Design of the arm position announcements

[phet-steele]

I have a concern about the decisions made for the arm's position and how they are announced to the user. I conducted a very informal "interview" (thanks @amanda-phet!) to get some fresh eyes on the current design. Here is how the sim behaves

• The arm positions range from 0-100, with 0 and 100 being at 180 degrees around the unit circle (there's a slight rotation but I'm ignoring that).
• This puts the doorknob at position 50, halfway.
• On startup or after Reset All, the arm begins at position 64.
• Pressing the "Up" or "Right" arrow keys increment the arm's position value.
• Pressing the "Down" or "Left" arrow keys decrement the the arm's position value.
• There are 7 announcement variants to communicate the position of the arm with relation to the doorknob:
  • 100, "farthest from the doorknob"
  • 88 - 99, "very far from the doorknob"
  • 76 - 87, "far from the doorknob"
  • 75, "neither far nor close to the doorknob"
  • 63 - 74, "close to the doorknob"
  • 51 - 62, "very close to the doorknob"
  • 50, "closest to the doorknob"
  • positions are then reflected, ex. 1/4 of the way (25) has the same message as 3/4 of the way (75)

I found a pretty big point of confusion for a potential new user:

• It makes sense that the first press of the arrow keys would be made with the intent to move the arm closer to the doorknob. Without seeing the sim, I would assume that I would need to increment the arm slider by pressing "Right" (the user has no idea that "Position 64" is past the halfway point and they should move left). In fact, "Right" moves the arm farther from the doorknob (at startup).
• Following the train of thought above, pressing "Right" at position 64 (at startup) and moving toward position 65, both positions announce "close to the doorknob". This does not give any feedback on whether I have moved closer to or farther from the doorknob. It isn't until position 75, a whopping eleven "Right" arrow presses later, that the announcement finally changes and informs me of the direction I have been moving. This is not ideal.

I have one (or two) suggestions on how to remedy this:

1. We add a new message to each position announcement that announces the delta of distance to/from the doorknob. To elaborate, the current pattern for a position announcement has two parts,

[Position #], [Current Distance] ex. "Position 68, close to the doorknob."

We could add a third part between the two,

[Position #], [Delta Distance], [Current Distance] ex. 'Position 68, moved farther from the doorknob, close to the doorknob."

This would be different depending on you previous position of course. If you started at position 67, the announcement would be as above. If you started at position 69 and decremented to 68, the delta would read "moved closer to the doorknob". This would give valuable distance feedback every single time a user presses an arrow key, instead of having to wait until eleven key presses later.

2. This next idea seems less necessary, but I believe there is a standard for numerical positions where 0 is the starting point, or in our case the most significant point. Instead of mapping the position to [0, 100], we map it to [-50, 50] and place the doorknob at 0. This really just makes more sense in my head, but other than that I don't have a strong argument for this change.

I've written these two thoughts here without really knowing if these are reasonable changes. I'll leave that to the people who know more than me! I'm unsure how these changes would affect the leg. I also couldn't find any place where the current behaviour had been discussed and decided upon, so apologies if these idea have already been tried and rejected.

[jobara]

@jhung do you have any thoughts on this?

[terracoda]

@phet-steele, I am also concerned that there are two many positions for each description.

[jhung]

@phet-steele:

Re - Change number line to -50 to 50. I'm okay with this change. But I'm wondering as well if this will work okay with the current foot number system which is from 0 to 30 (not -15 to 15). My guess is that the foot numbers are okay, but I'd rather have some users try it out and report back.

Re - Reporting deltas in arm movement I can see the potential for confusion. I quite like your proposal to introduce a delta to the feedback. However, I share @terracoda's concern about too many positions being reported.

