Transcription of Interview
1.What is your name?
Per Peterson
2. How old are you?
52
3. What is your occupation?
Working as a police officer.
4. What is your hobby or what do you do on your spare time?
I enjoy playing golf on the weekends.
5. How often do you travel with this ferry?
very frequent during the summers but never during the winter.
6 .Why did you choose to go with the ferry and what was your motivation?
I get very good memories from the ferry out in Djurgården because this was where I met my wife during my youth. unfortunately we are not together anymore.
7. Sorry to hear that, Do you have any children? if so how many?
I have 3 children. 2 boys and 1 girl
8. Do you take the ferry to visit them?
No they and I live in Täby however one of my old friends lives in Djurgården so I am planning to visit him.
9. Did you use any aids to help you travel?
I only used the SL-app to check the time tables
10. Was it the official SL app or was it any other application?
*He wasn’t sure so he showed me and I confirmed that it was the official SL application
11. Why do you use the official application?
I don’t really like that application, it crashed sometimes. However, I do not have an SL-card so I use the app to buy tickets.
12. Do you use your phone to plan day to day routes/ to plan leisure travel and if you do, what do you look up?
I don't use my phone so very often. I used to use the SL booklets however my children convinced me to get an Iphone which I have been using now. I use it mostly for travel arrangements and banking.
STATE OF THE ART ANALYSIS
I decided to analyze different paths from and to and also take a look at the state of the SL webpage functions and restrictions. The following relevant data sources where acquired from the web. The main source of information being the SL website because they are the only provider of public transportation in Stockholm. The website Trafiklab is also an important source because of its functionality of providing APIs for developers. For SL in our case the website provides APIs containing information regarding the stations, planning your journey between point A and B and also the information about recent problems in the traffic.
The discussion regarding the SL application is also interesting because SL’s own application is only providing the function of purchasing a ticket and not giving all the information the was enlisted under the APIs. Thus this has created a gap which is filled by third party developers who have established an application providing the information of planning a trip, real time notifications of traffic issues and using the devices own GPS to locate the nearest station.
The application is provided on the App store under the name of “”Res I STHLM””.
The problem that is a common denominator for both of these applications is their non-accessible nature for tourists and foreigners. The official app is designed under the assumption that you are fluent in Swedish and also been living in Stockholm for an extended period of time. This neglects an important perceptual principle for design being that the design for the application, that the display is legible. For example the ability to change the language to English on the application was something that I did not manage to do and I assume that this is not provided. Same goes for the “Res I STHLM” which has lost the accessibility and foreign friendly aspect just by its name. Also using the abbreviate “STHLM” is confusing to elderly and people living outside of Stockholm and other areas.
An alternative to these 2 applications would be Google Maps. However, Google Maps lacks the real time update of time changes and traffic issues.
For the travel options and journey provided by SL we are required to choose two starting points. I choose Brommaplan because it is close to where I live and also T-Centralen which is the epicenter of the SL network.
Our destination is Skeppsholmen because that is the common used destination of the ferry.
The SL website suggests me the route of Brommaplan to Slussen and from there use the ferry to transport to Skeppsholmen. The same proposition is made by the “”Res I STHLM”” application.
The SL website suggests me a different route if my starting point is from T-Centralen. The route is to take the buss to Nybrogatan and from there take a shorter ferry to Skeppsholmen.
The tests prove that the SL website provides the fastest route possible.
The SL webpage is better established than the mobile application. The website provides several functionalities that I believe are very useful. The map and planner are key items.
The ability to use symbols of the different vehicles and ships available makes the accessibility easy and understandable. This shows that SL has strives to include the general population, even the elderly and handicapped, This is a correct and warranted thought hence the general population shall be included in the system for public transportation.
To give the whole picture in my analysis I must project the negative aspects of the website as well. The problem I detected was that the default language is in Swedish, this can be changed if you scroll down to the absolute bottom of the page. However, if you are an old person, a child or somebody with not much general computer use. This proves to be a problem. I would suggest SL to amend this automatically by using a pop-up for new comers to their webpage by asking them to continue in Swedish or change to English or any other major European language or even include languages such as Arabic and Somali etc. In this way they would expand their target groups and also improve customer satisfaction. Due to the recent demographical changes in the Swedish population.
They can differentiate between new website users and frequents by checking the users browsers for cookies.
Thus we can make the following conclusion that SL has a strong and diverse webpage which strives to include as many users as possible . It also incorporates the given API sources in the best way possible. The website can still improve in the aspects of language accessibility to foreign tourists and new comers to Sweden. The SL application has not included all the APIs which can be done. The application also received very low grades from users on the Appstore and the Android Market. This makes the application weaker and harder to use than the webpage. It would be interesting if SL would incorporate audio based communication for the people with visual impairments. What SL must consider is that in the new decade of technology mobile is paramount and they must improve and keep investing to improve their User-centered design as much as possible. The method of analysis of the UCD of the SL webpage can be found on a paper from Uppsala University .
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