International Journal of Communication

and Media Studies (IJCMS)

ISSN(P): 2250-0014; ISSN(E): Applied
Vol. 6, Issue 2, Apr 2016, 1-6
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd

ASSISTIVE DESIGN OF CURSORS FOR LOW VISION USERS

WANG, NIEN-TSAN1, CHEN, YEN-LU2 & HSU, YI-CHEN3
1,2
3

Department of Multimedia and Animation Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan

Department of Digital Technology Design, National Taipei University of Education, Taiwan

ABSTRACT
The graphical user interface is the most common type of interface in use today. However, its operating
environment, which puts great emphasis on relying on users visual perception, presents problems for visually impaired
users. For low vision users, they have two problems for using the mouse cursor. First, because of reduced visual acuity,
they often lose track of the mouse cursor; second, because of a limited ability to distinguish visual details, they often
have difficulty positioning the cursor on targets. This research used the experimental method to conduct two
experiments. The first is Cursor Position and the second is Cursor Selection. Both of these run subjects through
experiments using various cursor styles of different websites to explore the influence of cursor forms to users, and to
find the better cursor design for both low vision users and fully sighted users. According to the research result, color
adjustment and cursor magnification are the best cursor styles for fully sighted users in Cursor Position experiment.

Selection experiment, cursor magnification is the best cursor style for both low vision users and fully sighted users.
KEYWORDS: Low Vision, Cursor, Position, Selection

Received: Mar 01, 2016; Accepted: Mar 16, 2016; Published: Mar 21, 2016; Paper Id.: IJCMSAPR20161

Original Article

And for low vision users, color adjustment is the best cursor style in Cursor Position experiment; In Cursor

INTRODUCTION
Graphical User Interface (GUI) is the current mainstream method of interface design. Through visually
controlled environments, commands can be placed more easily and intuitively. Also as technology and hardware
are developed as well as more media is introduced, GUIs have become more detailed and lively. This richens the
presentation of computer data (Zhou, 2010). However, a control environment with an emphasis visual perception
and hand controls has created difficulties for the visually impaired. Furthermore, the irreplaceable mouse cursor is
something that users with normal vision sometimes have trouble finding, not to mention those with vision
impairment.
Related studies which have assisted cursor design still depend on tool assistance. For example, specially
adjusted mice, brain wave controller equipmenttherefore assistance is limited to the tools used. However, in
website regulations, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provided by Web Accessibility Initiative
(WAI) have specific regulations specifically designed for the impaired, but there has never been aspects related to
cursor design.
The main purpose of this study will be the visually impaired and will discuss the effect of different
cursors on user control. This aims to find a suitable cursor design and solve the problems the visually impaired
have when using mouse cursors. This study will apply different visual changes to act as assistance for the cursors
of websites to allow the visually impaired to not need to rely on special hardware or software. In addition, since
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Wang, Nien-Tsan, Chen, Yen-Lu & Hsu, Yi-Chen

normal users are still the main users of websites the cursor design must also factor this into its design and find a balance
between the two types of users.

LITERATURE REVIEW
To the visually impaired, they will mainly run into the two problems of cursor position and cursor selection
when they are using mouse cursors. Cursor position refers to the fact that visually impaired users have trouble locating
the cursor's location because of their less sensitive vision and a weaker contrast between the cursor and the background.
Cursor selection refers to the fact that visually impaired users have trouble accurately placing the cursor on top of the
target object for selection because of their weaker ability to make out details.
Cursor Position Assistance
The most common way of assisting a user to find the cursor's position is to increase the cursor's visibility in order
to draw the user's attention to it. The two most traditional ways of this are Cursor Enlargement and Cursor Color
Adjustment (Fraser & Gutwin, 2000)
Besides changing the cursor's size, color or style to attract attention to it, another method is to add extra visual
effects to the cursor such as an afterimage when the cursor is moving.
Some visual effect assistance can be freely controlled by the user. The cursor will have non-continuous assistance.
When the user cannot find the cursor, they can activate the visual effect with the push of a keyboard or mouse button. For
example, in the Windows OS's mouse settings under cursor visibility settings, one can set the mouse the display a shrinking
circle animation at the center of the cursor when Ctrl is pressed. This assists in locating the cursor's position. (Fraser &
Gutwin, 2000; Hollinworth & Hwang, 2011)
Besides keyboard control, Hollinworth (2010) also used a touch command mouse. When the user cannot locate
the mouse cursor's location on the screen, they can remove their hand from the mouse and touch it again. This will initiate
an event where the mouse cursor will automatically be relocated to the center of the screen. This saves users the trouble of
looking for the mouse cursor when they can't find it and requires them only to look at the center of the screen. Also they
will not need to memorize which key is the function key on a keyboard.
Besides increasing a cursor's visibility, another method is to use special environmental visual information to hint
as to where the cursor is. For example, ColorEyes is a cursor program which outputs information such as direction and
distance to help the user locate the cursor's position. After the program has been activated, a pair of eyes will appear in a
fixed location on the screen. As the cursor moves, the eyes will also move to look towards the direction of where the cursor
currently is, allowing the user to be able to know the relative position of the cursor based on the eyes' information. Also
through changing the color of the eyes, the user can also know how far the cursor is away from them. Such as when the
two are close, the eyes will become pink. When the distance between the two is greater, the eyes will become green. (Kline
& Glinert, 1995)
Cursor Selection Assistance
Cursor selection assistance is meant to help the visually impaired when they are attempting to select a target with
the cursor. For the visually impaired who are less sensitive to visual details, they will have a harder time seeing if they have
moved the cursor on top of smaller selection targets. This uncertainty can be lowered via visual feedback. For instance,
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Assistive Design of Cursors for Low Vision Users

