This documentation on the Itinerum™ Platform has been made possible thanks by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Connection Grants Program.
www.itinerum.ca itinerum@concordia.ca
Graphic Design: Hannah Materne & Stephane Lavoie
Welcome to Itinerum™. This guide will give you an overview of the uses of the Itinerum Mobile App and Web Platform so you can get started with your own smartphone travel survey. Let’s go!
TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: What is Itinerum™? Chapter 2: Why use Itinerum™? Chapter 3: Who should use Itinerum™? Chapter 4: The Itinerum™ Mobile App Chapter 5: The Itinerum™ Web Platform Permissions Survey Wizard & Prompts Statistics Participants GPS Points Data Management Settings
2 4 6 8 10 13 14 16 17 18 19 20
Chapter 1: What is Itinerum™? Itinerum™ is a web platform where users can create smartphone travel surveys with their own questions. It’s an easy-to-use online survey development software.
2
Itinerum™ was developed and is maintained by Concordia University’s TRIP Laboratory, and is used in collaboration with transportation planning authorities.
3
Chapter 2: Why use Itinerum™? Travel survey apps are increasingly used as a method for overcoming challenges with traditional travel survey collection methods, such as low participation from young people. Itinerum™ makes it easy to develop travel survey apps and access and manage the data.
4
6
Chapter 3: Who should use Itinerum™? Itinerum™ is for anyone who wants to analyze commuting and urban travel behaviour, including:
1. Transportation planning authorities (e.g. transit operators, ministries of transportation, etc.); 2. Academic researchers (e.g. faculty and students from civil engineering, urban planning, geography, health sciences); 3. Not-for-profits and community groups with a transportation focus
7
Chapter 4: The Itinerum™ Mobile App The Itinerum™ Mobile App records participant travel information and relays the data to administrator(s) to be analyzed.
The app requires little from participants. They just download and install Itinerum™ from either the Apple App Store or Android Apps on Google Play and complete a short set of questions. This includes inquiries on sociodemographics as well as frequent commutes.
8
Once participants have answered the questions, they keep the app running in the background. This is so they don’t have to turn Itinerum™ on or off, or upload the data. They can also be asked questions when they arrive at their destinations. The default page of the app is a map showing recent trip history. All efforts have been made to minimize effect on battery consumption and to protect respondent data.
9
Chapter 5: The Itinerum™ Web Platform The Itinerum™ Web Platform allows administrators to collect, modify, and process data from the the Itinerum™ Mobile App.
The idea is to allow researchers to create smartphone travel surveys without the need to program, deal with servers, etc. It’s available via standard desktop web browser and is optimized for Google Chrome.
10
The Itinerum™ Web Platform is split into six sections. For survey administrators and researchers, the next chapters go through the various parts of the Itinerum™ Web Platform.
11
Now you know the basics about the Itinerum™ Mobile App. Information hereafter concerns the Web Platform for survey administrators.
12
Permissions The Permissions section lets administrators control access to the Itinerum™ Web Platform (such as adding new researchers to a survey). Use the signup code to invite other researchers to view, manage and/or download survey data.
13
Survey Wizard & Prompts These sections are used to design queries and other interactions with participants.
Survey Wizard
is a drag-and-drop surveybuilding interface where administrators can add the questions asked to participants (i.e the short survey participants are asked to fill out upon download). Include any and all questions pertinent to the study. Administrators must also add ‘About’ and ‘Consent Form’ information here.
14
Prompts
is also a drag-and-drop building interface. Here, the administrator can prompt participants when they come to a stop (e.g. travel mode to destination). This allows administrators to better understand participant behaviour during
the course of the survey. In survey settings at the top righthand corner, the length of the survey (number of days) and the number of prompts a respondent is asked to respond to (number of prompts) can be parametrized.
15
Statistics The Statistics section provides a dashboard overview of the survey in question, including charts and statistics itemizing participant activity. Think of this section as the survey mission control center. Narrow the scope of the statistics presented by selecting the desired daily, weekly, or monthly period.
16
Participants The Participants section provides a searchable table of mobile participants and their survey responses. Check on the number of participants and their characteristics. The list of participants may be reorganized by category. The administrator can search participant information by keyword using the search bar.
17
GPS Points
The GPS Points section allows the administrator to visualize participant location data. As in the Itinerum™ App, the GPS Points map shows participants’ recent trip history. See the trips participants have made. Specify the start date and time as well as the end date and time of the period in question.
18
Data Management
In the Data Management section, the administrator can download survey data. This is also where the administrator can upload data useful to processing (such as subway station locations).
19
Settings The last section, Settings, is where Itinerum can be fine tuned. The administrator can adjust preferences, such as prompt or trip breaker settings. This is also where a survey can be reset.
20
We hope you enjoy Itinerum™ !
www.itinerum.ca itinerum@concordia.ca