Pixelated Interactions: Exploring Pixel Art for Graphical Primitives on a Tactile Display

Abstract: Two-dimensional pin array tactile displays enable access to tactile graphics that are important for the education of students with visual impairments. Due to their prohibitive cost, limited access, and limited research within HCI, the rules to design graphical primitives on these low-resolution tactile displays are unclear. In this paper, eight tactile readers with visual impairments qualitatively evaluate the implementation of Pixel Art to create tactile graphical primitives on a pin array display. Every pin of the pin array is assumed to be a pixel on a pixel grid. Our findings suggest that Pixel Art tactile graphics on a pin array are clear and comprehensible to tactile readers, positively confirming its use to design basic tactile shapes and line segments. The guidelines provide a framework to create tactile media which implies that the guidelines can be used to downsize basic shapes for refreshable pin-array displays.