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Lexical Analysis of Selected Icons available with
Indian e-Governance Website
Rajshree Agrawal, Ganesh Bhutkar
Abstract— In this paper, we have evaluated e-Governance icons available with Indian e-Governance Website using lexical analysis. We have selected 12 icons in e-Governance website based on primary characteristics and secondary characteristics such as labels off, shape, synecdoche, color indicator etc. In lexical analysis, we have performed the lexical breakup of the icons and these icons are classified as icons, indices and symbols. All selected icons have indexical features in them and therefore, they may not easy to understand to users like general public.
Index Terms— Indian e-Governance Website, e-Governance, Icons, Lexical Analysis, Lexical Breakup, Index
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1 INTRODUCTION
HIS study analyses the use of icons in Indian e- Governance Website. Icons are integral part of the iconic user interfaces. Such interfaces are displayed for interac-
tive usage by diversified users, who may represent general public and may be from weaker socio-economic and educa- tional background. Let‘s briefly understand the role of iconic interfaces [4] in Indian e-Governance Website as under-
Visually communicate various functions
Transcend the language barrier
Reduce the time required for understanding the inter-
face
We can obtain the information from Indian e-Governance Website such as Domicile Certificate, Driving License, Mar- riage Certificate, Passport, Acts of Indian Parliament, several Welfare Schemes, comprehensive information on all levels of Education, Police & Judiciary, Development & Regulation of Water Resources, Healthcare Programs & Policies, Citizen Services etc. The purpose of this research is to help the profes- sionals involved with the web design in usage of icons and corresponding components. This research helps users to un- derstand and classify the icons used in e-Governance website such as Indian e-Governance Website.
National Informatics Center (NIC) is the organization that is involved in the most of the e-Governance initiatives by Go- verment of India [16]. This Indian e-Governance Website has been designed by NIC keeping the diversified population in mind. The e-Governance should reach up to the all public by using a range of modern information and communication technologies such as Local Area Network (LAN), the Internet, mobiles etc. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has a provi- sion for State Wide Area Network (SWAN) to connect all the
government offices up to the Common Service Centers (CSCs) for making public access easier in rural areas [15]. Indian e- Governance is a big challenge and a far big opportunity to bring services to all citizens. The most significant characteristic of any successful e-Government application is its quality and accessibility. The issue (appearance, cost and time) of integra- tion of legacy systems comes onto the scene. As the informa- tion collected by governments may be politically sensitive, installation of appropriate security mechanisms may be an important technical consideration. At the same time, many other policy issues need to be resolved, such as authentication and confidentiality. The major issues related with e- Governance are such as technical issues, privacy, securities, social issues, infrastructure, accessibility, usability, acceptance, political will power, economical issues, maintainability, reusa- bility, portability, legal issues, literacy and other [8].
Among the various issues with Indian e-Governance Website we have selected an issue of icon design and evaluation for our research. The aim of using the icons is to make those inter- faces more friendly and easy to use. Appropriateness of the icon depends on its design, evaluation and testing. User par- ticipation is always vital in many processes. Icon tests are eva- luated mainly using expert-based and the user-based me- thods.
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Rajshree Agrawal is PG Research Scholar & Lecturer at Vishwakarma
Institute of Technology, Pune-411037, India.
E-mail: rajshree.agrawal@gmail.com.
Ganesh Bhutkar is Assistant Professor at Vishwakarma Institute of Tech- nology, Pune- 411028, India. E-mail: gbhutkar@gmail.com.
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Fig.1 Home Page of e-Governance Website of India
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The expert-based methods involve experts along with/ with- out users whereas user-based methods have extensive user participation. For icon evaluation, both types of methods are employed and these methods are listed as Test without Con- text, Test with Context, Test with Comparision, Test of Free Recognition, Test of Associated Proposition, Test of Preffered Association, User Survey, Private Rating, Long Distance Visi- bility, Lexical Analysis and Semiotic Analysis [2, 4, 5, 6, 8]. We have studied all above methods in required depth. In this re- search work, we have employed an expert-based method – Lexical Analysis for evaluation and classification of the icons on Indian e-Governance Website.
Fig. 1 depicts a home page of Indian e-Governance Website. This website has used several icons for representation of vari- ous activities. We have tried to takle some basic questions as under:
1. How are icons in Indian e-Governance Website clas- sified?
2. Are these icons easy to understand to users of this website?
2 RELATED WORK
During the literature survey, we have come across some stu- dies and research papers published on different aspects such as study of icons, their evaluation and Indian e-Governance. We have discussed about such related literature ahead.
The book ―The Icon‖ has discussed about fundamental of icons such as icon style, appearance, fitting, design and evalu- ation methods. It has described various components of icons viz. border background, label, size, shape, synecdoche, clarity etc [5]. We have applied the appropriate component-based criteria learned for selecting suitable icons from e-Governance website for further semiotic analysis.
