Students as participants in usability studies

Human Factors play an increasingly important role in the rail sector. However, the complexity of railway operations only allows for a limited number of studies “under the rolling wheel”. Therefore, the use of simulators is... [ view full abstract ]

Human Factors play an increasingly important role in the rail sector. However, the complexity of railway operations only allows for a limited number of studies “under the rolling wheel”. Therefore, the use of simulators is a necessity.
The Institute of railway engineering and transportation safety at Braunschweig University has a new virtual railway laboratory which allows the research of very different work aspects for train drivers as well as traffic operators. The difficulty for each and every study is that the number of participants with a well-founded background as train driver or traffic operator is very limited. The institute therefore need an approach to gain basic data for background analysis which can then be used as baseline for more detailed analysis with professionals. In a first attempt we conducted a usability study with students who had only a limited knowledge of railway operations. The study was conducted in close cooperation with Siemens AG Braunschweig.
In our paper, we will present how we worked together with a group of twelve students of civil engineering. We introduced them to the area of human factors and together we planned the study. The basic idea was that students learn to work at an interlocking, then take part in a study in which they were presented with irregularities to which they had to respond correctly.
The students were trained so that they felt comfortable to conduct the task they were given. During the performance at the computer, they were watched and their performance was rated by student observers. Furthermore, they had to answer questions about their subjective assessment of their performance. They were given the chance to rate their performance and to make suggestions about how to make the interlocking system easier to use.
The study was than evaluated and interesting information regarding e.g.
• the planning of a study with students,
• the importance of assessing subjectively and objectively the performance of the participants,
• the necessary effort to train them adequately and
• the comparability of aspects in the interface which were identified as difficult by students and practitioners
were derived.
After the successful completion of the described study we will this summer further our analysis. We will again set up a study together with students and performed by students. This one will focus more strongly on operational aspects. The study will also include participants with real life experience as traffic operators which will allow us to compare more in detail the operationally relevant results of the study. The paper will describe more in detail the researched questions and the chosen set up.