Washington, DC
November 13, 2008
Usability and Accessibility Evaluation of Amtrak's Redesign of its Online Reservation System
Dustin Chambers, Angela Colter and Dick Horst ( UserWorks, Inc)
(Note: Two consultants played an integral role in the work presented
here. Whitney Quesenbery worked with us on both the usability testing
and accessibility review. Jennifer Sutton worked with us on the
accessibility review)
Amtrak is in the process of redesigning its online reservation system.
UserWorks has supported that process by providing design
recommendations and usability and accessibility reviews of the emerging
designs. We first usability tested the existing booking site with
representative users and offered recommendations for the redesign. When
the new design was in an early prototype stage, we provided an expert
review by our usability specialists. More recently we conducted a
usability test of a partially functional prototype and did an
accessibility review of both the current site and redesign prototype.
Our poster will illustrate the methods we have used. We will present
the task scenarios used in the usability tests, the audience groups
from which test participants were drawn, the usability measures being
utilized, and an outline of the structure used for evaluating the
accessibility of these web user interfaces. No specific findings will
be discussed, but we can report that with the redesign there was higher
success in completing basic tasks, more positive satisfaction ratings
from participants, and fewer complaints about finding information
needed to complete a booking.
Interactive Crash Analysis Application (EVA)
Darya Filippova (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
Accident analysis helps to identify the cause of the accident; analyzing multiple accidents helps to infer the high-accident locations, improve road safety, and potentially reduce accident severity. Mining accident data requires knowledge of querying languages and familiarity with the data. Currently, accident analysis tools are disjoint stand-alone applications thus slowing down the analysis. In particular, the tools used by agencies in Maryland are complex, cumbersome, and require training to perform even the simplest tasks. We propose EVA (Explore and Visualize Accidents) - a Web-based application that gives users the ability to query the accident data directly from any computer and analyze it through a series of visualizations. EVA's design can accommodate both computer novices as well as proficient users. EVA is unique in that it does not require the user to be familiar with the structure of the data to be able to explore it.
Transportation Data Analysis Web Tools
Jon Gilmour (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
Real-time transportation operations data
can come from detailed accident and construction reports, road sensors,
weather systems, cameras, and automated vehicle positioning systems,
and many other sources. While much of this transportation data is
inherently spatial in nature, most archived transportation data systems
display transportation data in only a temporal format-often in tables
or simple graphs. The CATT Lab is investigating various techniques for
returning and visualizing spatial transportation datasets. A map-based,
historical transportation data query tool, circular time and space
graphs, and other unique visualizations are being developed to enable
transportation planners and researchers to gain new insights into
complex temporal and spatial transportation data. This presentation
will highlight some of the newest web-based tools being developed at
the CATT Laboratory.
Usability Evaluation of E-Gov Travel Vendor Applications
Dick Horst (UserWorks, Inc.), Derek Schultz (Media Design Associates), Elizabeth Buie (Luminanze Consulting, LLC)
(Note: Several colleagues made important contributions to the work
presented here. Our team included Andrew Schall, Claude Steinberg,
Willie Stewart, Jenna Wexler, and an adviser, Ben Shneiderman.)
The government spends billions per year on employee travel expenses and
is implementing an E-Gov Travel Solutions (ETS) program with the goals
of reducing costs and increasing services. ETS does this by providing
integrated, web-based applications for making travel reservations and
managing the related planning, approval, and accounting processes.
Recognizing that the usability of these ETS applications will be a
major determining factor in government employees' use and satisfaction
with them, the Program Management Office had UserWorks do a usability
evaluation of the three vendors' systems. These evaluations involved
expert reviews, analysis of user surveys, usability testing with
government employees, and cognitive walkthroughs with "power users." A
major challenge was the need to evaluate and report on the three
systems' usability independently, without bias, and without
compromising the competitive process among the three vendors. Our
poster will describe how we organized our team, the methods we
employed, and the lessons we learned, many of which will likely apply
when introducing usability engineering into other large, complex,
multi-vendor government programs.
