Lin and Chang – WHAT TRAVELERS WANT 2015

Description

This study investigates train passenger information needs and evaluates LCD display interfaces on Taiwan Railways’ Shalun Line using observations, task-based analysis, and semi-structured interviews with 20 stakeholders (commuters, backpackers, HSR transfer travelers, and design professionals). Researchers tested twin 320×240 mm displays across five task themes: on the move, time, location, configuration, and transfer. Key findings: users require different information for long versus short trips; they prioritize rapid, up-to-the-minute details about stops, routes, and transfers while technical content and entertainment are secondary; current displays suffer from ambiguity, poor legibility, inconsistent aesthetics, confusing icons/maps, and redundancy. Specific issues included confusion over next-stop direction, misinterpretation of time, difficulty reading configuration details, and largely unintelligible transfer information. Users value multilingual support. Recommendations stress two core design questions—what to show and how to show it—and propose that transit information be multivariate, instantaneous, convenient, flexible, inclusive, and cross-regionally friendly to guide redesign and usability testing of train displays.