Interactive Usability Toolbox: a novel online platform to support usability evaluations of wearable robotic devices

Despite the evident potential of using wearable robotics to assist or enhance human movement, the inadequate usability of these devices leads to the slow adoption and acceptance of this technology.

More recently, there has been an increase in studies considering and evaluating the needs of end users through interactive user-centred design processes. Although standard definitions and methodologies in usability evaluations exist, the understandings and applications of these terms vary greatly within the wearable robotics field. To help unite usability evaluations across the field, a novel and open-access platform was designed and evaluated: the external pageInteractive Usability Toolbox (IUT)call_made.

In this paper, the multidisciplinary research group – comprised of external pageDr Jan T. Meyercall_made from the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab at ETH Zurich as well as Natalie Tanczak, Prof. Dr Roger Gassert and Dr Olivier Lambercy from the FHT's Connected Rehabilitation Technology and Assistive Devices module – first introduced the design of the IUT and then evaluate the effect of the platform with a group of twelve wearable robotic devices experts.

The best part? The IUT is an ever-growing and ever-improving database. With contributions from experts in the field, we can help provide better suggestions on usability evaluations which can help translate to better device acceptance and adoption.

To check out the toolbox, external pagevisit the website herecall_made.