Jordan Smith
RSSB
Jordan is a Human Factors Specialist in RSSB, having previously worked for 6 years in automotive research. Jordan worked on collaborative research between Loughborough University and Nissan Motor Company investigating driver posture, driver comfort and musculoskeletal fatigue. Alongside this research Jordan completed his Doctorate, adding to his BSc Ergonomics degree. Jordan's main areas of expertise relate to physical Ergonomics (anthropometry, seated postures, musculoskeletal discomfort, fatigue and user-vehicle interaction) and user-system interaction. The following summarises some of his most recent work: * Human Factors specialist in the development of a Rule Book app, focusing on usability requirements of front line, safety critical staff * Technical specialist overseeing research in to passengers' understanding of door closure arrangements across the network, to optimise safe boarding and alighting * Review of rail incidents with safety critical communications factors as underlying causes, as part of a project to develop a safety critical communications training package * Usability testing for a revised incident factor classification system, to better identify the underlying causes that contribute to an incident and optimise the classification process * Technical specialist on research to optimise the design and position of platform markings designed to keep people away from the platform edge' * Technical specialist on research to identify mitigations for the risk of unplanned movement of wheelchairs and pushchairs on station platforms
Background: There are more than 190,000 people working for the British rail industry (Stagecoach, 2016), responsible for nearly 1.7 billion passenger journeys a year (ORR, 2016). Approximately 120,000 of these are staff... [ view full abstract ]
Background: There are more than 190,000 people working for the British rail industry (Stagecoach, 2016), responsible for nearly 1.7 billion passenger journeys a year (ORR, 2016). Approximately 120,000 of these are staff working in safety critical roles, expected to demonstrate competence with the tasks, rules and guidelines set out in the Rule Book. This is the authoritative source of operational regulations instructions for the GB mainline railway and essential for the safety of railway staff. There is a desire within the rail industry for RSSB to provide the Rule Book optimised for mobile and tablet devices, which is indicative of the industry trend to move towards paperless working.
Currently, safety critical staff are issued with a hard copy (paper version) of the Rule Book. It is a modern-day challenge to accommodate a variety of learning styles, which can be influenced by the age of learners and common traits that are associated with specific job types (RSSB, 2006). Recognising that learning styles vary, may help to support effective delivery of content for learners and consequently the learning and retention of knowledge. This emphasises the importance of providing multiple platforms from which learners can access content to comprehensively accommodate various learning styles. Currently, RSSB provide an additional platform for Rule Book content, by way of PDF manuals, however the presentation of the content is not optimised for this platform and does not take in to account the use case of the product. Consequently, use of Rule Book content is not as efficient as it could be and presents an opportunity to enhance the user experience.
Methodology: Two usability workshops were completed, the first aimed at capturing end user requirements using scenario-based design methods and the second using a prototype app to capture user acceptance feedback on the design and functionality. Both workshops captured ratings to identify the acceptance of the design in comparison to existing Rule Book platforms e.g. a hard copy (paper version) and PDFs, which can currently be downloaded to user devices. A pilot was completed alongside the second usability workshop, to capture usability feedback from a targeted group of front line staff for an extended period of use
Findings: The scenario-based design approach gave participants the opportunity to be imaginative in terms of how the app should look and function and participants demonstrated a methodical approach in proposing novel ideas, discussing them and forming reasoned user requirements. This approach also gave participants license to think beyond the current capabilities, identifying design features and functionality to future proof the app.
For usability workshop 1 (n=87) and 2 (n=27), at least 87% of participants 'agreed' or 'strongly agreed' with the positive usability statements. These percentages dropped for some statements in the pilot with South West Trains guards (n=20), accounted for by the internal change management process for mobile devices and the smaller device screen sizes. 70% of participants indicated that the app was easy to use and 81% said that they would use the app more frequently than they currently do.