Finding the Way Through Participatory Design
Adriana Machado, Michelle Robertson, Cynthia York (University of Baltimore School of Information Arts and Technology)
How can we encourage people to leave their cars at home and take
advantage of public transportation systems? Instead of campaigning and
trying to convince them by prescribing what's best for the environment,
we might get better results by understanding people's needs and giving
them tools to empower their informed decisions. Planning a trip from
point A to B can be a very complex task, especially when it involves
navigating diverse mass transit buses, trains, routes, schedules, and
ticket options. Through Participatory Design sessions, we explored
passengers' mental models and created concepts to assist their commuter
trips. Facilitators and participants together designed and prototyped a
mobile application that would not only help plan the trip but also
serve as a "buddy" to count on in case unpredictable surprises happen
along the way.
The Washington DC Regional Integrated Transportation Information System
Julian Moyse (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
The Regional Integrated Transportation Information System (RITIS) is an
automated data sharing, dissemination, and archiving system initially
designed for use in the National Capital Region. RITIS improves
transportation efficiency, safety, and security through the integration
of existing transit and transportation management data in Virginia,
Maryland, and Washington D.C. The emphasis of RITIS is on data fusion
and standardization, and their relationship to data collection,
regional transportation systems management, regional traveler
information dissemination, and system evaluation. RITIS automatically
fuses, translates, and standardizes data obtained from multiple
agencies in the region in order to provide an enhanced overall view of
the region's transportation network. Participating agencies are able to
view regional traffic information and use it to improve their
operations and emergency preparedness. This presentation will focus on
several traveler information components of RITIS including web-mapping,
alert systems, 511, and mobile web applications.
Configurable Transportation Event Management System
Andreea Olea (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
Effective transportation incident and construction management in major
metropolitan areas is critical to the safety and reliability of
transportation operations. Efficient traffic management can save
heavily populated regions billions of dollars in lost wages, time, fuel
consumption, and environmental pollution. Numerous transportation
departments have created their own proprietary software systems to help
better manage the roadways. These systems, however, are expensive to
build and often very difficult to use. This project strives to develop
a user-friendly, intuitive, and feature rich transportation management
system that can be easily configurable by any transportation department
looking to start a transportation management operation. Our system
offers a customizable web-based interface to facilitate communication
and coordination critical to event management and incident response.
I-95 Corridor Coalition Mile-marker & Ramp Designation Sign Study
Michael L. Pack (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
Mile marker and ramp signs are critical informational components for
motorists, transportation system managers, maintenance, law
enforcement, fire, and emergency responders for reporting of and
responding to collisions or other incidents. Lives have been saved or
lost because of the ability or inability of a motorist to accurately
read and understand a mile marker or ramp designation sign to identify
their location. Misconstrued signing can delay response to incidents,
jeopardizing lives and compromising the effective and efficient use of
resources. Providing crash location information becomes more difficult
on complex urban highway interchanges. Inadequate ramp designation
signing may lead to incorrect locations being given to 911 centers. The
goal of the research performed in this study was to develop better mile
marker and ramp designation signs using (1) a computer model of human
nighttime legibility (2) a computer-based sign comprehension analysis,
and (3) a road test validation.
Considerations for Using Eye Trackers During Usability Studies of Signs
Anjali Phukan (University of Maryland Baltimore County)
The purpose of this usability study was to see if eye trackers really collect valid data, regardless of the user's method of corrected vision, eye color, or gender. The study also explored ways the user's first language can affect the way the user gazes (and hence interprets) text and images as part of a look into the international need for effective signs, regardless of a user's origin. This is all within the context of usability testing for signs used in transportation systems that must accommodate global users, including a wide variety of users who may not have the same method of vision correction, or share the same first language. The motivation to explore the idea that these human factors can distort the eye tracker is based on marketing claims by several companies that say these factors should not effect the results. This study found that the validity of data in usability studies that involved eye trackers in testing can produce biased results based on eye wear and eye color, and that adjustments should be made to the study to control for these variables. The results showed no significant correlations based on gender. In addition, there are indications that the alphabet of a user's first language may have some impact when reading and viewing English text directions or a Latin alphabet based visual dictionary.
