ANFORA (AURAL NAVIGATION FLOWS ON RICH ARCHITECTURES)

Abstract

Existing web applications make users focus their visual attention on the mobile device while browsing content and services on-the-go. To support eyes-free, mobile experiences, designers can minimize the in-teraction with the device by leveraging the auditory channel. Whereas acoustic interfaces have shown to be effective to reduce visual atten-tion, a perplexing challenge is designing aural information architec-tures typical of the web. To address this problem, we introduce Aural Navigation Flows on Rich Architectures (ANFORA), a novel design framework that transforms existing information architectures as linear, aural flows. We demonstrate our approach in ANFORAnews, a semi-aural mobile site designed to browse large collections of news stories. A study with frequent news readers (N=20) investigated the usability and navigation experience with ANFORAnews in a mobile setting. Aural flows are enjoyable, easy-to-use and appropriate for eyes-free, mobile contexts. Future work will optimize the mechanisms to customize con-tent and control the aural navigation.