Shah M. has discussed about what is e-Governance and struc- ture of e-Governance in India [8]. This study has analyzed the governance issues and challenges for the country. Withrow J. et al. has undergone a study of comparative usability evalua- tion for an e-Governance website. These studies have been instrumental in development of in-depth understanding about how to work with e-Governance websites [6].
Katre D. et al. has elaborated usefulness and usability evalua- tion of all state government websites of India. This study has provided a listing of parameters for visual design such as col- or scheme, layout, image size, logical arrangement of contains and consistency [3]. Such understanding of vital parameters in icons as a visual design has helped while shaping appropri- ate component-based criteria for selecting suitable icons in our study.
Bhutkar G. et al has used the semiotic analysis combined with
usability and ergonomic testing for evaluation of icons in med- ical user interface. In this paper, usability evaluation methods such as usability testing, user survey, lexical analysis, semiotic analysis and long distance visibility testing are used to eva- luate icons [4]. We have used lexical breakup for generating a data required for classification of icons related with e- Governance.
There are many studies which elaborate on classifications of icons. Yannick, L. has discussed the semiotic analysis of medi- cal imaging [7]. As per this study, there are three types of signs viz. icon, index and symbol. Poovaiah R. has stated that the symbol design is governed by visual language which has various message representations such as - iconic, indexical and symbolic representations [9]. Keng S. et al. has undergone the experimental study about how problem domain knowledge influences novice computer users‘ interpretation of icons [10]. This paper is also useful for the classification of icons into icon, index and symbol.
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
There are two major activities involved in this research on evaluation of icons on Indian e-Governance Website. These activities are – selection of icons and lexical analysis.
3.1 e-Governance Website and Selection of Icons
There is an official website of the Indian Government, de- signed by NIC. The home page of this website is available at – www. http://india.gov.in [16] and is shown in Fig. 1. The con- tent in this Website is the result of a collaborative effort of var- ious Indian Government Ministries and Departments, at the Central / State / District level. This website has many sections such as Government, Citizens, Overseas, Sectors, Know India and Business. Each section has many sub-sections. Each sub- section is represented by an icon with a circular boundary.
Fig. 2 Iconic Interface and Icon for Government Press Releases
There is a newsletter section on the Indian e-Governance Web- site. This section provides information regarding Citizen Ser- vices, Travel Information, Government Press Releases and New Happenings in India [16]. Fig. 2 shows the information about Latest Government Press Releases, which can also be viewed in Indian national language – Hindi. Such information is indicated by related icon, highlighted by red square in Fig.
2. This icon has a prominent government building as an indi-
cator [16].
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Indian e-Governance Website contains the sectors section which has sub sections such as Commerce & Industries, Rural
noted by background, border or text may have a dif- ferent meaning.
3. Structural Analogy: Structural analogy is a represen- tation of important organization by inclusion of build- ing object.
4. Simplicity: Simplicity is a quality of being simple, compact and not complex. i.e. icon is created by a simple object. If the icon has multiple objects, it leads to increasing complexity.
Fig. 3 Iconic Interface and Icon for Water Resources
Development, Communications & IT, Water Resources, Science & Technology, Defense, Education etc. The section - Water Resources is indicated by an icon, which is highlighted by red square in Fig. 3. This icon has hand-pump as an indica- tor to water resources.
Indian e-Governance Website contains many icons for several sections such as Acts, Education, Water Resources, Govern- ment Press Releases etc. The icons have various standard parts such as border, background, label, size, shape etc. Many icons have circular or rectangular shape. We have observed that many icons have a background as an important characteristic. For example, the icons in Citizen section have a red back- ground whereas Government section has icons with sky blue background. Likewise, other sections are having the relative color code.
There are a lot of icons on Indian e-Governance Website, but it is not possible to analyze all of them. So, for this study, we have selected 12 icons based on their characteristics. The cha- racteristics which we have used for selection of icons, are cate- gories into two parts. The First part has primary / compul- sory characteristics and the second part has secondary / op- tional characteristics [5]. Though, the icons may have more than 40 characteristics, but for selection, we have used the 5 primary and 4 secondary characteristics.
We have selected the icons from Indian e-Governance Website by applying following characteristics:
Primary Characteristics:
1. Labels Off: Labels are not displayed or required.
2. Size: Size is a dimension or magnitude of any object.
3. Shape: Shape is an outline of any object.
4. Synecdoche: Synecdoche is use of familiar single or
many parts / objects to stand for the whole content.
5. Clarity: Clarity is defined as a clear, understandable,
informative and easy association with the message.
