State of the art analaysis - Summary

Doing our state of the art analysis’ we had a broad perspective to try gather as much diverse and useful insights posible to what might be useful for our own project. This made ofcource that common ground for all of them was hard to find but a few topics that was brought up in most was regarding information.

            What information are available for the user?

            Is the information easy accessible?

            Is it well presented?

            Is it useful?

A repeated opinion during the interviews was the frustration when forced to make a choice without any information i.e. when there’s major delays, should one wait for the train or try an alternate itiniary, if so which one? Two of the state of art analyses regarded interaction design based on real-time information and both have shown good results in user satisfaction. The information is often times already acessable for the designers such as precise locations of transport because necessary technology is already in place. The issue lies to transform the data to a user oriented purpose. The most critical information for users must be accurate and easy aviable.

It might also be fair to compare the SL app to more generalized travel applications such as Google maps. What SL lacks is the integration of other means of travel such as riding a bike to the train and when leving the train show a map to the destination wished for. To make the app useful doing things that naturally combines with travel might increase satisfaction with the app.

State-of-the-art analysis

Reskollen

There is no official mobile application for travelling using SL for the Android operating system. Instead there are a large number of inofficial applications. The one with the highest rating in the Google Play Store is Reskollen, published by KTH student Mårten Wiman.

When starting the application, the first screen displayed show the next departures from the station closest to you, together with the distance to the station. This information is updated in real time. This screen also display the delays of every vehicle.

In the same way as the bus stop signage, the application distinguish between the information gathered in real-time and the scheduled times by display minute counts for real-time information and exact time for scheduled times. I really like this design concept, since my most common usage when travelling is my commute to and from school, meaning I already know what line to take. In this case, I’m only interested in the times of the next departures.

Another neat feature is that is contains its own built-in travel planner. The built-in planner also works when offline, something I’ve found very useful when in the subway, where data coverage is scarce. I’ve also found the planner to be more intelligent than the one provided by SL.

My favourite feature of the application is the ease of use - one notice that a lot of time has been spent in making the application easy to use. For example, on the main screen where the next departures are displayed, there are also two text fields shown - from and to. When two locations are entered into these fields, the application will immediately display the next trips between the locations starting now. This is probably the most common use case, and displaying it so prominently and automatically searching for trips when the locations are entered minimize the number of presses needed to get the information I want - a design philosophy that seem to permeate the application.

State-of-the-art analysis

Meatspace metro signage.

The non-digital information present in the metro, specifically static or machine-generatable information. I have divided this into five categories:

Information about gaining access to the metro.

• Street-level:
• Street signs, T-symbols, sometimes metro line colour.
• At entrance points:
• How to pay for and use tickets or passes.

The pass vending machines, turnstiles, toll booth, as well as the passageways and stairs, are recognizable and well understood symbols by themselves. Much signage is not needed for where they are or their context of use.

The toll booth, when staffed, is of course potentially a near endless source of information. In fact any human present—employed by the metro or not—has that potential, but such sources are outside of the scope of this analysis.

Information about using the metro.

• System/station maps at the entrances, platforms and inside the trains.
• Station names and exit guides at the platforms, somewhat visible from inside the trains.
• Also signs about platform inter-connectivity.

The platforms, safety lines drawn on platform edges, benches, rubbish bins (and often clock) are—as above—of well understood purpose.

Dynamic information about metro events.

• Displays show:
• Wait time for upcoming train. Sometimes scrolls wait times for several.
• Destination/end-station for upcoming train(s).
• If the arriving train has few wagons/is short.
• Ad-hoc information, typically about delays.
• Speaker on platforms informs about delays and other ad-hoc messages.
• Speaker in trains informs about station stops and ad-hoc messages.

The trains are very visible, and they are—including their doors and seats—of well understood purpose.

The information in the display is sometimes animated/scrolling, which during a long wait on an empty station is the only thing that confirms the passing of time.

Safety and regulation, e.g. notes about "keeping off the rails".

Advertisements.

• Large billboards facing the platforms (some stations).
• Medium billboards on the platforms (some stations).
• Ad-space along the top of the windows inside the trains.
• On vending machines (some stations).

In some stations the advertisements are given more area than all the rest of the signage put together. The advertisements are also typically the most attention-grabbing. It's also the only information that is not there to help the travellers in using the metro. This brings into question the non-functional requirements of the metro.

