design and creation of navigable systems that are compatible with screen readers. The study also points out the importance of creating more inclusive and usable digital environments for persons with visual impairments.

The aim of this work is to explore the use of lightweight but effective user interfaces for mobile navigation and wayfinding in urban environments.

Two interactive mobile interfaces were designed and implemented following a user‐centred approach. The first interface makes use of 2D digital technology such as different representations of 2D maps and textual information. To enhance the user experience during navigation, location aware searches may be performed indicating information about the surroundings. The second interface makes use of virtual reality (VR) and computer graphics to present 3D maps and textual information. The VR maps are also interactive and contain hyperlinks positioned in 3D space which link to either web pages or other multimedia content.

Both interfaces allow users to visualise and interact with different levels of representation of urban maps. Initial evaluation has been performed to test the usability of the 2D interface, and limitations of the 2D technology were recorded. To overcome these limitations and explore the potentials of alternative technologies a VR interface was prototyped and a pilot evaluation was conducted.

This paper provides two prototype interfaces with some initial evaluation that may be useful for future navigation and wayfinding systems.

As more and more people make use of mobile technologies and advanced interfaces to enhance access to location‐based services, this paper offers two prototype interfaces for personal digital assistants that provide solutions to urban navigation and wayfinding.

Lecture recording provides learning material for local and distance education. The TeleTeachingTool uses the very flexible screen recording technique to capture virtually any material displayed during a presentation. With its built‐in annotation system teachers can add freehand notes and emphasize important parts. Unlike other screen recorders, our implementation offers slide‐based navigation, full text search and annotated scripts, which are obtained by automated post‐production. This article presents how automated analysis generates indices for slide‐based navigation on the fly and how to achieve live interlinkage of annotations with slides so that annotations disappear when a slide is changed and are made visible again when returning to that slide later during presentation, although screen recorders generally do not provide an association of annotations with slides.

The purpose of this paper is to identify important principles which should be applied to electronic library websites to make them usable for all people.

The goal of this paper was to make the simplified user interface of Hungarian Electronic Library (VMEK) more accessible and usable by leveraging the latest technologies, standards and recommendations. Vision-impaired and motor-disabled people were also involved in brainstorming and collecting ideas during the design phase and in testing the implemented website.

This paper showed that the perspicuity of the Web page is greatly improved by semantically correct HTML codes, clearly defined links and alt attributes, hotkeys and typographic principles.

The paper presents the design principles of electronic library Web pages which can be applied by Web developers and content managers. The paper identifies design principles, which improve the perspicuity of user interfaces to a great extent (especially in the case of blind users); draws attention to the typographic principles, which promote reading and understanding documents; and recommends guidelines for developing electronic library home pages and managing the content of these home pages.

This paper bridges the gap between the information and library science field and the Web accessibility and usability field. Based on brainstorming results where people with various kinds of disabilities were involved, the paper gives 11 recommendations which should be taken into account while designing and developing electronic library websites to ensure equal access to their services and documents.

This research aims to focus on providing interventions to alleviate usability challenges to strengthen the overall accuracy and the navigation effectiveness in indoor and stringent environments through the experiential manipulation of technical attributes of the positioning and navigation system.

The study followed a quantitative and experimental method of empirical enquiry and software engineering and synthesis research methods. The study further entails three implementation processes, namely, map generation, positioning framework and navigation service using a prototype mobile navigation application that uses the near field communication (NFC) technology.

The approach and findings revealed that the capability of NFC in leveraging its low-cost infrastructure of passive tags, its availability in mobile devices and the ubiquity of the mobile device provided a cost-effective solution with impressive accuracy and usability. The positioning accuracy achieved was less than 9 cm. The usability improved from 44 to 96 per cent based on feedbacks given by respondents who tested the application in an indoor environment. These showed that NFC is a viable alternative to resolve the challenges identified in previous solutions and technologies.

The major limitation of the navigation application was that there is no real-time update of user position. This can be investigated and extended further by using NFC in a hybrid make-up with WLAN, radio-frequency identification (RFID) or Bluetooth as a cost-effective solution for real-time indoor positioning because of their coverage and existing infrastructures. The hybrid positioning model, which merges two or more techniques or technologies, is becoming more popular and will improve its accuracy, robustness and usability. In addition, it will balance complexity, compensate for the limitations in the technologies and achieve real-time mobile indoor navigation. Although the presence of WLAN, RFID and Bluetooth technologies are likely to result in system complexity and high cost, NFC will reduce the system’s complexity and balance the trade-off.

Whilst limitations in existing indoor navigation technologies meant putting up with poor signal and poor communication capabilities, outcomes of the NFC framework will offer valuable insight. It presents new possibilities on how to overcome signal quality limitations at improved turn-around time in constrained indoor spaces.

The innovations have a direct positive social impact in that it will offer new solutions to mobile communications in the previously impossible terrains such as underground platforms and densely covered spaces. With the ability to operate mobile applications without signal inhibitions, the quality of communication – and ultimately, life opportunities – are enhanced.

While navigating, users face several challenges, such as infrastructure complexity, high-cost solution, inaccuracy and usability. Hence, as a contribution, this paper presents a symbolic map and path architecture of a floor of the test-bed building that was uploaded to OpenStreetMap. Furthermore, the implementation of the RFID and the NFC architectures produced new insight on how to redress the limitations in challenged spaces. In addition, a prototype mobile indoor navigation application was developed and implemented, offering novel solution to the practical problems inhibiting navigation in indoor challenged spaces – a practical contribution to the community of practice.

