Please note: the best practice guide has now been published. Entitled, 'Public Transport Information Web Sites: How To Get It Right: A Best Practice Guide', it is available to download at http://www.trg.soton.ac.uk/bpg. It is also available to purchase in hardcopy or CD ROM (click here to download Word97 order form). These pages are historic, produced during the project and remain for information only. They will not be updated again.
The principal objective of this project is the creation of a Best Practice Guide for public transport information (PTI) on the web, following a thorough review of existing PTI sites. This document will establish a set of best practice guidelines for use by the public transport industry, covering both information content and information presentation, with the aim of creating a consistency of standards across and fostering increased public confidence in PTI web sites. The project will also aim to establish the value of consultation with end users in the creation of PTI web sites; the extent to which generic principles for information delivery via the web exist; and to consider the future capabilities of access to the Internet, in particular, via wireless devices.
Firstly, a thorough literature review will be undertaken, encompassing literature from the transport and non-transport fields, to establish a list of usability heuristics, key principals for, or components of, a usable web site, for application to PTI on the web. Following an initial survey of PTI web sites, a list of PTI components currently used on traveller information web sites - for example, timetables, journey planners and route maps - will be established. An electronic pro forma will be developed, combining the heuristics alongside the components of web based PTI, to enable the effective online survey and analysis of existing PTI sites, into which site screen shots and commentary will be inserted. The development of a pro forma will enable the effective and consistent assessment of web sites both during and after the lifetime of this project.
The initial list of PTI sites to be assessed in detail has been established and is drawn from UK sites only. Towards the end of the project, a light-touch evaluation of non-UK sites will be undertaken.
Depth interviews with a number of site providers will be undertaken, to assess the key stages in web site development and to understand the key issues and objectives from these stakeholders. It is hoped that group meetings will be held with all of the key players in an individual organisation involved in web site development, to understand the interaction and constraints within organisations.
Consultation with end users will be undertaken via the online feedback form, which will be publicised within academic, public transport industry and traveller communities.
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