How about for hand movements, let's remove the reporting of the regions (but leave it in the general scene description). So the feedback would be like this:

• Moving from -50 to -1 in single increments: [position #] [Delta]
• Moved onto doorknob: [position #] ["On the doorknob"]
• Moving from 1 to 50 in single increments: [position #] [Delta]
• Moving using jump hotkeys AND crosses 0: [position #]["Moved past doorknob"]

So if moving in single increments you would hear:

• Moving from -2 to -1: 'Position -1. Moved toward doorknob.'
• Moving from -1 to 0: 'Position 0. On the doorknob.'
• Moving from 0 to -1: 'Position -1. Moved away from doorknob.'
• Jumping from -50 to 50: 'Position 50. Moved past doorknob.'
• Jumping from -2 to 3: 'Position 3. Moved past the doorknob.'
• Jumping from 3 to 8: 'Position 8. Move away from doorknob.'

If we change the number line to -50 / 50, the delta calculation will need to get adjusted appropriately.

[phet-steele]

@phet-steele, I am also concerned that there are two many positions for each description.

@terracoda are you suggesting the arm needs more granularity in it's descriptions (so maybe every 5 positions are given a different announcement instead of every 11 positions), or that we just need fewer positions? Like changing the range from [0, 100] to being [0, 50].....I guess both would accomplish the same thing anyway 😄.

[emily-phet]

I think we should definitely wait for @jhung to weigh in - he led the description design for this sim and has thought deeply about these issues. In the meantime, my initial thoughts are 1) I don't recall having a discussion about how it was decided how many increments there are to get around the full circle...decreasing this number may be reasonable. 2) I really like @phet-steele suggestion to add a delta indicator in the readout as the arm is moved. @jhung may have tried this and I don't recall, or may have decided against it - it could make the readout too verbose (people may just skip it then and miss the important info at the end). If this suggestion is considered, I would suggest adding "still" and "now" to the [current distance] readout, depending on whether or not it had changed from the previous readout. For example "Position 68, moved farther from the doorknob, still close to the doorknob."

[jessegreenberg]

How about for hand movements, let's remove the reporting of the regions (but leave it in the general scene description). So the feedback would be like this:

@jhung I really like this idea, what do you think @emily-phet?

[terracoda]

@jhung and @phet-steele, I am working on some feedback.

[terracoda]

@phet-steele, by "too many positions for each description" my concern was the same as yours. The user is pressing too many times before getting any indication of a change i.e., not enough feedback during an actual interaction.

[terracoda]

Sorry, for the late post and the long post. I have been thinknig about this all day. Trying to add as few progress phrases as possible, so as to affect the current design as little as possible.

Question 1 @jhung, are directional keys implemented as you designed it. I know you did user testing on which keys to make go up/down. Currently, Right and Up Arrows are counter-clockwise and Left and Down Arrows go clockwise? Is that correct?

@jhung, I like your idea of having region information in the scene summary. It might work to only have it there, but I found in Balloons and Static Electricity (BASE) interviews that some users wanted both progress and position information. Both, however, do no have to be spoken together all the time.

Announcing direction-progress info right after the position number change is likely very useful. Having the current distance or "region" last, means a fast interaction may skip that detail, and a slower interaction will get that detail. In either case, the student knows they are going in their intended direction, making progress, and if the region info is skipped, it's repeated in the summary when the student reviews information.

I like @phet-steele's idea of having three parameters, [Position #][Delta Distance][Current Distance], to achieve this, but I would call it [Delta Progress] not [Delta Distance] and [Current Region] not [Current Distance].

@phet-steele, I like the idea of having negative numbers, too, and the having the doorknob at zero, if @jhung is ok with that.

Question 2 Fewer actual positions on the slider may make things more engaging. @jhung, how do feel about reducing them to 61 (counting zero). I also made regions near zero smaller.

Note verb tense is important in interaction. I see it as describing "the now"; where the hand is, not where it was, a second ago. The past tense may be more relevant in the summary or on a discharge when you are describing what just happened.

Question 3 @jhung, I do not think, the verb, "moved" is necessary. How do you feel about dropping it, or at least changing it to "moves"?

