This article describes the designing process of an interactive visualization at BMW. Paper prototyping is introduced as a part of the usercentered-design process and put into practice as a novel method for software development. During the development process paper prototypes have been used as a tool for communicating and testing within the interdisciplinary team of operational experts, visualization experts, designers and software developers. In conclusion the integration of paper prototyping benefits the design process positively. The interactive visualization meets the expectations of the user.

Design, User Experience, and Usability. Theories, Methods, and Tools for Designing the User Experience

Public transportation becomes increasingly diverse because of innovation in transport modalities and a large number of service providers. For facilitating passengers’ comfort, intermodal passenger information systems are required, which combine data of different providers and transport modes. Therefore, context sensitive mobile applications are promising solutions to supporting passengers at every stage of their trip. Crucial for the success of these applications is their usability. In this paper, a prototype of an intermodal passenger information system is investigated in a usability evaluation and tested in comparison to the leading mobility application in Germany. Both iOS apps were evaluated with a questionnaire using the system usability scale (SUS) in a lab setting (n=20) and in a field test (n=20). Additionally, participants of the field test were interviewed retrospectively about app and setting. The user feedback was beneficial in learning about users’ expectations towards information retrieval procedure in and functionalities of a passenger information system. The usability evaluation basically revealed easy to improve usability problems, but also a trust issue and the need for a participatory component in public transportation, probably by integrating social media.

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Usability Evaluation of Mobile Passenger Information Systems

For reducing environmental pollution, ridership in public transport has to be increased. Hence, a modernization of this sector and an improvement of its image are necessary. Professional communication in terms of usable passenger information systems can make valuable contributions in this context. These systems are promising means to increase passenger comfort and also user acceptance. This paper presents an empirical study, which is the first step of a larger project dealing with the design of an intermodal passenger information system. The study itself deals with stakeholders' feedback about the quality of existing passenger information to identify information gaps, shortcomings in visualization and potential for innovation. 15 bus drivers and service clerks were interviewed. The data was interlaced with results from an earlier passenger survey. It was found that passengers appreciate self-service applications for informational, and particularly for confirmatory reasons. Thus, the benefit of using passenger information systems must be increased, which could be achieved by implementing further features such as social media. Finally, trust-related aspects have to be explored in future studies.

User-centered design of passenger information systems

As a result of increased urbanisation, people tend to choose their transport more flexible using different transportation modes during one trip. Thereby it is crucial to keep the traveler up-to-date with real-time information during the journey. As the amount of incoming data in intermodal route planning services is growing consistently and the reaction to unexpected events has to be fulfilled in real-time, the need for a solution which is able to deal with this requirements is rising. Complex Event Processing (CEP) is a main component of an Event-Driven Architecture (EDA), which is used to analyze and act on real-time streaming data and was designed to solve big data problems. We propose a conceptual architecture and a prototypical implementation of an EDA for a real-time intermodal route guide (RTiG) to assist traveler on their journey by providing travel assistance information in real-time and thus reacting on unexpected events. Our evaluation results show that our conceptual architecture was able to process real-time data from multiple thousand users in µs.

Concept for an Intermodal Traveller Information System with Real-Time Data Using Complex Event Processing

Pilot Chicago Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes proposed in 2008 were impractical to build, did not meet Institute for Transportation and Development Policy defined “gold standard” BRT, and were selected without considering the Livability Principles guiding investment by the U.S. government. Streets incompatible with BRT and not meeting basic constructability standards were eliminated. The remaining contiguous street sections were scored on the weighted performance of 14 quantitative proxies for the Livability Principles. Transit connectivity considerations further refined the pool to produce potential BRT routes. For discussion purposes, these routes were organized into a hypothetical BRT network to complement the existing rapid transit system; potential 2010 travel demand impacts were modeled. This study identified 10 potential BRT routes for further consideration. The integration of the Livability Principles into the study was promising but had limited impact because of the greater than anticipated influence of right-of-way width requirements.

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Integrating Livability Principles into transit planning: Screening Chicago bus rapid transit opportunities

A passenger information system (PIS) called TUTPIS has been developed for networking passengers with companies that provide public transport services. TUTPIS supports a passenger with personalised, real time information services in all phases of a journey. Services include timetables, travel route searching, route reservations, and electronic payment. TUTPIS is targeted to operate on the developing wireless network infrastructure of mobile, local, and personal networking technologies. A TUTPIS model concentrating on bus services has been implemented using the specification and description language (SDL). The model contains functional implementations of a TUTPIS server and mobile terminals. In addition, the behaviour of external entities, such as buses, trains, and third party systems is implemented for simulations. By simulations, the operability of TUTPIS can be verified and performance estimations for system servers, wireless network throughputs, and mobile terminals derived.

K. Kaisto

Papers

Architecture of a passenger information system for public transport services