when the cursor moves over a hyperlink, the text can have some form of obvious change to allow the user to know that the
cursor is over the link and is ready for clicking. Chin (2011) pointed out that in regards to the interaction between cursors
and links, whether it's pure text or a picture link, changing the text color or the text's background all will help in a website's
browsing. Changing the text's color achieves the highest recognition.
In regards to the interaction between cursors and the UI, besides changing objects in the UI the cursor itself can
also undergo changes to act as feedback for the user. For example, when the cursor moves over a hyperlink, the cursor's
graphic will change from its original arrow to a hand with its index finger outstretched (Meyer, 2007).
Besides using visual hints on the cursor or the UI to tell the user that they have moved over their target, a jumping
mode is another method of assistance which quickly and accurately moves the cursor onto the target. This can increase
cursor speed and accuracy when selecting buttons. In practical use, the button will usually have a detection area. When the
cursor moves into the detection area, the cursor will automatically jump to the center of the button, effectively reducing
selection time (Chang, 2007).
In addition, the Extended Dual Cursor Automatic Pointing Assistive Program makes a further change for the
jumping mode. Chiu (2010) targets patients with impaired hand function in a study. The core of the problem is the
enormous amount of effort it requires to move the mouse cursor to the target object. The assistance of the Extended Dual
Cursor Automatic Pointing Assistive Program has been shown to have a positive profound effect.

METHODS
This study's cursor design is separated into the two fields of Cursor Position Assistance and Cursor Selection
Assistance. There will be 5 types of cursor designs as this study's independent variable for each respective field (5 arrows
cursors and 5 hand-shaped cursors). This study will conduct two groups of experiments; one group will discuss 5 different
ways of cursor position assistance while the other group will discuss 5 different ways of cursor selection assistance. In
addition, the control variables of the study will be the experiment website's content, formatting, and colors (Which are all
the same). The dependent variables will reference the three handicap-free website design guidelines from WAI's WCAG
2.0.
Experiment Websites
The experiment website's design was awarded with the Excellent Handicap-free Website Award
(http://www.premierf.org.tw/index.html). Different cursor designs were also collected from different studies from previous
studies. Aspects of the site besides the cursors which are irrelevant to the study are left the way they were such as the
website's content, formatting, and colors.
The experiment website would need to go through the Freego handicap-free website assessment tool to ensure that
the experiment websites were still A+ grade level.
Questionnaire
The study questionnaire uses the 5-point Likert scale, the focus will be assessment of accessibility. The WCAG
2.0's Four Prime Principle's first three principles will be used as reference for design. They are respectively Perceivable,
Operable, and Understandable. The fourth principle is Robust which mainly concerns the website's contents
compatibility and is not integrated into the questionnaire. Perceivable is used to assess the cursor's visibility. Operable
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Wang, Nien-Tsan,
Tsan, Chen, Yen-Lu & Hsu, Yi-Chen

will
ill be used for assessing the cursor design's effect on website control. Understandable will be used to assess the user's
visual impression of the cursor's design and their acceptance of it.

RESULTS
This study employs a repetitive measurement experiment. The 50 respondents would be required to complete 5
experimental website tests and fill out 5 related questionnaires for a total of 250. The data was analyzed by using Repeated
Measure ANOVA via SPSS Statistics in order to understand if each experimental
experimental website's accessibility were notably
different. If the variable's overall F value were statically significant, then the LSD method will be used for further
comparison. The contents of the analysis include the difference between accessibility and more specific fields (Perceivable,
Operable, and Understandable)
Cursor Location Assistance
There are 5 experimental websites which are respectively A Default Cursor, B Color Adjustment, C Enlarged
Cursor, D Appearance Change, and E Extra Stationary
Statio
Graphic (Table 1).
Through the Repeated measure ANOVA analysis method (Table 2), it was discovered that feeling of accessibility
from the 50 respondents were statically significant for all 5 websites. The F value was 41.440 while the Sig value was
P=.000<.05.
=.000<.05. The LSD comparison later showed that the best methods of cursor position assistance were Enlarged Cursor
and Color Adjustment, and the worst were Extra Stationary Graphic, Default Cursor, and Appearance Change.
Table 1: Cursor Designs for Positioning
Group

Icon

A. Default Cursor
B. Color
Adjustment

Description
The default mouse cursor the Microsoft Windows 7
operating system (Windows Aero).
Changes the default cursor's color to dark blue.
Enlarges the cursor's size by 200% based on its
original size.
With the circular exterior graphics as its base, a
center is added as the detection point. Four lines are
added to form a crosshair.