The study surveys and delineates the processes involved in screen‐based information design. This is specifically in relation to the creation of electronic forms and from this offers a guide to their production. The study also examines the design and technological issues associated with the transfer, or translation, of the printed form to the computer screen. How an Eform might be made more visually engaging without detracting from the information relevant to the form’s navigation and completion. Also, the interaction between technology and (document) structure where technology can eliminate or reduce traditional structural problems through the application of non‐linear strategies. It reviews the potential solutions of incorporating improved functionality through interactivity.

This paper aims to identify ways to establish an information system to aid users to enhance the effectiveness of self-regulated learning and solve the problem of learning domain unawareness. Many libraries are spacious and with a rich collection of books, the problem a newcomer may encounter in the wide library is spatial unawareness. In addition, people new to a particular field of study often encounter the problem of learning domain unawareness.

This paper presents an overview of self-regulated learning theory first. We realize the essential principles of self-regulated learning model in the library and developed a learning system that utilizes the concept of combining mobile augmented reality (AR), indoor navigation and data mining algorithms.

The proposed NO Donkey E-learning (NODE) system utilizes AR and innovative indoor positioning technology to fulfil the goal of navigation inside a library and solve the problems of spatial and learning domain unawareness. On the one hand, the system allows peers to communicate asynchronously to create a cloud-based information sharing community; the dual-track terminal (the website and the app interfaces) in the system could provide both educational functionalities and mobility for readers. On the other hand, AR navigation function integrates the information of reading paths, the real-space locations, real-time dynamic information, book introductions and readers’ comments to help readers have access to the topic-related books efficiently.

We found that although the library provides the floor plan and signs, such passive and fixed indication may cause spatial unawareness. People need system to show the bookshelf location and dynamic direction indicators when they walk in the wide library. However, most existing library information systems only provide readers with the function of book search, including which floor the book is on, call number and check-out status. In this sense, we propose that self-regulated learning theory integrated the new innovation technology is the solution for the above issues.

The system developed in this study, while viewing the real scenes inside the library through camera lens, provides related virtual educational information services and learning paths on screen and guides the public to do systematic self-regulated learning. With the functions of the “learning topic” and “knowledge sharing”, the learning system promotes the general public to self-monitor their learning progress and to use the sharing mechanism as the system structure to solve the two main problems of spatial unawareness and domain unawareness in learning in libraries, creating a truly innovative people-centred library information system.

This paper aims to bring in augmented reality (AR) into navigation systems to rectify the issues mentioned. This paper proposes an AR enhanced navigation system for location automated teller machine (ATM) counters (AR-ATM) and branches of banks based on user’s choice. Upon selecting the ATM, the navigational path to the destination is drawn from the current location, thereby the user can reach the ATM through the optimal path.

Traditional navigation systems require users to map with the real world environment as and when required and also may lead to incorrect path due to minor difference in distance. The traditional navigation systems’ also does not take into consideration the ergonomics and safety of the user.

In this system, a camera lens is used, which is directed down the street at eye level and the application displays the location of ATMs and bank branches and also provides information about the locations like distance and time through the AR superimposed object.

The application also provides indoor navigation, especially in a multi-storeyed building. Experiments are performed on smartphones that support AR, and the results are promising with no lag in time frame of the real object and virtual object. To determine the factors that regulate the suggested AR tracking mechanism, a quantitative evaluation of the experimental data is also performed. The testing of implemented AR-ATM from the standpoint of end-users is undertaken to evaluate real-time usage comfortability, and the results have been determined to be extremely satisfactory.

Positioned in the e-retailing field, this study aims to investigate the effect of the retail store’s atmosphere on consumer behavior in 3D online shopping environments, focusing on store layout as a critical influential factor.

The research uses a mixed research method approach that includes two complementary studies. First, a three-round Delphi study with domain experts is used to develop a store layout classification scheme (Study 1), resulting in five distinct types of store layout. Subsequently, 3D online retail stores that use the five layouts are designed and developed. These serve as treatments of a laboratory experimental design, which is used to assess layout impact on a number of attitudinal and behavioral variables (Study 2).

Five distinct types of store layout have been identified in Study 1, and their distinctive features are presented. The findings of Study 2 indicate that online shopping enjoyment, entertainment and ease of navigation are influenced by the store layout types of 3D online environments. Specifically, the “avant-garde” layout type facilitates the ease of navigation of customers in the store and provides a superior online customer experience. The “warehouse”’ adopts long aisles for the display of products, which simplifies the comparison of products, whereas the “boutique” layout was found to be the best in terms of shopping enjoyment and entertainment. The “department” layout shares many common characteristics with traditional department stores, providing an entertaining and enjoyable store, whereas the “pragmatic” layout emphasizes low system requirements.

The paper presents characteristics that make store layouts effective for different aspects of online customers’ experience and identifies opportunities that 3D online store designers and retailers can explore for the provision of enhanced, customized services to online customers.

This paper examines recent technological developments in store design and visual merchandising. It identifies five layout types of 3D online stores, which are different from those of brick–and–mortar and 2D online stores, and investigates their impact on consumer behavior. Further, the paper examines how each layout type influences online shopping enjoyment, entertainment, ease of navigation, online customer experience and, in turn, purchase and word-of-mouth intentions. Finally, the paper examines the moderating role of telepresence. Individuals with high sense of telepresence conceive 3D environments as “real” and are more concerned about the attributes that trigger the sense of enjoyment they experience while browsing.