This is the main E-mail screen for the Inquam System. 

Located in the upper left corner of the screen is the navigation system. This group of icons appear on all Inquam screens that the special users have access to. The Icons are designed to be easily recognizable by our special users and they allow them to move around inside the system. On this demonstration screen the only active icons are the Home icon, which takes you back to the main system, and the help icon.

Located in the upper right corner of the screen is the e-mail addressee icon. Normally this will be a picture of the person the e-mail is going to. However, the addressee can also be identified by a special icon which represents them to the user. In this case, Grandpa is represented by a smiley face.

The large window located below the page title is the Message Window. As your special user builds their message the icons appear in this window. Do delete an icon the user simply clicks on the icon they want deleted. As the message grows the user can scroll the icons left and right using the large red directional arrows.

The window located below the message window is the Icon window. This window is where the user selects the icons to build the message. Clicking on an icon adds it to the message and the users can scroll the icons left and right to fid the icons they want. To aid in the selection of icons in the main system the help screen will have a link to a complete list of all  icons in available for this user as configured by the caregiver. The caregiver can look at the list and guide the users to the icon they would like to add to their message. A list of icons can also be printed out.

Please note that the windows scroll slower than an experienced user might like, and the windows display a limited number of icons at one time. Both of these factors are deliberately built into Inquam. The slowness of the icon scrolling allows the special users to move items on the screen without becoming confused. The same is true for the limited number of icons. Research has shown that 7 to 9 icons displayed at one time make the interface easer for the special user to understand.

Located below the Icon window are the Icon Categories. Currently Inquam has 34 different categories of icons with over 1800 different icons. In the main system the catigories window is similar to the Icon and message windows. The user scrolls back and forth to see the different categories and clinking on a category will display the icons in that category.

All other screens your special user uses such as the Address Book and  the Inbox, all follow  the same design layout. Point and click, and all functions are represented by Icons. Any icon that performs a function highlights in red when the mouse moves over them to signal the user that something happens if the icon is clicked.

Take a moment and have your special user look at the interface and try it out. The send button on this page does not work so feel free to experiment.

Note: If you have downloaded the voice module all of the icons will speak to you and will read the message back to you .

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