Prototype of a Mobile Public Transport Travel Assistant

Abstract

We envision a context-aware, door-to-door travel assistant that would guide the user during their complete journey and provide instant alternative suggestions in case of delays or other disruptions. A prototype of a mobile travel assistant for public transport is developed and evaluated in an iterative cycle. The concept is based on scientific literature concerning traveller information needs, context-awareness and early travel assistant research, together with a best-practise evaluation. The first prototype is developed and evaluated through the means of eight individual test user interviews and two focus group sessions with nine participants in total. The System Usability Scale (SUS) is used to quantitatively assess the participant's satisfaction with the prototype. Afterwards, actions for improvement are listed and a second prototype is created that differs significantly from the first version. This time, an evaluation with 134 test users is performed through an online survey. The results are positive, with an average SUS score of 80,1 out of 100 and 77 out of 134 respondents who indicate they are very satisfied with the application in general. Additional improvement actions are taken to finalise the prototype. The research shows that the proof-of-concept has a high usability and that test users are mostly satisfied. Practical implications are listed for the technical aspects of such an application and its further development, and ideas for future research and development are mentioned to expand the concept further.