Analysis of the usability and accessibility of public transport online timetables in selected cities in Poland

The purpose of the study was to verify various aspects related to the accessibility and usability of the timetable websites of two companies providing public transportation services. The issues addressed mainly concerned the graphic form of accessibility tools, the way of accessing these tools, their location in the site, the use of alternative names and descriptions. The objects of the research were two existing websites of two people transportation companies. In addition, two prototype sites were made for the purposes of the research. An experiment was prepared and conducted with 13 participants. A research method using the eye tracking technique was applied. The results were obtained in the form of heat maps, scan paths, task completion times, task performance ratings and the number of fixations on the object of interest. After analyzing the collected results, the following conclusions were drawn: the use of similar graphic symbols often confuses users; indirect access to accessibility tools generally makes it difficult for users to use them; the ill-conceived design of some page elements creates problems for content viewers; experimenting with the placement of some tools causes difficulty in finding them; a great deal of confusion on websites is introduced by unusual names, links, menu options; a large amount of content and the lack of prominence of what is most important cause problems in finding the right information; the lack of captioning of graphics often causes users to have to think longer and check if what they want to use is the right option; placing an item/information at the bottom of the page generally extends the time to reach it.