Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) offers promising opportunities for education and training, yet its broader adoption in web-based learning environments remains limited due to performance constraints and the lack of support for industry-standard game engines. This paper presents the WebXR Interaction Toolkit (WebXRIT), a lightweight framework for creating WebXR-based training applications in Unity. Designed to provide essential interaction functionalities while minimizing runtime overhead, WebXRIT integrates with the open-source WebXR Export plugin and follows Unity’s component-based interaction architecture. To evaluate its runtime performance, we compared WebXRIT with Unity’s default XR Interaction Toolkit (XRIT) across twelve valid build configurations (varying editor version, render pipeline, and color space) using the Meta Quest 3. Results show that WebXRIT consistently outperforms XRIT, achieving significantly higher frame rates in multiple configurations, with mean values up to 78 FPS, exceeding the recommended threshold for native IVR applications. These findings highlight the potential of the WebXRIT to enable performant and accessible IVR training applications on the web. Future work will extend our toolkit with support for hand tracking, AR interaction, and additional navigation and UI components.

Personas allow designers to build empathy towards users, avoiding reliance on stereotypes or assumptions. When it comes to creating personas for people with disabilities, a common procedure is to integrate impairments as dedicated characteristics. However, when considering Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) individuals as target group, we argue that such an approach is incompatible with the latter’s own ability-based identification concepts. Thus, we propose a modification of personas for DHH users by defining them in terms of ability ranges and driving or keeping factors within specific contexts. Starting with assumption personas based on previous research, we conducted focus groups with DHH individuals from which we derived the data and perspectives that formed our modification. With this approach, we want to promote an adequate representation of DHH users among designers while also demonstrating an application of Ability-Based Design to HCI methods.

In this experience report, we describe an approach to ability-based focus groups with sign language users in a remote environment. We discuss our main lessons learned in terms of requirements for sign language-accessibility within research, calling out issues such as the need to address users in their natural language, ensuring translation for all parts of research processes, and including users not only within the conducted method but already within preparation phases. Based on requirements such as these, we argue that HCI research currently faces a dilemma when it comes to hearing researchers working with the sign language user population—having to handle the increasingly emphasized demand for conducting user research with this specific target group while lacking accessible tools and procedures to do so. Concluding our experience report, we address this dilemma by discussing the two sides of its fundamental challenge: Inadequate communication with and insufficient representation of sign language users within research.

Computer aided project management is a useful tool in project planning especially when dealing with large and complex project plans. Project planning is often accomplished by older employees due to their knowledge and experience. This paper describes a usability study in which three off-the-shelf software tools were investigated regarding execution times, fixation durations and user acceptance for two different age groups. As a result deficits in the de-facto standard are detected and implications for further research are derived.

The fast aging of many western and eastern societies and their increasing reliance on information technology create a compelling need to reconsider older users' interactions with computers. Changes in perceptual and motor skill abilities that often accompany the aging process have important implications for the design of information input devices. This paper summarises the results of two comparative studies on information input with 90 subjects aged between 20 and 75 years. In the first study, three input devices – mouse, touch screen and eye-gaze control – were analysed concerning efficiency, effectiveness and subjective task difficulty with respect to the age group of the computer user. In the second study, an age-differentiated analysis of hybrid user interfaces for input confirmation was conducted combining eye-gaze control with additional input devices. Input confirmation was done with the space bar of a PC keyboard, speech input or a foot pedal. The results of the first study show that regardless of participants' age group, the best performance in terms of short execution time results from touch screen information input. This effect is even more pronounced for the elderly. Regarding the hybrid interfaces, the lowest mean execution time, error rate and task difficulty were found for the combination of eye-gaze control with the space bar. In conclusion, we recommend using direct input devices, particularly a touch screen, for the elderly. For user groups with severe motor impairments, we suggest eye-gaze information input.