Report: Usability Evaluation of Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine

This report provides a comprehensive usability evaluation of an automatic train ticket vending machine designed for the UK railway system. It explores the system's interactive elements, user populations, and assumptions about user capabilities. The report details use cases for ticket vending, payment processing, and ticket booking, outlining the steps and potential alternate courses. A secondary data analysis methodology is employed to assess the system's effectiveness and efficiency. The evaluation performance and results are presented, followed by a summary of findings and an assessment of the system's overall usability, ultimately concluding on the potential benefits and areas for improvement in deploying such a system.

Running head: USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Usability Evaluation of Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part ONE: The interactive system and its users...............................................................................4
Description of interactive system................................................................................................4
Description of user populations...................................................................................................5
Assumptions about capabilities of users......................................................................................6
Part TWO: The use cases.................................................................................................................7
Aspects of use of system considered...........................................................................................7
Use Case 1: Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine...................................................7
Use Case 2: Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine ‘Payment’..............................10
Use Case 3: Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine ‘Ticket Booking’.................13
Part THREE: The evaluation methodology...................................................................................15
Evaluation Methodology...........................................................................................................15
Evaluation Procedure.................................................................................................................15
Part FOUR: The evaluation...........................................................................................................16
Evaluation Performance.............................................................................................................16
Evaluation Results.....................................................................................................................16
Part FIVE: The findings of the evaluation.....................................................................................18
Summary of evaluation results..................................................................................................18
Assessment of Usability............................................................................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................21

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Introduction
Software engineering has been continuously evolving with the advancement of the
information technology and contributing in the better livelihood and comfort of the individuals.
Various innovative systems have been developed and are also being developed for the comfort
and better livelihood of the individuals through providing better and enhanced services. This
report will be emphasizing on the automatic train ticket vending machine that could be installed
in every railway station in UK replacing the ticket masters at those stations. The individuals will
have to go to the ticket masters for the rail tickets and tell them information for booking the
tickets. Thereafter, they have to make the payment for getting the tickets. The attempt can be
driven for eliminating the need of the additional human resource for ticket booking and an
interactive system can be introduced that can allow the users to feed their necessary data and
information and make the payment for tickets to the same system. This will be dispensing the
ticket and allowing individuals to ride on the rail and move to place where he or she willing to
go.
This report aims at evaluating the usability of the proposed system and identify how
effective and efficient can be this system in the real world. The attempt will be driven to keep the
project outputs similar as it was earlier. This assignment is divided in five parts, first one
emphasizes on the interactive system and its users, explaining the constraints and assumptions of
the proposed interactive system. The second part emphasizes on the use cases those have been
explained considering the better demonstration of the system being proposed. The third part will
be emphasizing on the evaluation methodology that is secondary data analysis chosen for
analysing the efficiency and effectiveness of this project in the real world. The fourth part

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
explains the evaluation of the proposed system and followed by this, the fifth part explains the
findings of the evaluation as explained in the following report.
Part ONE: The interactive system and its users
The system being proposed will eliminate the need of the sales person for exchanging the
ticket and money. There will be single user who could solely accomplish the ticket buying
without the need of any individual for further processing. The present scenario allows the users
to interact with the sales person for the ticket from one location to a destination and he is
responsible for all the processes including station selection (as asked by the user), the payment,
and ticket printing. The proposed system will be helpful in eliminating the additional need of a
sales person and additional time spent on making conversation and deploying the operations via
the sales person. The user will be allowed to select the departing station and destination station
and make the payment by either cash mode or using credit / debit cards. An easy user interface
system will be introduced for the users and the users will be allowed to use the touch screen for
the selection of the options and accomplishing ticket booking and payment procedure. The
machine will be able to provide the users with the ticket buying options in the same route where
the machine is being established.
Description of interactive system
The system will be situated at every stations where the train is the means of travelling and
thus, every user who want to travel will need to take the tickets from the machines without
looking for the ticket booking counters, where users had to initially go for the tickets. The
proposed system will have a touch screen similar to the ATM machines in manner to make it
familiar for the users and the interface will be kept least complex. There will be an additional
option that will allow the users to go for the training section as the vending machine will allow

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
the users to learn the option selection and how to book ticket with the payment steps. The
innovation can be implemented through introducing the fixed destination option that will allow
the users to pay for the destinations the user want to go at fixed prices. For example, the user will
have the choices for booking the next station tickets and the rate will be fixed for next five
railway stations and similarly, if the user wants to book for the seventh station, he or she will
have to pay for ten stations.
Description of user populations
Since, the UK has a very long and widespread railway network and so there are hundreds
of users and travelers who used railway for travelling medium. The proposed system should be
capable of managing hundreds of the users at the same instances and allowing the consumers for
better, enhanced, and fast services. Every user could be using the services for hundred times and
the system should be capable of handling this load. Following data is being collected after
investigating the internet:
Owner Station Name 2010-11 entries
& exits
2011-12 entries
& exits
Inter-
changes
Network Rail Waterloo 91,750,382 94,045,510 9,488,822
Network Rail Victoria 73,573,492 76,231,290 9,156,710
Network Rail Liverpool Street 55,769,423 57,106,502 2,353,014
Network Rail London Bridge 51,478,131 52,634,024 8,741,879
Network Rail Charing Cross 37,222,298 38,004,790 1,990,300
Network Rail Euston 34,073,413 36,608,546 3,831,564

