Prototyping and usability evaluation of mobile-based-application for accessible tourism market: the view of tourism demand

Information systems offer major contributions to the establishment of accessible tourism conditions. However, these solutions need to be correctly developed, which often implicates approaches based on user-centered methodologies. To improve information flow within the accessible tourism market, an accessible tourism information system was prototyped. The development of this solution, named access@tour by action, involved a rigorous testing process, to evaluate the acceptability and mainly the difficulties of interaction with specific needs. Thus, the objective of this study is to explore the results obtained from usability testing of the prototype, involving people with special needs, social organizations, and caregivers. The results showed that some improvements were needed namely in the registration process, evaluation of tourism offers, and on the layout of information. Notwithstanding, the overall perception of ease of interaction, and accessibility was good. This user feedback will be used to obtain the final version of the platform.