Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
These different design components are dealt with by the specialists who bring
specific and complementary skills: project manager, technical designer, ergonomist,
user representative and quality controller. It is therefore necessary as early as the
stage of analysis of the design process to develop an approach that favors the
mutualization of knowledge between different players and which therefore ensures
the continuity of its transfer to the rest of the stages.
Different design methods enabling us to link the technical aspects and user needs
have been put forward. These works in particular concern: the description of
technical tools corresponding to the different phases of a project [BOO 99]; the
construction of use cases to translate the flow of events [PHI 02]; the descriptions of
tasks to link the actions of the user to those of the system [CON 99], [LAU 01]; the
modeling of cognitive components [RAS 94]; and the formalization of storyboards
by an interface designer [KRU 01]. Other works try to integrate the complementarity
of concepts coming from different domains: engineering, psychology, cognitive
sciences and computing [HOL 05], [SOU 04].
These approaches nonetheless remain focused on the operational aspects and few
works concern the identification and integration of user needs from the phases
upstream of the information system design. However, it is more important to
understand
what
the system does and
why
it does than to explain
how
it does it
[HOL 05]. The methodology of collecting, analyzing, modeling/specifying and
evaluating the specifications of interactive information systems, RAMSES,
presented in this chapter, is in line with this viewpoint. The implementation of the
approach is illustrated by the presentation of the P@ss-ITS project for the design of
a multimodal traveler information system (SIVM).
2.2. Traveler information: a pluridisciplinary matter
The development of a traveler information system for the users of a multimodal
public transport network raises scientific and technical questions, both for
industrialists and researchers. For transport industrialists as well as for urban areas,
it represents an asset in terms of quality of service that can greatly improve the
attractiveness of public transport [PER 02] and thus increase its use [UST 01].
Furthermore, the elaboration of a multimodal information system is a business that
is technically complex. Indeed, it is a matter of aggregating data that are often
heterogeneous and come from non-standardized bases [PET04]. The
communication of informative messages on these diverse interfaces requires
particular care in terms of relevance, coherence, accessibility and ergonomics
[FES 03], [STE 00], [THE 00]. These different aspects take on a particular interest
regarding the issues of human-computer interface design and evaluation [VAL 07b].
Finally, the pluridisciplinary nature that can be given to dealing with these questions