If revenue (on top of government subsidies and ticket fee) is sought, then more ads could easily be played over the speaker systems on platforms and in trains, and ads could be interspersed in the scrolling display about upcoming trains. It would also be easy to install screens (with sound) in the trains that show tv-ads, as is done in some other countries. Of course the average user would balk at such changes, claiming it to be too intrusive, but after a few years it would become the new normal.

On the other hand, if revenue for the metro was not the goal of the service, then these spaces could be used for something that benefits the travellers: practical information and/or art.

Non-functional requirements for metro signage.

The metro is a core component of city infrastructure, therefore the signage should be:

• Reliable 
• Must never give wrong information about critical information such as delays.
• For sub-critical information it should at least be accurate enough to gain users' trust. 
• Tamper proof/unexploitable 
• For the above reasons. 
• Sturdy 
• For the above reasons since the metro can be a harsh environment. 
• Maintainable 
• Specifically day-to-day maintenance should be limited to cleaning (see Sturdy), and repairs should be quick/modular. 
• Accessible 
• Must be usable/understandable by an extremely wide audience, including disabled, tourists, and disabled tourists. 
• Unobtrusive 
• Users should be free to their own agency to make productive use of their time on the platform and in trains.
• Unless ads are a functional requirement.

State of the art analysis – Thony Price

During the interviews, and also during my own experiences with SL, a common complaint is the lack of information when traffic is not running by the schedule. It puts the user in a situation of making a choice, staying on route or alternate the itinerary. This brought my thoughts to an application I used when I spent time in Gothenburg; “Where is the bus?”

http://www.vasttrafik.se/#!/Reseinformation/mobila-tjanster/var-aer-bussen/

The makers of the application, Västtrafik, are the same company that provides the transportation services in the region. It is a separate app to the itinerary planner and instead of showing the estimated time (time tables) it shows the position of the bus/light rail. It works like this:

1.     Open the application – it locates the closest station or bus stop to you.

2.     You choose the route, direction, mean of transportation.

3.     Press “Find”.

4.     A map shows yours, the stations and the bus’ position.

Because all vehicles in public transportation was already equipped with GPS due to the “arrives in x minutes signs” the implementation of this application was more a matter of transparency of the data at hand at Västtrafik. In the Appstore the main critic is that in a functional transportation system one shouldn’t need to ask where’s the bus at. Among the user that rates the app high most says that is solves the situations where there previously was a frustration due to the lack of information.

I enjoyed the application a lot both information wise and user design wise. I believe the more information available the better as long as it’s not presented in an overwhelming way therefore it’s clever to have it as a separate application in my opinion. The first screen of the app also spells out something like “Where !:@#%!! Is the bus?” which lets the design show that Västtrafik is understands those annoying moments of commuting. The map us also of a design that resembles to earlier user map-apps and therefore is easy to use.

To summarize I think this application makes a good job utilizing the technology already in place and is a good example of iterative design building on an understanding of the users perspective.

State of the art analysis – Niklas Lindqvist

State of the art analysis – Niklas Lindqvist

In 2015 a student at KTH, named Yizhou Zhang, did his Master of Science thesis in the field of “Real time crowding information” (RTCI). The concept was to help passengers plan their travel and allow operators to utilize there limited space in a more efficient manner. Four systems was used: projection system, communication system, speaker system and recording system.

The English version of the speaker system was in five short messages as followed:

“1). Welcome to Tekniska Högskolan, here is real-time crowding information for the next metro.

2). The first unit train is almost full, it is overcrowded &The first unit train is half full with some standing areas &The first unit train is less crowded, it might have seats left.

3). The second unit train is almost full, it is overcrowded &The secondunit train is half full with some standing areas & The Second unit trainis less crowded, it might have seats left.

4). The last unit trainis almost full, it is overcrowded &The last unit train is half full with some standing areas &The last unit trainis less crowded, it might have seats left

5). We wish you a pleasant journey in Stockholm.”

The projection system had a display next to the already existing information provider at the subway station.

All of the systems was tested at the subway station at KTH with good results. Three types of data was analysed: “passenger load data analysis, video record analysis and interview result analysis”.

Link to the report:

http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:857965/FULLTEXT01.pdf

This report shows that with the right information given in a clear way passengers feel more satisfied with their travelling as well as utilizing the space in a better way. About 90% of the passengers felt more satisfied with the RTCI system and 43% of the interviewees thought that the information was useful for them. The video analysis showed that 25 % of the passengers changed there position on the platform thanks to the information provided. Also 8 % more travelers chose the last cart of the subway and a 4% decrees in passengers where showed in the first and middle cart. 

This study brings great ideas that we might want to use in our own project!