Smartphone application designed to support the visually impaired people and enhance the user experience of entertaining events in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Saudi Arabia sponsors various amazing events annually. The General Entertainment Authority (GEA) is in charge of organizing and running the events. These events are local and international and the kind of an event differs from one city to another including concert, parade, winter wonderland park, safari etc. With the great services provided by (GEA) during the event to visitors, however; visually impaired people need assistance in navigating and exploring entertainment places due to extreme lack of accessibility. We aim to create a smartphone application to support visually impaired people in terms of accessibility to entertaining places with enjoyment and valuable user experience. It is proposed that user empathy may be helpful to offer a solution to the following questions:What are the pain points visually impaired users feel when attending entertaining events?What are the scientific findings in the following methodologies: desk research, user interview, usability testings? How do visually impaired users cope with events in Saudi Arabia in terms of navigation?How can a smartphone application help visually impaired people navigate in events?This paper follows a specific set of stages from the initiative idea to the release of the product; however, the first three stages of the product will be included and the rest two stages will be part of future research. The stages are brainstorm, define, design, test, and launch. The purpose of this paper is clear and easy to use, we want to help those who struggle in public events due to vision impaired. We want to make their experience as enjoyable and beautiful as possible. In addition, the design of the app is a reflection of what our targeted users think or feel toward it.