User Experience of Taiwan Railway Ticket Vending Machine

Abstract

Since its inception, the Taiwan Railway Ticket Vending Machine (TRA-TVM) has been used only by a few people because of its complex functions. Meanwhile, the Taiwan Railway ticket offices always have long queues. In light of this phenomenon, the Taiwan Railways Administration has released a new system in 2021. This study aims to determine whether the new system can meet users' needs to achieve an entirely self-service ticketing process.This study evaluated the usability, user psychology, and behavior of the TRA-TVM. Participants with different levels of self-efficacy (SE) were selected before the test. The sample consisted of 36 participants (16 males and 20 females) who didn't use the TRA-TVM before. In addition, the whole test was executed online. Conducted the evaluation as follows: (1) Filled out the questionnaires and finished the function sort of the TRA-TVM before the tasks to understand the participants' thoughts and past experiences. (2) Participants were asked to operate three tasks, one of which was related to the hardware interaction of the system. (3) At the end of each task, participants had a semi-structured interview to clarify how they operated during the task. (4) When finishing all the tasks, participants need to complete the QUIS and SUS questionnaires to indicate their evaluation of what they felt about this system.The results show a high error rate in the initial operation stage for the subjects when selecting the ticketing method and when customizing the station or the time of arrival and departure. The participants' performance showed that users made more errors in purchasing tickets than in operating other system functions and found that there is no absolute relationship between the level of SE and operational performance. Only in the "Ticket Refund(Q6)" function found a significant difference between the participants' SE and the number of errors. Those with high self-efficacy (HSE) had a significantly higher error rate for the refund function than those with low self-efficacy (LSE). In the semi-structured interview, HSE mentioned that they were unnoticed the feedback on the system and therefore were not sure how to operate it. Overall, the most often mentioned problem was "Confused," like the order of the ticketing process and the logic of the operation. For example, some participants felt that the function of "Seats Left(Q2)" shouldn't be included as a ticketing method when purchasing a ticket. Or the current operational logic made it impossible for participants to understand that they couldn't use "Express Ticket Purchase" or "Non-Reserved Trains" to purchase an unreserved ticket with a bicycle. In addition, the users' initial mental model may cause the user to make poor decisions and may even intensify or reduce the users' feelings during the process. Future optimization of the system should be prioritized at two stages, namely the selection of the ticketing method and the customizing station or time of arrival and departure. These findings could be used to improve the user experience in the future, allowing users to have a better experience during the ticketing process.