Also, @jhung "On doorknob" cannot be used because John would be grounded if it was described like that. John never actually touches the dooknob. I suggest:

• "At doorknob." Hopefully this nuance is enough to convey he is not actually touching the doorknob.

Question 4 I have a few suggested changes to the list of current regions (and I removed the). Do these sound reasonable?

• 30, "Farthest from doorknob."
• 24 - 29, "Very far from doorknob."
• 18 to 23, "Far from doorknob."
• 13 to 17, "Neither far nor close to doorknob" CHANGE to "Not so close to doorknob."
• 9 to 12, "Close to doorknob."
• 5 to 8, "Very close to doorknob"
• 2 to 4, "closest to the doorknob" CHANGE to "Just above doorknob."
• ADD, -1 to +1, "At doorknob."
• ADD, -2 to -4, "Just below doorknob."
• -5 to -8, "Very close to doorknob."
• -9 to -12, "Close to doorknob."
• -13 to -17, "Not so close to doorknob."
• -18 to -23, "Far from doorknob."
• -24 to -29, "Very far from doorknob."
• -30, "Farthest from doorknob."

Possible direction-progress-landmark phrases These phrases would only be part of slider decriptions. The regions would still be used in the summary descriptions, hopefully not causing many changes there.

• Directional change indicators:
  • "Towards doorknob."
  • "Farther from doorknob." or possibly simpler language "Away from doorknob."

• Progress indicators:

  • Closer to doorknob.
  • Farther away from doorknob.
  • Closer, still [+ current region]
  • Farther away, still [+ current region].

• Landmarks could be added in for orientation and to reduce repetition:

  • Hand pointing away, very far from doorknob.
  • Hand pointing straight up.
  • Hand pointing at upper door frame, close to doorknob.
  • Hand pointing at lower door frame, close to doorknob.
  • Hand pointing straight down.
  • Hand pointing away, very far from doorknob.

My Reasoning

• Always mark directional changes.
• Limit repetitions of region names to 2 or 3 by slipping in the progress and landmark indicators.

Walkthough with progress, landmarks and regions With these added phrases, things might sound like this.

• Tab key: "Hand Position, slider."

• Default position: "Position 13. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)

• Right/Up arrow, "Position 14. Farther from doorknob." (Progress away- directional)

• Right/Up arrow, "Position 15. Hand pointing straight up." (Main landmark and region silent)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 14. Towards doorknob." (Progress towards - directional)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 13. Closer, still not so close to doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 12, Closer to doorknob." (Progress towards, region silent)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 11. Hand pointing at upper door frame, close to doorknob." (Helpful landmark and region.)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 10. Close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 9. Closer, still close to doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 8. Closer to doorknob." (Progress towards, region silent)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 7. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 6. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 5. Closer, still very close to doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 4. Just above doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 3. Just above doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 2. Closer, still just above doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 1. At doorknob." (Region, no progress necessary.)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position 0. At doorknob." (Region, no progress necessary.))

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -1. At doorknob." (Region, no progress necessary.))

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -2. Just below doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -3. Just below doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -4. Farther away, still just below doorknob. (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -5. Farther from doorknob." (Progress away and region silent)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -6. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -7. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -8. Farther away, still very close to doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -9. Farther away from doorknob." (Progress away and region silent)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -10. Hand pointing at lower door frame, close to doorknob." (Helpful landmark and region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -11. Close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -12. Farther away, still close to doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -13. Farther away from doorknob." (Region and landmark)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -14. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -15. Hand pointing straight down." (Main landmark and region silent.)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -16. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -17. Farther away, still not so close to doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -18. Far from doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -19. Farther away from doorknob." (Progress away and region silent.)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -20. Hand pointing straight down." (Main landmark and region silent.)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -21. Far from doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -22. Far from doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -23. Farther away, still far from doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -24. Very far from doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -25. Farther away from doorknob." (Progress away and region silent)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -26. Hand pointing away. Very far from doorknob." (Helpful landmark and region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -27. Very far from doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -28. Very far from doorknob." (Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -29. Farther away, still very far from doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• Left/Down arrow, "Position -30. Farthest from far from doorknob." (Very last region)

  • Using the superlative as @jhung has done should indicate the last stop. In interaction "Last stop." might be a playful and helpful addition.

