Abstract
Designing effective and efficient user interfaces for supporting complex tasks on mobile devices remains an intriguing problem. The rapidly evolving hardware and software mobile environments are complicating the design of elaborated applications like travel planning. Allowing mobile users to review their travel-plan information while travelling has been addressed by a recent R&D project. In order to improve usability and derive good design guidelines, two alternative WAP-based solutions were experimented: one based on providing explicit guidance and information, and another focussed on brevity and iconic metaphors. These two designs enabled to investigate mobile users’ preferences and behaviour and the effects on usability and effectiveness. A user study was conducted and users’ behaviour on both variants was logged. Using objective measures and users’ subjective perceptions, the effects of design options, users’ age and proficiency with WAP applications were tested. This study allowed deriving some guidelines by analysing which graphical components better support mobile usability, and which solutions should be avoided.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adomavicius, G., & Tuzhilin, A. (2005). Toward the next generation of recommender systems: A survey of the state-of-the-art and possible extensions. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 17(6), 734–749.
Bertelè, U., & Rangone, A. (2008). Rapporto mobile and wireless business. Politecnico di Milano.
Buchanan, G., Farrant, S., Jones, M., Thimbleby, H., Marsden, G., & Pazzani, M. (2001). Improving mobile internet usability. In Proceedings of the 10th international Conference on World Wide Web (Hong Kong, Hong Kong, May 01–05, 2001). WWW’ 01. ACM, New York, NY, 673-680.
Buhalis, D., & Pistidda, L. (2009). Wireless Applications in Destinations. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009, 161–171.
Cena, F., Console, L., Gena, C., Goy, A., Levi, G., Modeo, S., & Torre, I. (2006). Integrating heterogeneous adaptation techniques to build a flexible and usable mobile tourist guide. AI Communications 19(4), 369–384.
Fesenmaier, D. R., Werthner, H., & Woeber, K. (2006). Destination Recommendation Systems: Behavioural Foundations and Applications. CABI Publishing.
Forum Nokia. (2008). Getting Started with Mobile Design. Version 1.0; June 5, 2008. http://www.forum.nokia.com/
Haid, E., Kiechle, G., Göll, N., & Soutshek, M. (2008). Evaluation of a Web-based and Mobile Ski Touring Application for GPS-enabled Smartphones. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008, 313–323.
Jones, M., & Marsden, G. (2005). Mobile Interaction Design. John Wiley and Sons.
Kramer, R., Modsching, M., & ten Hagen, K. (2007). Behavioural Impacts of Mobile Tour Guides. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2007, 109–118.
Lee, J., & Mills, J. E. Exploring Tourist Satisfaction with Mobile Technology. Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2007, 141–152.
Lewis, J. R. (1995). IBM Computer Usability Satisfaction Questionnaires: Psychometric Evaluation and Instructions for Use. ACM — International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction. oldwww.acm.org/perlman/question.cgi?form=CSUQ (May 07, 2009).
Nielsen, J. (2009). Mobile Usability Test Findings. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobileusability.html
Ricci, F., & Nguyen, Q.N. (2007). Acquiring and revising preferences in a critique-based mobile recommender system. IEEE Intelligent Systems 22(3), 22–29.
Shiller, J.H. (2003). Mobile Communications. Addison-Wesley.
Turban, E., Lee, J.K., King, D., McKay, J., & Marshall, P. (2008). Electronic Commerce. Prentice Hall.
Venturini, A. & Ricci, F. (2006). Applying trip@dvice recommendation technology to www.visiteurope.com. In Proceedings of the 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Riva del Garda, Italy, Aug 28th–Sept 1st, 607–611.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag/Wien
About this paper
Cite this paper
Schneider, S., Ricci, F., Venturini, A., Not, E. (2010). Usability Guidelines for WAP-based Travel Planning Tools. In: Gretzel, U., Law, R., Fuchs, M. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2010. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-99407-8_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-99407-8_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
Print ISBN: 978-3-211-99406-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-211-99407-8
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsBusiness and Management (R0)