Advanced Mobility and Transport Engineering

Chapter 5

Criteria and Methods for Interactive System Evaluation: Application to a Regulation Post in the Transport Domain ¹

5.1. Introduction

The evaluation of interactive systems and, more particularly, their human— machine interface (HMI), has been a recurring problem for the past 30 years. The evolution of interaction methods between user and machine, as well as the needs and specificities inherent in the evolution of information and communication sciences and technologies, systematically necessitates new criteria and methods for the evaluation of human—machine interactions. It has been shown that many users today have problems working with interactive systems, and that their needs are poorly analyzed, poorly perceived, insufficiently evaluated or not evaluated at all, and thus these systems do not always respond correctly to user needs.

In order to improve the quality of human—machine interactions, numerous studies have been conducted to evaluate interactive systems from several angles and perspectives. In this chapter, we will look most closely at Trabelsi and Tran [TRA 06, TRA 09] in order to present, in a representative but non-exhaustive manner, the most frequently cited, studied and/or currently used types of evaluation methods. Before beginning this presentation, we will first illustrate the principle of evaluation and the categories chosen for presentation.

We will then present a range of evaluation methods. These methods are divided into three main categories:

– methods ...