mGuiding (Mobile Guiding) – Using a Mobile GIS app for Guiding

Abstract

Abstract Yehliu Geopark mGuiding is an Android application that can perform several tasks related to guiding tourists. The improvement of the application is based on a user evaluation of the former version of the Yehliu Geopark tour guiding system which was designed to be executed on a personal digital assistant device. The user evaluation data were acquired from a questionnaire survey comprising a sample of 101 respondents and were processed using ridits analysis and importance-performance analysis. Results revealed the tourists' preferences for the tour guiding system. The application was redesigned based on the tourists' preferences. The new features of the application include: (1) a Geopark map that is attractive and easy to read; (2) augmented reality (AR) with camera and global positioning system (GPS) functions; (3) user-friendly guiding interface of scenic spots. The application integrates tracking and location functions using GPS coordinates, multi-media guiding (descriptions of scenic spots, videos, photographs and audio presentations), suggested tour selection and searching using AR. The Yehliu Geopark mGuiding system offers a user-friendly interface that the tourists can use on their own smartphone for a complete tour. Keywords: guidingappgeographic information systemglobal positioning systemridit analysisimportance-performance analysis Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Aletheia University and the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan, for their financial support of this research under contract nos. AR990020, NSC100-2410-H-156-015 and NSC101-2410-H-156-018-MY3. The authors also thank two anonymous reviewers and the editors for their comments that led to the improvement of the paper.