Browsing the Web from a Speech-Based Interface

The design of information presentation on the web is predominately visual-oriented. This presentation approach requires most, if not all, of the user’s attention and imposes considerable cognitive load on a user. This approach is not always practical, especially for the visually impaired persons. The focus of this project is to develop a prototype which supports web browsing using a speech-based interface, e.g. a phone, and to measure its effectiveness. The command input and the delivery of web contents are entirely in voice. Audio icons are built into the prototype so that users can have better understanding of the original structure/intent of a web page. Navigation and control commands are available to enhance the web browsing experience. The effectiveness of this prototype is evaluated in a user study involving both normally sighted and visually impaired people. Useful lessons learnt from this experiment helps drive further research to a better speech-based interface.