ABSTRACT
In this study, user experience design (UXD) of a prototype kiosk for the İstanbul Public Transportation System (İPTS) was presented. The kiosk included the following modules: a guide for tourists and newcomers, route finder, İstanbulkart operations (the smart city card for transportation), purchasing tickets-tokens, and a coin machine. The methodology consisted of a user survey, persona and scenario generation, design heuristics, system architecture, and user experience testing. The survey conducted with 168 participants revealed the following key points: Majority (68%) of the users of the current public transportation system ended up at wrong destinations at least once; 98% of the users stated that they would like to access a kiosk for their route planning needs; and 55% of the users were even willing to pay for such a service. The users overall thought that: the proposed kiosk would improve their public transportation experience because it included everything needed for transportation, it would make route planning easier, it was intuitive and easy to use, and it was accessible in many places. The empirical evidence shown by this study validated the UXD approaches suggested in the literature. Survey, persona and scenario generation, user testing, and mind mapping all were proven to be very useful steps to achieve a successful UXD. The design framework presented in this article may serve as a reference for the designers.
Acknowledgments
I express my sincere thanks to my students, Yiğit Doğan and Orkun Gedik, for their assistance in data collection and manuscript preparation. Thanks also go to all the participants who generously volunteered their time for the study.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Mahmut Ekşioğlu
Dr. Mahmut Ekşioğlu, formerly an ergonomics consultant, NIOSH researcher, and University of Michigan (Dearborn) faculty member in the United States, is currently an associate professor and the founding director of the ergonomics laboratory in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Boğaziçi University (İstanbul, Turkey). He received his PhD in industrial engineering in 1996 from Wichita State University. His research interests include industrial ergonomics, optimization in ergonomics, human–technology interaction, and user experience.