Operation of Public Transportation Ticket Vending Machine in Kraków, Poland: An Eye Tracking Study

Anton Pashkevich, Andrzej Szarata, Tomasz E. Burghardt, Rafał Jaremski and Matúš Šucha
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Anton Pashkevich: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Politechnika Krakowska, 31-155 Kraków, Poland
Andrzej Szarata: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Politechnika Krakowska, 31-155 Kraków, Poland
Tomasz E. Burghardt: M. Swarovski GmbH, Industriestraße 10, 3300 Amstetten, Austria
Rafał Jaremski: Faculty of Civil Engineering, Politechnika Krakowska, 31-155 Kraków, Poland
Matúš Šucha: Faculty of Arts, Palacký University Olomouc, Křížkovského 511/8, 771 47 Olomouc, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 14, 1-15

Abstract: Whereas the majority of evaluations of self-service kiosks are based on interviews or observations and as such are burdened with personal bias, eye tracking was seen as a method for an objective analysis. To demonstrate the feasibility and usability of such an assessment technique, the task of purchasing a public transportation ticket from a modern ticket vending machine in Kraków, Poland was evaluated. The test participants relatively easily operated the machine with time taken to purchase a ticket ranging from 54 s for foreigners not familiar with the equipment to 29 s for local inhabitants. Even though the number of gazes recorded for the foreigners group was 2.4 times higher than for the local test participants, the fixation times were almost equal. Faulty or delayed operation of the payment terminal was a meaningful equipment issue encountered by eight test participants. The study demonstrated that the operation of the analysed ticket vending machine should not cause much trouble to anyone. The use of an eye tracker, which was employed for such an assessment for the first time, permitted the identification of possible operational ambiguities that could hinder the user experience without the bias associated with other assessment techniques. The used method was found to be efficient and the results provided valuable information.

Keywords: self-service kiosk; ticket purchase; tourism; point-of-sale; visual guidance; equipment fault; human error; gazes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:7921-:d:594974

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