Enhancing travel experience with the combination of information visualization, situation awareness, and distributed cognition

With the new forms of travel introduced by new technologies of transportation and communication, a satisfied travel experience could be affected by various factors before and during a trip. Especially for road trips, traveling by car provides freedom on time control while leading to more possibilities of rescheduling initial plans made under time constraints. When overwhelmed with the need for changed travel context to avoid unexpected events that will require a serious change of initial plans, travelers need to find and access helpful contextual information quickly. This is a context-related decision making process that requires amplifying human situation awareness and supporting distributed cognition, since travel information offers multiple choices. To solve this problem, I applied information visualization as the main design solution. When comparing it with a traditional representation of lists, information visualization displays the advantages of visual representation of abstract data to clarify and depict the information and amplify cognition while improving travel experience intuitively in the domain of user experience design. Therefore in this thesis I will address the approach of implementing recontextualized situation awareness, distributed cognition, and information visualization in a travel-aid system. By using both theoretical and practical design perspectives, I will discuss how to enhance travel experience with represented contextual information that users desire or expect before and during a road trip. I will also explore the new values of this design with strategic business support. Additionally, after conducting research and analysis on existing interaction design parts, I selected a smartphone app to serve as a proper platform with connected multifunctions. Briefly, I begin the thesis with a review of previous theories and aspects of travel planning, information visualization as it relates to travel, situation awareness, and distributed cognition in the design context and related smartphone apps. Then I discuss the process of identifying the specific issues to be solved or improved with a preliminary research of empirical study, followed by an interview, online survey, insights synthesis, and business model design. After a visual-system design was developed, heuristic evaluation was employed to assess the outcome. Lastly, a new round of refined design results is introduced based on outcomes of the evaluation

Incorporating Heuristic Evaluation (HE) in the Evaluation of Visual Design of the Eco-Tourism Smartphone App

Heuristic Evaluation (HE) has proven to be important in the development of different computer systems but has not been incorporated in the development of eco-tourism smartphone applications. This results inusability issues that significantly affect user experience (UX) as discussed in literature. This study reports the HE in the design and development of Niranur Agro Farm (NAF) eco-tourism smartphone applications, which could improve UX. Eight experts participated in this study, utilizing the SMART mobile usability heuristic developed for mobile application and the severity rating scale to determine usability issues. The HE findings indicated that 22 usability issues were identified. One issue was rated 4 (catastrophe), four issues were rated 3 (major problem), twelve issues were rated 2 (minor problem) and five issues were rated 1 (cosmetics). Although there are issues rated as 4 and 3, the majority of the issues were considered to be minor (1 and 2 on the scale). Results indicated that it is crucial to incorporate HE into the design and development of the eco-tourism smartphone app to minimize the usability issues faced by users. It further validated that utilizing a specific heuristic for smartphone applications would ensure that all usability issues are correctly categorized and remedied

