Development of human factors design guidelines for advanced traveler information systems (ATIS)

Past research has established that human factors guidelines following traditional formats for presenting information are not useful and are often ignored by designers. Within the human factors community, there is considerable uncertainty and concern regarding the nature and utility of human factors handbooks and guidelines materials. The objective of this paper is to describe and discuss three critical issues associated with the development of human factors design guidelines for advanced traveler information systems (ATIS). These three issues are: (1) the lack of human factors design criteria; (2) developing selection criteria for data sources used to produce guidelines; and (3) variability in the user population of human factors design guidelines. Within the context of these issues, some of the limitations, trade-offs, constraints, and options associated with the development of human factors design guidelines for ATIS are presented.