APTA Commuter Rail meeting, Chicago, IL: 2003 April 13-16.
Announcement.
APTA Rail Transit Conference San Jose, California: 2003 June 08-12.
Sessions; CFP.
Planned presesntation:
Beyond Signage: Wayfinding and Information Architecture for Rail Commuters.
Check back by 2003 March 21.
Abstract:
Wayfinding is a two-stage process during which people must solve a wide variety
of problems in architectural and urban spaces that involve both "decision
making" (formulating an action plan) and "decision executing" (implementing the
plan).
User centered design of commuter facilities and systems must accommodate a
variety of users
(classes of rider: potential rider, new rider, frequent rider, choice rider, captive
rider; all with varied abilities and experiences) and tasks of both trip planning
(scheduling, routing, ticketing) and trip execution (station access: arrival, exit,
escape, driving, parking, and walking routes; and train access: boarding,
seating, alighting). Also addressable are accessory tasks such as kiss and ride
pick-up meeting, discovering and using station amenities, and facilitating trip
combining, and performance monitoring ('Is my train on time today ?').
This paper outlines a methodology for designing commuter rail systems to better
communicate with riders. Techniques such as use of personae (assembling a
collection of representative users) and use cases and heuristic task analysis help
avoid the worst blunders. Design blunders pr and discourage ridership. In
evaluating systems, a measure of efficiency is used: if a trip that met a
commuter's needs was available but not found and thus not taken, the system is
inefficient. Efficiency is key for commuter rail systems to win over choice
riders.
Importantly, necessary solutions go beyond signage. Some include architectural
aspects, and all require careful organization of information.
A research agenda for developing conventions and standards and guidelines for
providing information to rail commuters is proposed.