Secondary Characteristics:
1. Document: Document is a representation of data on paper. It is represented by folding of the page from one corner.
2. Color Indicator: In color indication, each color de-
Fig. 4 List of Selected Icons
All the icons which are selected in Fig. 4 are having characte- ristics as labels off, same size, circular shape, clarity and syn- ecdoche using familiar single or many parts. Some of the icons are having characteristic such as document, color indicator, structural analogy and simplicity.
The characteristics which are compulsory for the icon selection are primary characteristics. For example, labels off do not have any text written on the icons [5]. All the icons are circular in shape. Good clarity means for the consistent & predictable display control of exact location, alignment and spacing of border, image margin and image area because of that they convey the message clearly.
The characteristics which are optional for the icon selection are secondary characteristics. For example, document which represent the data on paper. Document characteristic is used
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in Acts, Schemes, Law & Order and Health & Family Welfare. Color indicator conveys the purpose. Acts and Schemes hav- ing blue background belong to Government section. Different- ly Abled, Education and Law & Order icons having red back- ground belong to Citizen section. Foreign Embassy belongs to Overseas section. Water Resources, Health & Family Welfare and Transport having brown background belong to Sectors section, Government Press Releases and Citizen Services hav- ing purple background belong to Newsletter section [16].
Selected icons from Indian e-Governance Website contain general, field-related information as well as standard repre-
TABLE 1
LEXICAL BREAKUP AND CLASSIFICATION OF ICONS BASED ON
LEXICAL ANALYSIS
sentations. These icons have a reasonable potential for rele- vant lexical analysis [4]. Therefore, these icons have been ex- tracted from selected website for lexical analysis. The legibility of icons has been a vital issue during selection of icons. The set of selected 12 icons is shown in Fig. 4.
3.2 Lexical Analysis
We have used lexical breakup in lexical analysis of icons on Indian e- Governance Website. Lexical breakup in iconic re- presentations [2] has been helpful in classification of e-
TABLE 2
ALTERNATIVE ICONS FOR SELECTED ICONS AVAILABLE
WITH INDIAN E-GOVERNANCE WEBSITE
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Governance icons into mainly three categories: iconic (icons), indexical (indices) and arbitrary (symbols) [7, 9, 10, and 11]. An icon represents similar type of object. While index indi- cates about a particular object or process through indirect means, the symbol is a sign which is used for representation of objects or process through convention or standard. The table 1 shows the lexical breakup and classification of all selected icons based on lexical analysis. For example, consider an icon for Differently Abled Persons. Its lexical breakup has a person in sitting position and a multicolored circle, which indicates one‘s disability as if one is sitting on wheelchair. So, it is in- dexical and it is symbolic also as it is used to show all types of disabilities in differently ables persons. There is another icon for Government Press Releases. Its lexical breakup has build- ing with a dome along with a flag, which indicates a govern- ment authority. So, it is indexical and it is symbolic also as it is used to show the Government Press Releases. In which press releases are not accommodated as a visual element in any form.
4 DISCUSSION
Following various activities are involved in study of the In- dian e-Governance icons with the main emphasis on lexical analysis. From the study of lexical breakup of icons [4], we have observed that all icons are not iconic. Majority of icons are indexical, four of them tend to be icon or symbol. As most of the icons are indexical, people may find it difficult to recog- nize them. Though Indian e-Governance Website is designed by keeping the diversified population in mind, there is a need to improve on icon design to make it possible to reach those sections of the society which have remained tangential to the government sphere due to various reasons like geographical challenges and lack of awareness [19]. In India, still majority of the people do not know about how to handle the information presented on the website, especially if it is in English, which may not be understood by public. Under such circumstances, an iconic interface may be useful during their interaction with Indian e-Governmence Website. There are certain icons which appers to be better in this study on Indian e-Governmence Website such as Acts, Schemes, Water Resources, Transport, Indian Tourism and Government Press Releases as they are either iconic or symbolic indices, which are easy to understand or quite popular.
All icons can be represented through alternative icons, which are shown in table 2. A ‗list (A)‘ represents alternative icons taken from the e-governance websites of the different coun- tries such as USA, China, Russia and France [14, 17, 18, 19, 20]. Another ‗list B‘ represents alternative icons extracted from other websites searched through ‗Google Image‘ and ‗Yahoo Image‘. The icons are available for better representation of some entities like Acts, Differently Abled [12], Health & Fami- ly Welfare and Citizen Services. For example, alternative B provided for Differently Abled icon includes visual represen- tations for limb as well as sense (blind, deaf and dumb) dis- abilities.
5 CONCLUSION
Our study has following findings:
1. The icons in Indian e-Governance Website are classi-
fied as icons, indices and symbols.
2. All of the selected icons have indexical features in
them and therefore, they may not be easy to under-
stand to users of Indian e-Governance Websites, who
may be users from public and from weaker socio-
economic or educational background.
In future, there is a requirement to design / select better iconic representations for inclusion in Indian e-Governmence Web- site for related activities / sectors.
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