Accessibility and usability research

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Usability and accessibility testing form an integral part of the Portal development process.  Findings from this testing have been fed and will continue to feed into the design process so that each new build of the Portal improves the user Experience.

traveline and Transport Direct disabilities customer research

The principal aim of this research project is to identify, describe and assess issues upon which the effective delivery of travel information to those with disabilities depends. Research results will provide sound and unambiguous evidence upon which the managers of both traveline and Transport Direct can assess the merits of changing or developing the delivery of their respective information services to better meet the needs of those with disabilities.

Contractor: Transport & Travel Research

As a result of the above research Transport Direct has published a Disability Policy.

Transport Direct portal accessibility and Usability testing report (March 2007)

The latest Usability and Accessibility Testing was conducted in March 2007

Contractor: System Concepts

Transport Direct portal accessibility testing report (December 2003)

In October 2003, the first build of the portal was tested on 20 people with disabilities.

Contractor: System Concepts

Transport Direct portal accessibility testing report (October 2005)

Contractor: System Concepts

This report describes the results of accessibility testing carried out on a live version of the Transport Direct website. The testing was carried out between 22 and 29 September 2005. The system tested had been updated since the earlier phase of accessibility testing carried out in 2004. A total of 11 participants covering 5 different types of disabilities took part in the test sessions. Each participant attempted a minimum of two tasks out of a pool of four.

Report (PDF, 616kb)

MR05 - Evaluation of Transport Direct portal prototypes

Prior to the build of the first version of the Portal, 5 prototypes were tested on 180 target users in Cardiff and Reading. Key findings were:

  • Nearly all found the content useful or very useful
  • Target users would want journey information quickly
  • Target users would want clear graphical representations of their journey plans

Contractor: Accent Marketing

MR6.0 - Transport Direct portal usability testing report (March 2004)

In January 2004, the first build of the portal was tested on 20 of our target users.

Contractor: System Concepts

MR6.1 - Transport Direct portal accessibility testing report (May 2004)

This report describes the results of a limited number of accessibility tests carried out on the Transport Direct web portal. This testing was carried out on 17 and 18 May 2004, prior to the portal going live. The system tested was stable and had complete functionality. Three visually impaired users took part, two using screen reader software and the third using magnification software.

Contractor: System Concepts

MR6.1 - Transport Direct portal usability testing report (June 2004)

This report describes the results of usability testing carried out on an updated version of the Transport Direct website. The testing was carried out between 12 and 14 May, 2004. The system tested had an increased range of available functions compared to that used for an earlier phase of usability testing carried out in January 2004. A total of 8 participants covering 4 different user profiles took part in the test sessions. Each participant attempted three out of a pool of twelve tasks.

Contractor: System Concepts

MR6.3 - Usability testing report (November 2004)

In October 2004, a third tranche of usability testing was carried out on 12 target users where we tested the Quick Planners and new functionality to extend door to door journeys.

Contractor: System Concepts

MR6.4 - Usability testing reports (May 2005)

In May 2005, two further sets of usability testing were carried out.

The first was to test how the site navigation could be changed to accomodate a large section of new functionality that we planned to introduce in 2005/2006. We tested 10 users.

The second set of testing involved 10 users of internet enabled mobile phones and PDA's, carrying out simple tests on the final version of the Transport Direct service to mobile devices.

Contractor: System Concepts

Usability testing report (PDF, 1565kb)

In March 2007 usability testing was carried out on three UI features:

  • Car parking functionality
  • Carbon Calculator
  • Search by Price

Accessibility testing was also conducted on the three features above.

Accessibility testing report (PDF, 1242kb)

MR11

Focus group research - future Transport Direct channels and services (July 2004) (PDF, 1763kb)

Contractor: System Concepts

This project comprised 4 focus groups that were used to better understand the information needs of travellers during the course of a journey. In particular, we probed which 'on the move' channels - kiosks, SMS, WAP and PDAs - would be best suited to providing on the move information.

  • Report (Adobe Acrobat - 549kb)

MR12 - Research into the use of the Transport Direct portal by BME groups (October 2004)

Contractor: Social Research Associates

This project aimed to inform us about the particular needs of black and minority ethnic groups when using the Transport Direct portal. Three families in each of the eight communities identified for testing (Afro-Carribean, Bangladeshi, Black-African, Chinese, Eastern European, Indian, Jewish and Pakistani) were invited to take part in an hour-long research session using the first version of the Transport Direct portal.