Note Edits to original post:

• Corrected spelling from "Further" to "Farther" anywhere. Don't use "Further" :-)
• Added LAST VALUE for clarity. Markdown doesn't add white space.

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg How difficult would it be to implement @terracoda suggested changes? If it's not too difficult (e.g., on the order of an hour or less of time), we could implement these changes, and ask a few screen reader users we know to give it a try and get some informal feedback. I think that's what @jhung is hoping to do with any changes. Would any of these changes impact the prior testing that's been done, or could a quick check with the different screen readers suffice?

[jessegreenberg]

@emily-phet it seems like those changes could be made in 2-4 hours, with some additional time making modifications after feedback. We will use the same html/aria as we did before, I would not expect this to significantly impact prior AT testing that has been done. The sim will get full release candidate testing before release anyway. As for timing, the sim should probably begin RC testing by early next week in order to be released by May 1.

I would like to make sure I understand the requested changes, does the following list sum it up?

• [x] Change range of arm from [-30, 30]
• [x] Add landmark descriptions, which will always be read when position is exactly on a landmark
• [x] Add directional indication that will always be read when arm changes directions (unless arm hits a landmark)
• [x] Add progress indicators that will be read when the arm moves through the same region.
  • [x] Appendage needs to track previous region for "closer to doorknob" and "Closer, still [+region]"
• [x] modify and add a few region descriptions
• [x] Change leg range to go from [ -15, 15 ]

[jessegreenberg]

I am also curious if @jhung has any thoughts on https://github.com/phetsims/john-travoltage/issues/222#issuecomment-294003808 before proceeding, this would be a pretty significant change to description content from what has gone through user testing.

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg I agree, it would be helpful to get feedback from @jhung. After emailing him, I got an out of office reply that he will be unavailable until the 24th, so not sure if he will be able to comment before then. So we may need to proceed with what we think is reasonable until he returns.

Your list looks correct to me, except for the "Add some hysteresis..." subtask. I couldn't find where that idea was suggested. Since you'll cross into another region frequently, I'm not sure that this is needed. Can you clarify where this is described in the comments above, I may just be misunderstanding something.

[jessegreenberg]

Since you'll cross into another region frequently, I'm not sure that this is needed.

Good point, each region has only a few slider values, so it will be pretty simple. So we will add 'still' when the user stays in the same region without changing directions, or hitting a landmark.

So we may need to proceed with what we think is reasonable until he returns.

Understood, should I begin working on this?

[jessegreenberg]

@terracoda @jhung @jobara @emily-phet @phet-steele should the leg map from [-15, 15] instead of [ 0, 30] to match the arm?

[jessegreenberg]

For examples like this in the walkthroug:

Left/Down arrow, "Position -21. Far from doorknob." (Region) Left/Down arrow, "Position -22. Far from doorknob." (Region)

Left/Down arrow, "Position -6. Very close to doorknob." (Region) Left/Down arrow, "Position -7. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

Left/Down arrow, "Position 4. Just above doorknob." (Region) Left/Down arrow, "Position 3. Just above doorknob." (Region)

Why aren't we using progress indicator when moving through the same region? I am not really sure when to use the progress indicators.

[jessegreenberg]

Oh, in this case is 'Still' supposed to be read at the last number in a region, just before the region changes?

[terracoda]

@jessegreenberg, yes! Thanks for being so sharp with understanding the pseudo-logic.

