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User requirement analysis for a railway ticketing portal with emphasis on semantic accessibility for older users

Published: 20 April 2009 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results from a survey on user requirements for older users of online ticketing services of a nationwide railway ticket and travel information portal. Our survey shows that older users differentiate in their attitude towards internet according to their experience with internet services and the service provided, not only according to their age. Further, our study indicates that in contrary to common belief advertisement or interactive elements are not perceived as negative all the time. The results of a questionnaire with 1200 responses, focus groups, interviews and qualitative analysis of user feedback also indicate that in order to improve and optimize the usage of the online system for older adults, it is needed to supply the system not only with technical accessibility requirements but also with an understanding of universal accessibility requirements. Universal requirements are defined by real user and usage cases and they consider standardization on not only coding but also predictability of usage and same patterns of interaction for similar websites.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)The Development of Human-Centered Design in Public Transportation: A Literature ReviewHCI in Mobility, Transport, and Automotive Systems10.1007/978-3-031-60480-5_3(40-62)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
  • (2019)Supporting Older Adults in Using Complex User Interfaces with Augmented RealityProceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3308561.3354593(661-663)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2019
  • (2017)Successful Leisure in Independent Living CommunitiesProceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3025453.3025802(7042-7056)Online publication date: 2-May-2017
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  1. User requirement analysis for a railway ticketing portal with emphasis on semantic accessibility for older users

    Recommendations

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    Susan Loretta Fowler

    Dynamic ads-what the authors refer to as logical advertising-change according to what the viewer does on the Web site. For example, if the viewer searches for a particular destination, an ad offering a discount to that destination appears. This paper presents the following surprising research: older users of railway ticketing Web sites don't mind dynamic advertising. This is a useful piece of information for designers who might assume that older viewers don't like unexpected changes. Another surprising result is that older users prefer to buy tickets at the counter. This is not because they perceive the online system to be too complex or not private enough, but because they don't find the online system smart enough. Most of the people the authors interviewed explained that, if they wanted to buy a ticket for an unfamiliar location, they would probably buy it at the counter. They would do this for one of two reasons: because they don't trust the information on the Internet, especially when it comes to the best possible ticket combination, or in order to take advantage of short-term offers and coupons. In this situation, there is little difference between old and young users-again, very useful information for designers. The authors clearly worked very hard to collect information from users who are 65 and older. They collected surveys, conducted interviews, and held focus groups. Consequently, their conclusion that older users are not handicapped when it comes to Web use is well documented. In fact, the authors suggest ways to make a portal more useful for everyone, of any age. For example, they suggest making it easier to compare prices and travel opportunities. The only quibble I have with the paper is its lack of proofreading. Due to poor translation, the text is difficult to follow. However, readers who design for older users should take the time to struggle through it. Online Computing Reviews Service

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    W4A '09: Proceedings of the 2009 International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibililty (W4A)
    April 2009
    189 pages
    ISBN:9781605585611
    DOI:10.1145/1535654
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 20 April 2009

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    Author Tags

    1. accessibility
    2. older adults
    3. user centeredness

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 171 of 371 submissions, 46%

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    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)The Development of Human-Centered Design in Public Transportation: A Literature ReviewHCI in Mobility, Transport, and Automotive Systems10.1007/978-3-031-60480-5_3(40-62)Online publication date: 29-Jun-2024
    • (2019)Supporting Older Adults in Using Complex User Interfaces with Augmented RealityProceedings of the 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3308561.3354593(661-663)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2019
    • (2017)Successful Leisure in Independent Living CommunitiesProceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3025453.3025802(7042-7056)Online publication date: 2-May-2017
    • (2016)Accessibility Evaluation of Indian Railway WebsitesProceedings of the International Conference on Informatics and Analytics10.1145/2980258.2980393(1-6)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2016
    • (2016)Seamless semantic enrichment of services in assistive environmentsUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-014-0376-x15:1(85-99)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2016
    • (2015)Giving Elderly Access to Smart EnvironmentsHuman Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design for Everyday Life10.1007/978-3-319-20913-5_43(465-475)Online publication date: 21-Jul-2015
    • (2015)Conducting Acceptance Tests for Elderly People on the WebProceedings, Part I, of the First International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Design for Aging - Volume 919310.1007/978-3-319-20892-3_32(325-336)Online publication date: 2-Aug-2015
    • (2011)How voice augmentation supports elderly web usersThe proceedings of the 13th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility10.1145/2049536.2049565(155-162)Online publication date: 24-Oct-2011
    • (2010)Towards the use of "negative effects" in technology design and evaluationProceedings of the 24th BCS Interaction Specialist Group Conference10.5555/2146303.2146371(443-447)Online publication date: 6-Sep-2010
    • (2009)A Usability and Accessibility Design and Evaluation Framework for ICT ServicesProceedings of the 5th Symposium of the Workgroup Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering of the Austrian Computer Society on HCI and Usability for e-Inclusion10.1007/978-3-642-10308-7_7(102-110)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2009

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