Diana Machado Carvalho

Abstract
Mobile devices, as smartphones and tablets, have presented an exponential growth, being part of our everyday life, particularly considering children [1]. Their daily habits are undoubtedly influenced by technology and the applications they use can affect socialization and learning processes [2]. Specifically, games are the most popular type of applications and have the potential to change attitudes and behaviours. Emphasizing the importance of this area, we decided to create a serious game that stimulates the children' responsibility for taking care of pets while they play, called My Buddy. In this paper, we present the development and assessment process of a 3D serious game, where the user is asked to interact with a pet and nurture it. The interface was developed based on the universal design philosophy, presenting itself attractive to children without disabilities, but also accessible to children with visual or motor disabilities. As such, we present a multimodal interface based on touch and speech commands. The game was tested in terms of usability, with a heuristic evaluation, and the results obtained highlight the potential of such interfaces.

Abstract
This research aims at investigating which web accessibility and usability tools, with the focus on the ones that warrant automation, are available to assess the quality of interfaces for people with disabilities and/or special needs, enabling them to navigate and interact with web and mobile apps. Our search strategy identified 72 scientific articles of the most rated conferences and scientific journals, from which 16 were considered for the systematic literature review (SLR). We found that, despite the existence of various tools either for web or mobile apps, they are not completely effective, covering less than 40% of all the problems encountered. Also, no tool was found capable of adapting the application interfaces according to the type of disabilities that users may present. Therefore, a new tool could be a welcome advancement to provide full accessible and usable experiences.

Abstract
Dyscalculia is a specific neurological affliction that disrupts a person's ability to understand and manipulate numbers. We intend to develop a serious game for children who attend primary school (up to 4th grade) and whose purpose is making the learning of basic mathematics (simple arithmetic) easier, by introducing specific mathematical problems and educational games that stimulate memory, among other aspects. To that end, we undertook a straightforward and preliminary evaluation of the serious game developed and present its results. Indeed, we believe that the findings of our pilot case study can be useful to determine some perceptions that may be vital to understanding the problems with teaching mathematics and the issues students face in this regard.

Abstract

Abstract
With the thriving of different natural interaction paradigms-such as gesture-based interfaces-it becomes important to understand how these novel interfaces can influence users' performance when it comes to their age. Recent advances made in human-computer interaction allow us to manipulate digital contents more intuitively; however, no work has yet been reported that systematically evaluates how gestural interfaces may influence the performance of different user groups. Different optical sensors, which allow human body acquisition with reliable accuracy, have been released, and with the appearance of such controllers for gesture recognition, it becomes important to understand if different age-related groups display similar performance levels concerning gestural interaction, or, on the other hand, if specific sensors could induce better results than others when dealing with users of different age brackets. In this article, we compare two gesture-sensing devices (Microsoft Kinect and Leap Motion) using the Fitts' law model to evaluate target acquisition performance, with relation to three user groups: children, young adults and older adults. This case study involved 60 participants that were asked to perform a simple continuous selection task as quickly and accurately as possible using one of the devices for gestural recognition. Indeed, performance results showed statistically significant differences among the age groups in the selection task accomplished. However, when considering the users' performance with regard to both input devices compared side by side, there were no significant differences in each group of users. We believe this situation could imply that the device itself might not have influenced the users' performance, but actually the users' age might. The participants feedback was interesting on account of their behaviors and preferences: Although there are no significant differences in performance, there could be when it comes to user preference.