Usability Evaluation of Tourism Icons in India

Abstract

For evaluation of tourism icons in India, several usability evaluation methods from HCI domain are used. These methods include expert-based methods as well as user-based methods. The expert-based evaluation methods mainly include semiotic analysis and lexical analysis. The user-based methods include test without context, test with context along, with a comprehensive user survey. As the domain of e-governance is a public domain, the usability testing of these tourism icons requires a comprehensive user survey, which truly represents a public, who is likely to use such e-governance websites. This comprehensive survey is conducted with a large sample of more than 80 users including government servants, public sector employees, private sector employees, social workers, politicians, academicians, students, as well as foreign nationals. During the usability evaluation, icons are classified as icons, indices, and symbols. With the help of user survey, these tourism icons are categorized as “well-accepted,” “well-understood,” and “difficult to understand” icons.