Design Guidelines for Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS): The User Requirements Analysis

Past research has established that human factors guidelines following traditional formats for presenting information are not useful and are often ignored by designers. Within the human factors community, there is considerable uncertainty and concern regarding the nature and utility of human factors handbooks and guidelines materials. Indeed, many existing human factors reference materials have been criticized by designers for being “too wordy”, “too general,” and “too hard to understand.” The development of clear, relevant, and useful human factors guidelines requires a judicious mix of science and art to overcome such criticisms. This paper describes an on going effort to develop clear, relevant, and easy-to-use guidelines for the design of Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) and Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO). It focuses on the methods and results of a user requirements analysis conducted to identify the appropriate content, organization, and format of the ATIS/CVO guidelines.