Virtual user concept for inclusive design of consumer products and user interfaces

Many research projects have identified three major obstacles to a broad implementation of Design for All: lack of awareness among users, designers and suppliers, technical feasibility and commercial viability. Mainstream manufactures do not have a detailed understanding of the needs of people with disabilities. This paper presents an approach to use standards-based Virtual User Models that covers mild and moderate disabilities to support designers in understanding these needs. This approach consists of a virtual laboratory with three design phases to allow designers to plan and evaluate the user interfaces of their products. We review here the state of the art and present our Virtual User Model as a mixture of human and environment context.