The strategy with the progress markers (and landmarks) is to reduce repetition and provide orientation. Since regions further away from the doorknob have more slider values than the ones closer to the doorknob, the landmarks and the "Still" progress marker should be helpful to indicate where the student is, and that they are making progress. The "Still" progress marker is indeed only meant to show up on the last slider value in the region.

And of course, "At doorknob." doesn't need progress. A student just needs to know they are there.

One big question in my mind is whether the doorknob should be one value on the slider or be a little region (3 values) as I have it above. In @jhung's design, I couldn't tell if it had more than one value or not. It would be ideal to speak with @jhung about this, but as @emily-phet mentioned, he is unfortunately not immediately available.

Note, that I have only provided one direction. The phrases are direction dependent. Let me know if you need more examples.

[jessegreenberg]

Excellent, thanks for clarifying @terracoda! Sounds good.

One big question in my mind is whether the doorknob should be one value on the slider or be a little region (3 values) as I have it above

I am not sure what it should be, in the last version, "closest to the doorknob" had one value, but I have changed it to 3 with "at doorknob" as you have it above.

[jessegreenberg]

@terracoda @emily-phet @phet-steele here is a version with these changes and description strategy: http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/dev/html/john-travoltage/1.3.0-dev.22/john-travoltage_en.html

We could change the region ranges a bit if you think they don't quite fit.

What do people think?

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg Could you make a version with the visualized pdom?I have a really hard time tracking details in description with auditory info alone.

[terracoda]

@jessegreenberg, ok awesome! Here's some immediate feedback:

1. Replace all instances of "further" with "farther". These words basically mean the same thing, but historically "further" was used for figurative distance such as, we need to discuss this idea further. "Farther" is for physical distance. Now-a-days, I think the terms are interchangeable, but we only need to use one.
2. Now seeing where the hand is in relation to doorknob, I think a single value is better for "At doorknob."
3. I hear each location twice. Just wondering if aria-describedby is being used, and if that is causing repetition?
4. I like "Away from doorknob" as the directional cue opposite to "Towards doorknob". It provides a little more variety.

[jessegreenberg]

Sounds good @terracoda! No, no aria-describedby, just aria-valuetext. Did you notice repetition in dev.20 or is this a new bug?

[jessegreenberg]

Could you make a version with the visualized pdom?

That would be difficult for now, the description content is inline on the input elements and the PDOM visualization won't pick them up. That is an improvement we can make to the PDOM visualization soon.

For now I added "valueText" query parameter to see the value text in the sim, I will deploy a version after making the changes in https://github.com/phetsims/john-travoltage/issues/222#issuecomment-294386026.

[terracoda]

@jessegreenberg, sorry I noticed repetition in Version 22, the one you posted in https://github.com/phetsims/john-travoltage/issues/222#issuecomment-294377972.

Before that my testing on the sliders was pretty useless due to my lack of understanding how they worked with VO (see issue #228).

[terracoda]

@jessegreenberg and @emily-phet , I can provide an adjusted version of the regions with the doorknob as a single position.

I actually think that the "upper door frame" and "lower door frame" landmarks could actually be small regions, but I would really like @jhung's opinion on that. The "Close to doorknob" region seems kind of far off to be "close".

[terracoda]

All descriptions except the landmarks are relative, so it's just about how relative one wants to get (regarding last comment https://github.com/phetsims/john-travoltage/issues/222#issuecomment-294409272).

[terracoda]

The design works nicely, actually, with the landmarks as part of regions.

@jessegreenberg, @emily-phet, and @phet-steele I'm not exactly sure which value points for the landmarks on the slider should be. There is leeway, of course.

Since this sim actually needs to have refinement for experimentation near the doorknob what do you think of making the regions closer to the doorknob a little smaller?

If people like this iteration, note that the intermediate progress indicator is only needed regions with 4 values and no landmark, and regions with 7 values that include a landmark.

Summary of changes

• "At doorknob" reduce to 1 value (inline with @jhung's design).
• Reduced "Just above" and "Just below, to two 2 value points each,
• "Very close" reduced to 3 value points,
• shifted the rest accordingly, and

• ADDED "Extremely far from doorknob." with 2 value points for some balance on the far side.

