What travelers want: An investigation into user needs and user wants on display

Abstract

Travel information about public transportation is essential for all commuters and travelers before and during their journey. The experience from a journey creates long-lasting impressions for each traveler. Positive impressions create good reputations for public services in and between cities. The effectiveness of public transportation often relies on brief transfers between connections. Even if they already have a clear touring map, travelers always need on-site information to confirm schedules and so on. The improvement of travel information for passengers is not only a must for enhancing transportation flow, but also a necessary condition for passengers’ anxiety-free experience of transportation. Wayfinding and signage systems have been important aspects of public transportation for decades and, in recent years, have attracted more and more attention owing to rapid technology changes that allow for extraordinarily innovative creations. This information-saturated era gives us an opportunity to rethink and to re-make information so that it is more visible and more understandable. A successful design for information delivery and communication can successfully guide users through their journey and can reduce confusion considerably. In the current study, we examine the representation of railway information relative to display-interface sections. The very first and essential step in such an examination is to consider users. Here, our aim is to define the information needs attributable to travelers during their journeys by train. In order to understand what users need and what can motivate them, we observed and interviewed users and conducted a task-based analysis—all to clarify user perceptions and reactions. The results will help future design thinking and processing in the field of information services. Our study’s results show that (1) the types of information needed for long trips differ from the types of information needed for short trips; (2) current displays suffer from several problems such as ambiguity, low legibility, and unaesthetic layouts; and (3) users like to have rapidly conveyed information at stops, on routes, and at transfers. Technical information and entertainment are of secondary importance. The two principal issues are what to show (i.e., the issue of organizing needed information) and how to show it (i.e., the issue of designing easy-to-understand information). The results and findings from this study should be references for re-design processes, and should also be key items for checking usability tests of new models for train displays. Through this passenger-focused process serving to meet travelers’ demands, it is vital to take into account visual information for short- and long-distance transport networks.