The Power of Nine
Summary and Recommendations
14.1 Our long term objective is to see that IT systems, and particularly their operating systems, navigation and information design, move towards the capacity within the system to use intelligent agency automatically to adjust to the strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, tasks and occupations, of users; in other words we are calling for the realisation of the concept of PML, Personalised Mark-up Language.
14.2 This move towards more flexible systems might start with easier customisation but it should not be left there.
14.3 Poor and inflexible systems design might be accidental or deliberately sloppy; in either case these drawbacks transfer cost in finance and time from the producer to the consumer and particularly so in the case of the disabled consumer. Achieving more intelligent, flexible systems will require strong public sector support.
14.4 In the meantime, we believe that a vital medium-term goal is to establish an intuitive, flexible, simple navigation system, based on the Power of Nine which will be of benefit to the information accessing population in general and disabled people in particular. We believe that the design of such a system, far from acting as a barrier to better trade in the general marketplace, will actually enhance the market potential of a system. Good design is good for the mass market and therefore is good for business.
14.5 We believe that it is important to carry the message in this Report to all Departments of Government.
14.6 In the short term, we recommend the following steps; that:
14.61. The two systems be built as described under User b: (profoundly blind, Sub-section 12.4) and User c: (physically disabled, Sub-section 12.5) as prototypes, using existing off-the-shelf hardware wherever possible.
14.6.2 Work be undertaken with an existing on-line information provider, such as QXL or LastMinute.com, to develop a modified version of its site navigation and implement it on each of the prototypes.
14.6.3 An investigation be undertaken, as an output of 14.6.2, to establish the requirements for implementing the service as an XML variation to the site.
14.6.4 User trials be conducted with each of the prototypes with both able and disabled people to evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of the systems, both with and without prior explanations of the conceptual model.