  Actual Ranges

  • 30, "Farthest from doorknob." (1 point)
  • 28 - 29, "Extremely far from doorknob."
  • 2 points, no progression needed, BUT is a new region, so would affect other descriptions.
  • 21 to 27, "Very far from doorknob."
  • 7 points with a helpful landmark "Hand pointing away, very far from doorknob." at or near point 22.
  • 15 to 20, "Far from doorknob."
  • 6 points with a main landmark "Hand pointing straight up." at or near point 17 where it is now.
  • 9 to 14, "Not so close to doorknob."
  • 6 points with helpful landmark "Hand pointing at upper door frame, not so close to doorknob." at or near 11.
  • 6 to 8, "Close to doorknob." 3 points
  • 3 to 5, "Very close to doorknob" 3 points
  • 1 to 2, "Just above doorknob." 2 points
  • 0 "At doorknob." 1 point
  • -1 to -2, "Just below doorknob." 2 points
  • -3 to -5, "Very close to doorknob." 3 points
  • -6 to -9, "Close to doorknob." 3 points
  • -10 to -14, "Not so close to doorknob."
  • -15 to -20, "Far from doorknob."
  • 6 points with a helpful landmark "Hand pointing straight up." at or near -15.
  • -21 to -27, "Very far from doorknob."
  • 7 points with a helpful landmark, "Hand pointing away, very far from doorknob." at or near -23.
  • -28 to -29, "Extremely far from doorknob."
  • 2 points, no progression needed, BUT is a new region, so would affect other descriptions.
  • -30, "Farthest from doorknob."

New Walkthough with fewer intermediate progress indicators, landmarks and regions With these adjustments, the intermediate progress description are needed much less, only when there a region has 4 and no landmark and 7 when a landmark is present.

• Tab key: "Hand Position, slider."

• Default position: "Position 9. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)

• Right/Up arrow, "Position 10. Away from doorknob." (Progress away - directional)

  • Right/Up arrow, "Position 11. Hand pointing at upper door frame, not so close to doorknob." (Helpful landmark and Region.)

  • Left/Down arrow, "Position 10. Towards doorknob." (Progress towards - directional)

  • Left/Down arrow, "Position 9. Closer, still not so close to doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

  • Left/Down arrow, "Position 8, Close to doorknob." (Region)

    • Position 7. Close to doorknob." (Region, intermediate progress not needed when less than 4 values in a Region.)
    • "Position 6. Closer, still close to doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position 5. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position 4. Very close to doorknob." (Region, no intermediate progress needed.)
  • "Position 3. Closer, still very close to doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position 2. Just above doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position 1. Closer, still just above doorknob." (Progress towards and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position 0. At doorknob." (The doorknob!)

• "Position -1. Just below doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position -2. Farther away, still just below doorknob. (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position -3. Very close to doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position -4. Very close to doorknob." (Region, no intermediate progress needed)
  • "Position -5. Farther away, still very close to doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position -6. Close to doorknob." (Region only)

  • "Position -7. Close to doorknob." (Region, no intermediate progress)
  • Position -8. Farther away, still close to doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position -9. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position -10. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -11. Hand pointing at lower door frame, not so close to doorknob." (Helpful landmark, and Region)
  • "Position -12. Not so close to doorknob." (Region, intermediate progess also not needed if there is a landmark and the region has less than 7 values)
  • "Position -13. Not so close to doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -14. Farther away, still not so close to doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position -15. Far from doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position -16. Far from doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -17. Hand pointing straight down." (Main landmark and Region silent.)
  • Position -18. Far from doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -19. Far from doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -20. Farther away, still far from doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position -21. Very far from doorknob." (Region)

  • "Position -22. Very far from doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -23. Hand pointing away, very far from doorknob." (Helpful landmark and region)
  • "Position -24. Very far from doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -25. Farther away from doorknob." (Intermediate Progress away, and Region silent)
  • "Position -26. Very far from doorknob." (Region)
  • "Position -27. Farther away, still very far from doorknob." (Progress away and LAST VALUE in Region)

• "Position -28. Extremely far from doorknob." (New Region)
  • "Position -29. Extremely far from doorknob." (New Region)
• "Position -30. Farthest from doorknob." (Last Stop!)

