HUMAN-FACTORS IN TECHNOLOGY REPLACEMENT - A CASE-STUDY IN INTERFACE DESIGN FOR A PUBLIC TRANSPORT MONITORING-SYSTEM

This paper describes ergonomic issues raised during a project to provi de a replacement real-tine bus route control system to a large public transport company, Task and system analyses highlighted several defici encies in the original system architecture, the human-machine interfac es and the general approach to system management, The eventual live pr ototype replaced the existing original system for a trial evaluation p eriod of several weeks, During this period a number of studies was con ducted with the system users in order to measure any improvements the new system, with its ergonomic features, produced over the old, Import antly, the results confirmed that (a) general responsiveness and servi ce quality were improved, and (b) users were more comfortable with the new design, We conclude with a number of caveats which we believe wil l be useful to any group addressing technology impact in a large organ isation. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.