TactIcons: Designing 3D Printed Map Icons for People who are Blind or have Low Vision

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of over 200 tactile 3D printed icons for maps, creating a set of recognizable and learnable icons to improve tactile map usability for blind and low vision users.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive design process, a recognition corpus, and detailed guidelines for creating effective tactile icons for maps.

Findings

33 icons recognized instantly by users

34 icons easily learned by users

Guidelines and methodology for tactile icon design

Abstract

Visual icons provide immediate recognition of features on print maps but do not translate well for touch reading by people who are blind or have low vision due to the low fidelity of tactile perception. We explored 3D printed icons as an equivalent to visual icons for tactile maps addressing these problems. We designed over 200 tactile icons (TactIcons) for street and park maps. These were touch tested by blind and sighted people, resulting in a corpus of 33 icons that can be recognised instantly and a further 34 icons that are easily learned. Importantly, this work has informed the creation of detailed guidelines for the design of TactIcons and a practical methodology for touch testing new TactIcons. It is hoped that this work will contribute to the creation of more inclusive, user-friendly tactile maps for people who are blind or have low vision.