A mobile tour guide app for sustainable tourism

Portugal has had a flourishing tourism sector for the past few years. In fact, Portugal’s tourism boom has made the industry one of the biggest contributors to the national economy and the largest employer. In the year 2019, Portugal had a total of 27 million tourists, surpassing once again the record established in the previous year. However, tourism also brings a series of unintended negative side effects, such as overcrowding. The Santa Maria Maior historic district in Lisbon is being particularly affected by this problem. The work undertaken in this dissertation is part of the Sustainable Tourism Crowding project, that aims to mitigate the overcrowding phenomenon in this district, by fostering a balanced distribution of visitors while promoting the visitation of sustainable points of interest. This dissertation focuses on developing a mobile app prototype targeted at tourists, through which these sustainable walking tour recommendations can be delivered. To validate the functional requirements of the prototype, more specifically the trip creation process, a series of unit tests, integration tests, and manual tests were developed. To evaluate the usability of the prototype, a user-centered approach was adopted during the design stage, in which two usability techniques were conducted with members of ISCTE’s research center ISTAR and partners from the Junta de Freguesia de Santa Maria Maior, that guided and validated the decisions made. The achieved prototype contains mechanisms for measuring tourists’ adherence to the recommended tours using the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm, which raises new research opportunities on tourists’ behaviour.O desenvolvimento próspero do setor turístico em Portugal nos últimos anos fez da indústria um dos maiores contribuintes para a economia nacional e o maior empregador do país. No ano de 2019, Portugal recebeu um total de 27 milhões de turistas, ultrapassando uma vez mais uma vez o recorde estabelecido no ano anterior. No entanto, o turismo traz também uma série de efeitos secundários negativos não intencionais, tais como overcrowding. A freguesia histórica de Santa Maria Maior em Lisboa está a ser particularmente afetada por este problema. O trabalho desenvolvido nesta dissertação faz parte do projeto de pesquisa Sustainable Tourism Crowding, que visa mitigar o fenómeno de overcrowding nesta freguesia, promovendo uma distribuição equilibrada dos visitantes e incentivando a visita de pontos de interesse sustentáveis. Esta dissertação foca-se no desenvolvimento de uma aplicação móvel protótipo destinada a turistas, através do qual recebem recomendações de visitas sustentáveis. Para validar os requisitos funcionais do protótipo, mais especificamente o processo de criação de visitas, foram desenvolvidos testes unitários, testes de integração, e testes manuais. Para avaliar a usabilidade do protótipo, foi adotada uma abordagem centrada no utilizador durante a fase de conceção, em que foram utilizadas duas técnicas de usabilidade em parceria com o ISTAR (centro de investigação do ISCTE) e com a Junta de Freguesia de Santa Maria Maior, cujos resultados guiaram e validaram as decisões tomadas. O protótipo desenvolvido contém mecanismos para medir a aderência dos turistas às recomendações sugeridas através do algoritmo Dynamic Time Warping, proporcionando novas oportunidades de pesquisa nesta área

Gamification design:toward developing image perception scales for generation Z consumers

Purpose – Drawing from the Personal Construct Theory, this research study analyzes the impact of employing gamified apps on user behavior by investigating the service-related images and individual preferences of Generation Z (GenZ) consumers, as these emerge from gamified applications in a tourism context. Design/methodology/approach – The Repertory Grid Analysis (RGA) elicited the top elements that reflect GenZer perceptions in tourism from empirical studies in the United Kingdom and Greece. Generalized Procrustes Analysis (GPA) was used to investigate the structure of the data for the creation of representative Consensus Biplots of the most important conceptual constructs to advance consumer decision-making modelling via gamification. Findings – As per different gamified app best-practices considered, we extract common perceptual elements (e.g. place informative aspects, exploration, lodgings, food/catering), but also different image components (e.g. virtual/interactive, business vs. commercial traveling, entertainment, heritage/cultural informative aspects) from comparing UK with Greek GenZers’ responses. These extracted attributes are then presented in two dimensional charts, respectively, towards creating tourist perception scales. Research limitations/implications – Notwithstanding the wide availability of gamified apps, research on gamification design in tourism and hospitality is still in the early phase. This study demonstrates the need to identify and optimize the formation of different images among GenZers. It also highlights the advantageous nature of the proposed combination of Procrustes analysis with the RGA.Originality/value – This research is among the first empirical ones towards creating scales for measuring tourist perceptions of GenZers coming from different consumer markets. It responds to scholars’ recent calls for better informing gamification design and improving contemporary consumer experience.<br/