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg @terracoda Perhaps it would be best to have a quick meeting today about where the sim is at now, and final adjustments before RC testing. I'll send an email about this.

[jessegreenberg]

Sounds good to me @terracoda.

I hear each location twice. Just wondering if aria-describedby is being used, and if that is causing repetition?

I reproduced this on MacOS 10.12 Safari.

[jessegreenberg]

After a refresh, I only hear the value text once. Weird.

[jessegreenberg]

@emily-phet noticed that VO doesn't read the negative value in the value text.

[jessegreenberg]

I can see it in the VoiceOver readout, but VO doesn't say it.

[jessegreenberg]

Very weird: If a negative number comes after the word "Position", VO will not read the 'minus' sign if it is negative. If following most other words, VO reads as 'minus 9' for "-9". @emily-phet @terracoda, how should we handle this?

Here is an example outside of teh sim. In the paragraph VO, reads "Position: 10, will VO read the negative?" Fro a paragraph that looks like "Position -10: Will VO read the negative value?"

And it won't read the minus sign for any of the aria-valuetext.

Example

[jessegreenberg]

Actually, VO seems to skip the '-' for most words?

[jessegreenberg]

Even "-10: Will VO read the negative value?" is read as "10: Will VO read the negative value?" Gonna see what google has to offer.

[jessegreenberg]

VoiceOver settings strike again - there is a setting for reading punctuation and by default it is set to "some". Changing to "All" and VO reads minus signs as "dash".

Edit...but not in aria-valuetext.

[jessegreenberg]

@terracoda @emily-phet I can't think of anything else to do here, VO skips all punctuation in aria-valuetext as a feature.

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg I did a google search around the VO/negative number issue and it seems like using the Unicode character for minus sign addresses this issue with VO. Not sure if this works for the other screen readers. Wish we could add a +1 to the list of people probably wishing VoiceOver would just handle dashes before numbers simply.

I'm looking through the sim now and will update this issue soon regarding the list of final tweaks. Sorry VO decided to be the misbehaving screen reader of the day!

[jessegreenberg]

Ah, great, thanks @emily-phet! I will give it a try.

[jessegreenberg]

Thanks @emily-phet that works really well, VO reads "minus sign [value]".

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg After thinking about this for awhile, I think we may be overcomplicating things. I took @jhung original clock structure (60 ticks around the circle) and shortened it to 15. (-7 to 7, including 0).

Here's an image of this, with region and/or landmark descriptions.

Here's a walk through, starting at the default position (-2), moving towards the doorknob, past it to one extreme end of the slider, the back all the way to the other extreme.

