Enhancing the Travel Experiences of People with Visual Impairments through Application Design
Huang Lusha (2020)
When current iOS applications or “apps” have met the basic requirements of visually impaired users, the discussion should be extended to address the higher-order needs such as self-esteem and self-actualisation. Beyond just focusing on the booking and navigation between different tourist sites, this study demonstrates how gamification assists in designing mobile applications that can enhance the tourism experiences of people with visual impairments. The study introduces a “research through design” project that incorporates app experiments, multisensory observations and interviews that are derived from sensory ethnography methodology. This research examines the perspective of applying gamification techniques to travel for people with visual impairments, which provides insights for government entities, social enterprises, and organisations which serve people with visual impairments. Ultimately, the results represent a further step towards developing advanced design research about people with visual impairments by proposing appropriate empathic insights and solutions regarding user experience design (UX), specifically in travel experience design.
