User Experiences with Voice-Based Descriptive Map Content in a Hiking Context

摘要

The task of maps is to communicate geographic information, and, along with interactive map applications, the possibilities of offering different kinds of information to map users have become more extensive. Also, there are a wider variety of communication methods available. In this paper, we first describe the user requirements for informative and descriptive map content within the context of hiking. Based on these requirements, audio descriptions along a hiking path in a national park were composed. Elderly users were chosen as a target group for the field study where a mobile map application on an iPhone was used. It was expected that combining audio with visual information would improve the overall accessibility of the information in a hiking context. User experiences were collected during a field study. Based on the studies, we summarise the most important features regarding the information communicated by a mobile map application.