C. Enlarged Cursor
D. Appearance
Change
E. Extra Stationary
Graphic

With the cursor as the center a circular graphic with

a 10 mm radius is added.

Table 2: Analysis of Accessibility Variables

Group
A
B
C
D
E

Mean
52.220
56.060
56.540
42.380
53.000

Std Error
5.350
8.303
6.851
6.957
5.883

Sig

41.440

.000

Cursor Selection Assistance

There are 5 experimental websites which are respectively A Default Cursor, B Color Adjustment, C Enlarged
Cursor, D Flashing, and E Extra Stationary Graphic (Table 3).

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Assistive Design of Cursors for Low Vision Users

Through the Repeated measure ANOVA analysis method (Table 4), it was discovered that feeling of accessibility
from the 50 respondents were statically significant for all 5 websites. The F value was 40.963 while the Sig value was
P=.000<.05. The LSD comparison later showed that the best method of cursor position assistance
assistan was Enlarged Cursor.
The second was Default Cursor. Next are Color Adjustment and Extra Stationary Graphic. Flashing was the worst.
Table 3: Cursor Designs for Selecting
Group

Icon

A. Default
Cursor
B. Color
Adjustment
C. Enlarged
Cursor
D. Flashing

Description
The default mouse cursor the
Microsoft Windows 7
operating system (Windows
Aero)
Changes the default cursor's
color to orange
Enlarges the cursor's size by
160% based on its original size
Alternates colors between
white and grey with a rate of
0.2 seconds
With a hand shaped cursor as
the center, an inwardly
shrinking animated circle
graphic is added. (As seen in
Figure A to D). The playback
time is 0.8 seconds.

E. Extra
Stationary
Graphic

Table 4:
4 Analysis of Accessibility Variables
Group
A
B
C
D
E

Mean
68.340
65.680
70.260
59.180
64.560

Std Error
7.582
8.749
6.638
6.156
7.497

F
40.963

Sig
.000

40.963

.000

CONCLUSIONS
Cursor Location Assistance
The Color Adjustment method has a better recognition effect than the default cursor. Dark blue was used as the
suitable design as it fit well with the rest of the website and didn't easily cause visual fatigue. For Enlarged Cursor, a
200% size increase was used as the suitable design.
Cursor Selection Assistance
The Color Adjustment cursor has a much higher recognition effect. Orange was used as the suitable color. It had
high contrast and since the user did not need to stare at the hand cursor for a long period of time they did not feel fatigued
fati
easily.
User Experience
For most users the control of a user interface is already part of their habit. Changing the cursor that they are used
to can very easily exceed their understanding and make the users feel unaccustomed and/or mentally create the
th wrong
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mental links. This study did not change the outward appearance of the hand shaped cursor in the Cursor Selection
Assistance so that they could give the users a consistent experience.
The Relation of the Principles of Accessibility
This study's assessment of accessibility has been separated into the three principles, Perceivable, Operable, and
Understandable. These three all have their own degrees of relation and effect to one another. For instance, if the cursor
design only takes into mind the principle of being Perceivable, then the extreme contrast of the cursor may interfere with
the user's reading of the rest of the website which negatively impacts Operable.
REFERENCES
1.

Chang. H. C. 2007. Analysis of Cursor Supporting Function in a Positioning Task of Graphical User Interface. Southern
Taiwan University of Science and Technology. Taiwan.

2.

Chin, C. C. 2011. A Study of Interactive Text for Accessible Websites. National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan.

3.

Chiu, H. C. 2010. Assist People with Mental Retardation to Enhance Pointing Efficiency with the Extended Dual Cursor
Automatic Pointing Assistive Program. National Hualien University of Education, Taiwan.

4.

Fraser, J. and Gutwin, C. (2000). A framework of assistive pointers for low vision users. Proceedings of the fourth
international ACM conference on Assistive technologies, Arlington, Virginia, United States.

5.

Hollinworth, N. (2010). Helping older adults locate 'lost' cursors using FieldMouse. Proceedings of the 12th international
ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, Orlando, Florida, USA.

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Hollinworth, N. and Hwang, F. (2011). Cursor relocation techniques to help older adults find 'lost' cursors. Proceedings of the
2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

7.

Kline, R. L. and Glinert, E. P. (1995). Improving GUI accessibility for people with low vision. Proceedings of the SIGCHI
conference on Human factors in computing systems, Denver, Colorado, United States.

8.

Meyer, E. A. 2007. CSS: The Definitive Guide, 3rd ed. O'Reilly Media, United States.

9.

Zhou. Z. 2010. User Interface Design for Mobile Devices. GrandTech Information, Taiwan.

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