Default position: “Position -2. Not so close to doorknob. (Region) (no progress, since haven’t moved yet) Right/Up arrow: “Position -1. Closer, just above doorknob. (Progress and Region) (progress, since coming from not position 0) Right/Up arrow: “Position 0. At doorknob (Region) Right/Up arrow: “Position 1: Just below doorknob. (Region) (no progress, since coming from position 0) Right/Up arrow: “Position 2: Farther away, still close to doorknob. (Progress, Region) Right/Up arrow: “Position 3: Hand pointed at lower door frame, Not so close to doorknob. (Landmark, Region) Right/Up arrow: “Position 4: Hand pointed straight down. (Landmark) Right/Up arrow: “Position 5: Farther away, far from doorknob” (Progress and Region) Right/Up arrow: “Position 6: Very far from doorknob” (Region) Right/Up arrow: “Position 7: Hand pointing away, Farthest from doorknob” (Landmark and Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position 6: Very far from doorknob” (Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position 5: Closer, still far from doorknob” (Progress and Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position 4: Hand pointed straight down. (Landmark) Left/Up arrow: “Position 3: Hand pointed at lower door frame, Not so close to doorknob. (Landmark, Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position 2: Closer, close to doorknob. (Progress, Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position 1: Closer, Just below doorknob. (Progress, Region) (progress since coming from not position 0) Left/Up arrow: “Position 0. At doorknob (Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position -1.Just above doorknob. (Region) (no progress since coming from position 0) Left/Up arrow: “Position -2. Farther away, Not so close to doorknob. (Progress, Region) (progress now, since got here through slider movement) Left/Up arrow: “Position -3: Hand pointed at upper door frame, Not so close to doorknob. (Landmark, Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position -4: Hand pointed straight up. (Landmark) Left/Up arrow: “Position -5: Farther away, far from doorknob” (Progress and Region) Left/Up arrow: Position -6: Very far from doorknob” (Region) Left/Up arrow: “Position -7: Hand pointing away, Farthest from doorknob” (Landmark and Region)

[emily-phet]

Note on reasoning for this design:

• Decreasing the number of slider values gives a larger contrast in behavior for students to explore, students will encounter the most easy-to-understand landmarks (e.g., pointing straight up, pointing straight down) more quickly, and more often. I think this will go a long way toward orienting students that they are essentially navigating a circle. Additionally, the smaller numbers overall will hopefully make it easier for users to use the position numbers as quantitative measurements of distance if they want (e.g., comparing four positions away to two positions away).
• The negative numbers are on the top of the circle, and positive numbers are on the bottom so that when navigating from the default starting position of -2, right/up arrow increases the position values and moves you closer the doorknob, and left/down arrow decreases position values and moves you away from doorknob. This places the most intuitive mapping (I believe) at the position when the student is first learning the interaction/sim.

[emily-phet]

@jessegreenberg Can you implement this variation? I'm sorry to spring this on you last minute, but I'd really like to give a simpler arm interaction a shot and see if it's workable.

[emily-phet]

Here's an updated leg interaction, also with [-7 to 7] range. Image includes labels, and new landmarks for either extreme end of slider. Note: when foot movig back behind John, the foot does not collect charges once the back of the shoe passes the outer plane of John's leg...so once the back of John's foot moves behind John's leg at all, descriptions should change to "Foot off rug".

Reasoning:

• We've gotten feedback that there are too many key presses for the foot interaction where nothing happens, particularly when foot is off the rug.

@terracoda @jessegreenberg Let's discuss this at tomorrow's noon meeting.

[terracoda]

@emily-phet, the foot is a half-circle, while the arm is a full circle. Do you think this should be reflected in the number of values on the sliders?

[terracoda]

@emily-phet, yes a unicode character makes total sense!

[jessegreenberg]

Sounds good @emily-phet, that is much more simple. If each region is essentially only one value, it seems like we should treat each region as a "landmark", and that would get that description every time we land on a value.

If each region has its own value, I can't figure out when to read off a "progress" indicator. It makes sense when relating to zero, but in the above walkthrough why do position 2 and position 5 have a progress indicators? Do certain values always get a progress indocator that is dependent on the direction of movement?

[jessegreenberg]

@emily-phet @terracoda a few language questions:

• rug or carpet? (original used carpet)
• pointed or pointing?

[jessegreenberg]

@emily-phet @terracoda @zepumph here is an initial version with the landmarks and smaller ranges of motion for for the arm/leg. This does not include any other changes but should give us an intial sense.

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet/dev/html/john-travoltage/1.3.0-dev.26/john-travoltage_en.html

The only problem I see is the lack of motion control (which was brought up in today's meeting). But a discharge will still occur at positions -2 through 2 depending on the charge. It is possible to pick up more than one charge per leg movement at this resolution.