DESIGNING AN INTERACTIVE PERSONAL ASSISTANT WEB APPLICATION SYSTEM Joo Tan, David Day, Kyle Wamsley Department of Computer Science Kutztown University of Pennsylvania Kutztown, PA 19530 tan@kutztown.edu, dday898@live.kutztown.edu ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to present the components and design process of the backend user interface that is included in the Interactive Personal Assistant Web-Application System (ipaws). The front end user interface of ipaws is designed to assist adults on the autism spectrum with task completion and reduce the need for constant supervision. The back end user interface provides functionality to manage user accounts, generate reports, create tasks and assign categories. Design of the system components, derivation of functionality, and implementation requirements are explained. Future work is also discussed. BACKGROUND In the past, the development of applications for individuals on the autism spectrum focused on aiding and teaching children with autism [7, 10]. Riemer-Reiss [11] discussed how the drive to develop new assistive technology [2] diminishes after a period of interest has elapsed. This concept provides an explanation for the lack of development of applications to aid and teach adults with autism. Problems with social interaction and receiving verbal instruction cause difficulties for these adults to learn in the classroom and train for a work environment [1]. Tachibana [12] described how an adult on the spectrum can excel with proper training in specific roles in the workplace. Grynszpan [9] suggested that learning through human computer interfaces can be more effective than just social dialog. Realizing this, Duncan [4] identified the need for an assistive web application that combines the components of supervisor instruction and a human computer interface to assist an adult with autism be able to complete tasks in specified categories. Duncan s application, named Task Manager, displays the description of a task paired with a picture. This picture/description pairing supports image-based learning [6], which is traditionally used for instructing individuals on the autism spectrum. INTRODUCTION Although Task Manager performed well in initial user testing [4], it remains a standalone front end web application (webapp). Rapid prototyping of the backend component resulted in tasks being hard coded into the system. Together, the frontend and backend components combine to become part of the web application system referred to as ipaws. There is a need for a simple backend user interface where a Supervisor can quickly build task instruction sets for a User. A User is defined as the adult with autism being aided by the webapp. Tasks will be classified by category; so every category has a list of accompanying tasks. The Supervisor needs to be able to assign a User to a category. With both Supervisor and User accounts available for accessing the system, there is a need for a third account type, which is a Manager to control account management. Lastly, security will be required to grant the correct authorizations at login for each account type. This paper will describe the basic design of the backend component, named Task Developer, and design decisions which satisfy the aforementioned requirements. SYSTEM DESIGN The design goals of ipaws include accessibility, portability and ease of navigation. The application must be easily accessible by multiple users and use technology that is available to individuals on the spectrum, their families, and their employers. A portable application is
necessary for the users; this is accomplished through accessing the application with mobile tablets. Finally, the interfaces must be simple and intuitive to reduce the amount of learning time needed to use the application effectively. Meeting these goals will help create an easily adoptable assistive application [3, 8]. The ipaws system consists of two main components, Task Manager and Task Developer. The Task Manager is used for the client interface. This is the component that the User will deal with directly. The Task Developer is the backend user interface, and is the focus of this paper. The Task Developer allows access to two user (actor) types: Manager and Supervisor. The Manager role is the person in charge of the account management. The Supervisor role is the person in charge of task creation and task assignment. The web server for the system contains a database for holding task instruction sets as well as account information. The overall system organization is shown in Figure 1. ipaws forges a link between the Supervisor and User, allowing a supervisor to create a task in the database, which is then viewable by a User on a tablet. Figure 1: System Design The ASP.NET framework has been chosen for building the system. The ipaws design leverages role management, URL authorization, and security trimming that are built into the.net Framework [13]. This design allows a single web access point for all three actor types. Upon login, the actor will be filtered to the matched site node based on his/her account type. Each site node will implement the functional requirements for the matching role, including access to the application database. Finally, building the user interfaces with current web technologies (HTML5, jquery, and jquery Mobile) will aid in cross browser/platform compatibility, allowing the application to be used on mobile devices/tablets without being tied to a particular platform. Design of Manager Role The organization s system administrator creates one or more manager accounts. The primary function of the Manager is account management. A Manager is able to access all User and Supervisor accounts on the system as well as having the authority to disable/enable any of these accounts. Disabling an account prevents a User or Supervisor from logging into the system while retaining their account for future use. A Manager also has the permissions to update account information for all users in the system. A secondary function of the Manager is to create/generate reports. This means that s/he has the ability to create a text document detailing the progress and activity of Users. The report will include details such as tasks that a User was assigned, tasks that the User completed, and dates/times that the tasks were assigned/completed. The purpose of the reports is to analyze and assess the progress of the Users. The original design of the generate reports page had limited
functionality where reports were printed with only two options; either for all Users or a single User. Further design discussions indicated that additional filters are needed. This includes the ability to generate users assigned to a specific Supervisor. There are many options given to the Manager when generating reports, some of these options include: filtering Users by name, allowing the Manager to search for a specific individual, and filtering by tasks to see Users that have completed a specific task. Another useful design feature is the ability to generate reports for a specific time period. Lastly, a Manager can review data on a report by either generating a printed copy or sending it by email. Table 1 explains the functionality supported for each account type. Role Functionality Supported Reason Manager Account management Security Report generation Analysis for improvement Print Report Review View logged-in users Monitor users; remote supervision possible Task creation Aid users in their work Supervisor Preview tasks Check for accuracy and correctness Assign user(s) to categories Tasks in category ready for use View user s task request Review work assignments / load Users View assigned task(s) Need help in completing task(s) Request new tasks Renewed confidence Table 1: Roles and Responsibilities Design of Supervisor Role The Supervisor is a major actor in Task Developer and has many responsibilities. Among them is the ability to view logged in Users, create tasks, assign work roles, and view task requests submitted by Users. A useful design feature allows the Supervisor (upon login) to view all Users that are currently logged into the system. Each User s name can be further expanded to reveal information about his/her assigned categories/tasks. Figure 2 shows two Users currently using the system. One User (Kyle) is assigned the Make Pies category. The Supervisor can view detailed information about each User by selecting the View button. Figure 2: Design of the Supervisor s home page The Supervisor s home page is designed for easy navigation to his/her functions. Major functions fall into Tasks and Categories as can be seen in Figure 2. The Tasks menu provides options to work with task-related functions (create, view, and update); whereas the