Travel TAMEr: PDA Interface for Travelers
Tami Smith, Amy Rubino, Musa Karakaya, Emily Marsh (University of Baltimore School of Information Arts and Technology)
The tourism field presents a perfect domain for a ubiquitous computing
application (Weiser, 1991). Travelers have complex needs: locating,
navigating, searching, identifying, and checking (Reichenbacher, 2001)
a broad range of resources which need to be met in complex, rapidly
changing settings. Consequently, PDA-sized tools are becoming a more
convenient way for travelers to navigate public transportation. This
project created such a tool based on a foundation of ethnographic
research, participatory design, and technological functionality. It is
designed to meet travelers' needs for novelty, immersion, and safety
both specific to transportation and in other contexts.
The conceptual basis for the tool rests upon three original
user personas based on ethnographic research (Wickens, 2002; Yiannakis
& Gibson, 1992): the tourist, the explorer, and the wanderer. The
other features of the Travel TAMEr arose out of participatory design
sessions with potential users-minimal clicking, feedforward features,
and providing a unique experience.
Examining Child Seat Installation Errors of Novices & Parents
Yi-Fang D. Tsai (George Mason University, NHTSA)
Child restraint systems are known to be complicated to install and can be affected by factors such as features in the child seat design, vehicle design, and choosing which attachment system to use. Past studies have evaluated misuse patterns at car seat checkup locations where experience handling a child safety seat may vary. Two studies were conducted to examine child seat misuse with samples of varying child seat experience. The first study observed novices as they installed a convertible child seat. The second study was conducted with current child seat users where their child seat was inspected for a correct installation. After the assessment of errors in both studies, participants were interviewed on their experience with child seats and asked to rate options from a booklet of usability improvements.
Real-time and Historic Incident Visualization Using Timelines
Michael VanDaniker (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
Traffic management centers worldwide use
software applications to record and coordinate incident response.
Proper decision making depends on the incident manager's ability to
understand all of the data gathered by these tools, but existing
visualizations have failed to make this an easy task. Currently,
managers must analyze several pages of free text, tables, and maps to
understand what is being done to manage an incident. This can be time
consuming, and the consequences of misinterpreting information can be
life threatening.
This project created a compact, one-screen visualization of the
temporal and spatial data associated with traffic incidents. Temporal
data are projected onto a timeline representing the entire incident. A
built-in map allows the user to garner spatial significance while still
providing temporal information. This tool reduces the chance of missing
critical information and reduces the time needed to comprehend the
numerous events that occur during the course of an incident.
4D, Real-time Transportation System Visualization
Phillip Weisberg (University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
The 4-Dimensional, wide area traffic
visualization tool provides incident management personnel, emergency
management personnel, and the general public with the means to achieve
situational awareness in as close to a real-world setting as possible.
This research developed a system for visualizing 4D, (where the fourth
dimension is time), "real-time" transportation data. This effort
employed a combination of technologies including OpenGL and various
modeling techniques to develop a scalable, highly interactive 4D model
using available GIS and transportation infrastructure data in
conjunction with real-time traffic management center data. The
prototype system interacts with real-time traffic databases to show
animations of real-time traffic, incident, and weather data. A user can
"fly" or "drive" through the region to inspect conditions at an
infinite number of angles and distances. The program also allows users
to monitor the status of and interact with traffic control devices such
as dynamic message signs, CCTV feeds, traffic sensors, and even view
the location of a fleet of vehicles equipped with GPS transponders.
Visual Analytics for Transportation Incident Datasets
Krist Wongsuphasawat ((University of Maryland, Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory)
Transportation systems are being monitored at an unprecedented scope
which is resulting in tremendously detailed databases. While the
transportation community emphasizes developing data standards, little
effort has been made to design appropriate visual analytics tools to
explore the data, extract meaningful knowledge, and represent results.
Analyzing these large multivariate geospatial datasets is a non-trivial
task.
A tool that affords sophisticated yet user-friendly analysis of
transportation incident datasets is proposed. Interactive maps,
histograms, two-dimensional plots and parallel coordinates plots are
four featured visualizations that are integrated together to allow
users to interact with and see relationships between multiple
visualizations. With a rich set of filters, users can create custom
conditions to filter data and focus on a smaller dataset. Since finding
interesting relationships can be time-consuming due to the multivariate
nature of the data, a rank-by-feature framework has been adopted to
quantify the strength of relationships between the different data
fields.