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Network Rail Paddington 32,200,316 33,736,546 2,677,902
Network Rail Birmingham New
Street
24,686,632 31,213,842 5,117,520
The proposed system will be able to fulfill the needs and requirements of these users in
an efficient and effective manner and hence, strategy can be developed for implementing an
additional ticket vending machine specially, for the instances of maintenance or rebooting. The
rebooting time will be of four hours and every ticket vending machine will need to be rebooted
after a week.
Assumptions about capabilities of users
The features being implemented in the system will allow every individual to be familiar
with the selection type and selection of the proper option that can fulfil the needs and
requirements of the users. The users would be capable of reading the options being popped-up on
the screens and chose the appropriate and precise selection that can allow the user to book
tickets. The user will have to keep enough money or credit/debit card for the payment section
assuring that the exact amount is being paid in the cash vault of the machine. The user would be
able to book fast tickets or choosing the different stations as per the ticket booking process and
make the payment. The users would be allowed to book one or more than one ticket at single
instance for the same route however, for making the booking o different route, he or she should
must make the booking in new way. The tutorial option being proposed will be efficient and
effective approach towards delivering the proper and effective option selection for the users who
are not well aware of the functions and options available on the machine.

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Part TWO: The use cases
Aspects of use of system considered
Use Case 1: Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine
Figure 1: Use Case for Entire Automated Train Ticket Vending Machine
(Source: Created by Author)

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Description of Use Case:
Use Case Name: Entire Automated Train Ticket Vending Machine
Use Case ID: ATTVM: 001
Description The automated train ticket vending machine will be allowing the
users to book train tickets through the proposed interactive system
designed for the users to be easy enough for operating the
operational activities related to the ticket booking.
Actors The primary actor for this use case will be the user who will be
solely responsible for delivering the necessary option selection and
accomplishment of the operations. The administrator and
technician for the management of database, and authorization are
the secondary actors whom have no roles during the application of
the machine.
Organizational
benefits
The UK railways will not have to invest additional amount or time
in assigning the individuals for the ticket distribution and money
collection. The automated ticket vending machine will allow ticket
counters to be effective and efficient in manner to accomplish the
necessary objectives and goals.
Primary Actors The user who wants to travel via train
Frequency of use The system will be capable of serving the services for a week with
a reboot time of four hours
Triggers When the user selects the ‘book ticket from’ option on the touch
screen

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Preconditions There should be enough power supply, paper must be available, the
established system should provide all the boarding and destination
points in that rail route.
Post conditions The user would be able to get the printed ticket and travel in the
train
Main courses 1. The user selects the boarding point
1.1 Or selects the tutorial option
1.1.1 The same processes will be followed after a voice command
and highlighting options as mentioned below
2. Enter the boarding point
2. Enter the destination
3. Chose the payment mode
3.1 Cash
3.1.1 Enters the Cash amount as displayed on the screen
3.1.2 Take the printed tickets
3.1.2 Credit/debit card option selected
3.1.2.1 Swap the credit/debit card
3.1.2.2 Enters the pin
3.1.2.3 Get the printed ticket
Alternate courses 1.1 Choses the available option for the fixed charges between the
same boarding point the user using the system to certain distance
1.2 Select the payment mode
1.2.1 Cash/Credit Card

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
1.2.2 Swap card
1.2.3 take the printed ticket
Use Case 2: Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine ‘Payment’
Figure 2: Use Case for Payment procedure
(Source: Created by Author)
Description of Use Case:
Use Case Name: Automatic Train Ticket Vending Machine ‘Payment’
Use Case ID: ATTVM: 002

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
Description The payment is always the most critical subject for system will be
calculating the business and in manner to make it comfortable for
the users, the system will be capable of accepting the cash or
credit/debit card payment. The system will ask the user to select the
payment mode and two options will pop-up for cash or credit/debit
card payment. The cash selection will ask the user to enter the cash
in the vault and after analyzing the cash, ticket will be printed for
the users. The credit/debit card selection will ask to swap the card
for the respective deduction and after entering the pin, the amount
will be deducted from the bank account and the ticket will be
dispensed from the ticket vault.
Actors System administrator, Technician, Bank, and the user are the actors
for this use case however, the user will be solely acting while
accomplishing this operation.
Organizational
benefits
The UK railways will be able to collect the necessary amount from
the rail services without any additional investment on a member
who will be accomplishing the necessary operational activities.
Primary Actors The user will be the primary actor
Frequency of use Every user will have to make the payment for the printed ticket and
hundreds of user per day can use this non-stop service for a week
with the rebooting time of four hours.
Triggers After the selection of the boarding station and dropping station the

USABILITY EVALUATION OF AUTOMATIC TRAIN TICKET VENDING MACHINE
payment option will pop-up for the last process of printing the
ticket
Preconditions The user must have selected the boarding and destination station
Post conditions The user would be able to make the payment for the respective
destinations
Main courses 1. Chose the payment mode
1.1 Cash
1.1.1 Enters the Cash amount as displayed on the screen
1.1.2 Take the printed tickets
1.2 Credit/debit card option selected
1.2.1 Swap the credit/debit card
1.2.2 Enters the pin
1.2.3 Get the printed ticket
Alternate courses 1. The user selects the saved destinations for travelling on trains
1.1 Selects the amount for travelling
1.2 Selects payment mode credit card
1.3 Enters the pin
1.4 Takes the printed ticket