An information system for a multiplayer geolocation game

Mestrado de dupla diplomação com a National Polytechnic University of ArméniaA great deal of travel can educate tourists. As tourism becomes more accessible, many new technologies are being used to provide interesting, appealing, and efficient trips so that travelers can find what they want, avoid getting lost, and get the most out of their trip. Science, education, and culture all benefit from technological advancement. As many good ideas can now be turned into reality, interactive education has found a place in everyday life. Research and review of geolocation-based applications (such as hiking path providers) and guide applications were conducted to better understand the technologies and tools related to the topic. The best features were designed to solve the problem after summarizing the results of applications, their advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this paper is to create a geolocation-based game that will allow travelers to explore nearby attractions, learn about local culture, and broaden their knowledge while traveling. To summarize, a dynamic platform that can be implemented in a variety of ways was created.Uma grande quantidade de viagens pode educar os turistas. À medida que o turismo se torna mais acessível, muitas novas tecnologias estão sendo usadas para fornecer viagens interessantes, atraentes e eficientes para que os viajantes possam encontrar o que desejam, evitar se perder e aproveitar ao máximo sua viagem. Ciência, educação e cultura se beneficiam do avanço tecnológico. No muitas boas ideias podem agora se tornar realidade, a educação interativa encontrou um lugar na vida cotidiana. Pesquisa e revisão de aplicativos baseados em geolocalização (como provedores de trilhas para caminhadas) e aplicativos de guia foram realizados para entender melhor as tecnologias e ferramentas relacionadas ao tema. As melhores funcionalidades foram projetadas para solucionar o problema após resumir os resultados das aplicações, suas vantagens e desvantagens. O objetivo deste artigo é criar um jogo baseado em geolocalização que permita aos viajantes explorar atrações próximas, aprender sobre a cultura local e ampliar seus conhecimentos durante a viagem. Para resumir, foi criada uma plataforma dinâmica que pode ser implementada de várias maneiras

Finger Lakes Interactive Play Assessment of Implementation

In 2014, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo launched Path Through History, a project connecting New York’s historical and cultural heritage sites. This effort aimed to benefit New York State by promoting the important historical past of New York, as well as highlighting the tourism industry and economic development throughout the entire state as a whole. One million dollars in funding was distributed among ten tourism regions throughout New York State, in an effort to assist each region in creating a unique tourism-marketing plan. This paper focuses specifically on the Finger Lakes Region and its use of the Path Through History grant funding, in conjunction with Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Together, the Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) and RIT used the grant funding allocated to the Finger Lakes by developing an interactive mobile application called Finger Lakes Interactive Play (FLIP). FLIP is an interactive application that provides an educational scavenger hunt leading visitors throughout 12 different historical sites in the Finger Lakes Region. Visitors at each site are invited to utilize the free FLIP application, which offers games and activities like trivia questions, spot the difference, and augmented reality features. The application aims to engage visitors with unique and entertaining exercises, simultaneously promoting entertainment and education. Mobile technology can be found in almost all aspects of business, leisure, and education, including libraries, museums, and cultural sites. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the objectives and explore the effectiveness of the FLIP application, as well as evaluating the challenges and successes of implementing its marketing and promotional efforts. A case study approach was used to analyze the current strategies implemented at each of the 12 historical sites

Tourism identity in social media: The case of Suzhu, a Chinese historic city

In the context of tourism planning and promotion, there is wide acknowledgement that conceptualisations of tourism identity cannot be grounded merely in physical place, but should also encompass a wide range of factors including, for instance, cultural relations, tourist activities, and social networking. There are opportunities in late modern society for relating the identity of a city’s tourism with digitally-presented tourists’ perceptions and activities through social media studies. This research explores multiple research approaches to delineate the digital identity of Suzhou’s tourist destinations, as presented in online user-generated contents. It is hoped that this social media study can provide supplementary information for tourism bureaus and agencies to make informed judgements on effecting pertinent improvements to optimise existing tourism resources and create more enticing environments for tourists. The research follows a case study approach and conducts an empirical study on Suzhou, a Chinese historic city. The analysis of the results show that the social media study is potentially useful in identifying the key characteristics of particular tourist destinations from visitors’ perspectives that may also be helpful for the evaluation of tourists’ experiences

HALAL Food Spotting and Navigation Helper in China for Tourist

HALAL Food Spotting and Navigation Helper in China for tourist is a website service that can be used with the availability of World Wide Web (WWW) through a handheld mobile devices connected to a mobile network or any wireless network. It focuses on helping especially Muslim tourists from Malaysia to navigate around China without the help from any other external sources except for their very own smart phone. This is to allow the users to access to Google Maps in anytime, anywhere. Tourists guiding through mobile application contains both informing the tourists about spots to search for HALAL foods located near their whereabouts as well as searching for places and determine the HALAL foods available at one place. It is no other than an expert system for Muslim tourists searching for HALAL foods, where the Integrated development Environments (IDE) used is the Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a free version IDE that is developed by Microsoft, while the web development tool that is used is the Visual Web developer Express. All in all, the system helps people to plan their own travelling and get intimate service on independent travel