Finding the way at Kraków Główny railway station: Preliminary eye tracker experiment

Abstract

Eye tracker was used to study 25 young people from three nations who were given the task of finding their way to the main railway station in Kraków, Poland (station located underground, with access through a shopping mall), locating a ticket counter there, and going to a platform. Analysed were the paths selected by the test participants to reach these check points and their gazes at various directional signs. While the shortest distance for the task was 339 m, average participant travelled 503 m and the longest route was 1026 m. Observed were five confusion points, when most of the participants had to stop or turn around to find a sign pointing in the desired direction. There was a substantial confusion during the search for ticket counter in the station hall. The results demonstrate the weakness of the signage location and clarity. The outcome can be used by engineers conceiving such transportation hubs as a tool to optimize signage design.