Category menu gives options to work with categories (create and assign). The Supervisor is able to create, update and assign categories. Categories are specified classifications of related tasks. A category in Task Developer can be thought of as a work role. Example categories are Make Pies, Shelve Books, Clean Cafeteria, etc. Specific tasks are then created within each category. For example the Make Pies category might include tasks such as Make Pumpkin Pie, Make Blueberry Pie, etc. These categories can be assigned to a User if, for example, s/he is regularly performing tasks from that category. Categories are designed to improve the ease of searching for specific tasks. Therefore, if two tasks are related finding one makes it easy to find the other, when both are in the same category. The most important role of the Supervisor is to create new tasks for the Users. Tasks are the driving force of the application, designed to enable the User to be a more effective and productive employee. The Supervisor s screens are designed to make essential operations flow cleanly, including the ability to insert a task into a specified category, naming a task, adding steps (both main and detailed) for a task, and adding an image to a task step. Figure 3 shows the starting page of task creation. Tasks are created and assigned to an existing category (chosen from a dropdown list). Figure 3: Creating a new task The design of task creation is simple, and intuitive, allowing the Supervisor to implement a variety of tasks. It is possible for tasks to contain a lot of steps and information, or for a task to be very short and simple. During design of the screens it became apparent that there needed to be multiple options for each task. Some tasks require lots of detail while others need very little. For that reason each main step added is given a number of options. A main step can have a video clip attached, an audio clip attached, and it can be supplemented with detailed steps. Furthermore, each detailed step can include a picture as visual aid. Detailed steps can continually be added till the Supervisor decides to move on to the next main step. This process will continue until the entire task has been constructed. A very important part of this process is the ability, at any time, to preview the task. The preview task feature allows the Supervisor to view the task just as a User would and run through the processes of the task until s/he decides to continue with construction of the task, or has finished the task altogether. The preview button is an important option that has been included. The ability for a Supervisor to preview a task, and be presented with the same screens the User would, really allow the Supervisor to make an evaluation of the task, to an ideal level of detail. Some example use cases of tasks are illustrated in [5]. The Supervisor s login screen also includes a notification bar that will inform the Supervisor when there are pending task requests from the Users. While handling those task requests a Supervisor has the option to set the status of each task, assign the task, or send the request to another Supervisor to handle it.
Design of User Role The User role is defined as an individual with autism that requires assistance with task completion. Upon using the Task Manager on login through a mobile tablet, his/her assigned categories and their associated tasks are immediately displayed on the home page. While the functional requirements of the User remain the same as explained by Duncan [4], one new function has been added to the design after reviewing previous prototypes. The User will now have the ability to request a new task from a Supervisor. Adding this ability improves the Supervisor/User relationship as the User has the ability to notify a Supervisor if s/he requires additional instructions on how to complete a new task or is struggling to complete a current task. CONCLUSION ipaws will be designed and developed as a web application system. The web technologies used to implement it allows for platform independence. The Supervisor will be able to build a task instruction set, insert pictures, and include video all within the Task Developer. Further, it is possible for a Supervisor to simultaneously update a task instruction set while introducing the task to a User. The possibility of real-time building and updating of instruction sets would greatly increase the productivity of the Supervisor. More importantly, a Supervisor can have immediate feedback that a new instruction set is comprehensible by the User from the Task Manager. The design of the Task Developer node of ipaws provides multiple functions for both the Manager and Supervisor, which ultimately benefit the individual with autism. Task reports that are generated provide valuable data for analyzing and optimizing the Supervisor/User relationship. Supervisors can build tasks and assign Users to categories by completing simple web forms, which require minimal training. A User can be remotely assigned to a category, further minimizing the amount of supervision needed for the individual. Finally, task instruction sets built in Task Developer support the picture/description based learning for individuals on the autism spectrum as they view step instructions in the Task Manager node of ipaws. FUTURE WORK The focus of this paper was to present the design of the Task Developer node of ipaws. The outlined functionalities were designed and derived from prototypes of the system including both frontend and backend user interfaces. In the near future, the authors intend to implement the Task Developer with current web technologies making it a comprehensive web application system. We envision that ipaws can be used for diverse range of applications and communities, including learning at the elementary school level and daily assistance for senior citizens. The authors recently contacted Keystone Goodwill, a regional non-profit organization, for help with subject testing. Goodwill employs many individuals with various disabilities and will be a good base for testing ipaws. We also anticipate that further design and development of ipaws will facilitate collaboration between computer scientists and other research disciplines such as special education. REFERENCES [1] American Psychiatric Association (APA). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4 th ed. Washington (DC): APA(1994). [2] Cramer, M., hirano, S.H., Tentori, M., Yeganyan, M.T., Hayes, G.R., Classroom-based assistive technology: collective use of interactive visual schedules by students with autism, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1-10, 2011.
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