This document describes a student team's project to design a one-handed user interface for controlling drones to make drone flight more accessible. The team consists of four masters students with relevant experience and skills. Currently, drone apps are not accessible, do not allow for multitasking, and have unhelpful feedback. The team proposes a single-handed interface using different finger gestures to control direction, altitude, and rotation. They believe this will have wide impact as drone use increases and argue for inclusive design. Next steps are to develop a prototype, add more controls, and refine the design to pitch to manufacturers.

1. Team:
“Touched by a Drone”
Designing a one-handed user
interface for accessible drone flight.

2. Mallory Anderson
Masters student, Freelance Designer,
UX Intern at GE, Enrolled in
Accessibility focused classes and
hackathon events.
THE
TEAM
Allyson Mackay
Master’s student in IT and Public
Health, Freelance Developer, and
Drupaler with experience in user
testing.
Hari Subramonyam
Masters student, PhD candidate,
Creative Coder, Maker, Design
Researcher with a focus on IoT and
Natural User Interfaces.
Jackie Wolf
Masters student, Entrepreneur, User
Experience Researcher with
International Experience.

3. ● Current app is
not accessible.
● You can’t multitask
while flying.
● Feedback from UI
is not useful.
THE
PROBLEM

4. THE
SOLUTION
Single-handed user interface
is more accessible and
accommodates multitasking.
Direction
*one finger
Altitude
*three fingers
Rotation
*two fingers

5. THE IMPACT
● Within the next 5-10 years drones will be as
ubiquitous as smartphones.
● It is better UX to have design solutions built into
products so that they can be adaptable for users
depending on their abilities.
● Creating an enabling technology that doesn’t
exclude individuals from “regular” behavior.

6. NEXT STEPS
1. Develop a prototype and program the AR Parrot
Drone to test in indoor/outdoor settings.
2. Incorporate more features controlling camera
and control sensitivity
3. Revise visual designs and pitch to drone
manufacturers and distributors.

7. Thank you!
Questions?