Memory and Action Selection in Human-Machine Interaction

6A CCE Study: Slow Self-paced Navigation

With the focus of action selection processes involved in slow self-paced navigation, this chapter illustrates a case study that adopted the CCE methodology to investigate how elderly people use guide signs at train stations when they have to transfer lines, in addition to the use of facilities such as restrooms, lockers, elevators, telephones and so on. This study was sponsored by a train company in Japan and had the purpose of gaining insight for improving the usability of guide signs at train stations for elderly passengers (see Figure 6.1 for an example signboard).

6.1. Introduction: navigation in a train station by following signs¹

We would like to illustrate a train station navigation study to show how an actual CCE study was conducted. We were interested in how elderly passengers use guide signs at railway stations, such as the one shown in Figure 6.1, when they wanted to use facilities, e.g. toilets, coin-operated lockers, etc., or when they had to transfer to another line. In this chapter, the “know the users” problem that this book focuses on is treated as “know the passengers” problem. According to the CCE steps as shown in Figure 5.1, the study was conducted as follows:

1. – Step 1: at first, from the field observations, we realized that cognitive functions such as planning for searching something necessary at train stations, attention for selectively focusing on task relevant information from the environment and working memory ...