THE AVION
B4 RUx Corner The Riddle Ride-Around
Jessyca, Ameer, Devin, and Costas are graduate students in the Research in User eXperience (RUX) Lab in the Department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology. RUX investigates the usability and user experience of technology in our everyday world. It is a regular column that explores different technologies typically used by Embry-Riddle students. Jessyca Derby, Ameer Hosein, interviewed continued to use it Devin Kelley, & Costas Koufogazos after all these positive experiencGraduate Researchers es. Recently, ERAU introduced its new shuttle system for students living in off-campus locations. Three main shuttle routes run Monday-Friday 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. The "Eagle Landing Express" is on 10-minute loops and runs strictly between Eagle Landing and the Student Union Circle. The "Chanute Legacy" route is on a 30-minute loop and makes stops at Chanute and Legacy. The third and final route, the "Chanute Eagle Landing" route, is on a 20-minute loop and makes stops at Chanute and Eagle Landing. We believe the service was implemented to help control the increased demand for parking as a result of the increased number of students at the school. We wanted to dig a little deeper to find out more about the experience that students were having with the shuttle. We interviewed seven students who used the shuttle, all who have used the service more than once (some use it almost daily). Four of them use the new Chanute Legacy shuttle, while others used either the Eagle Landing Express or the Chanute Eagle Landing shuttle. Almost everyone mentioned that they started using the service to avoid “the fight” of parking on campus. As one person said, “If I drive, and have to find a parking spot, it takes 30-40 minutes to get to school, but the shuttle takes about 15 minutes.”
Image of the Legacy Chanute Shuttle
Shuttle Pickup at the Student Union Circle.
Once they nailed down the shuttle schedule by either looking on SGA’s website, hearing from a friend, receiving a flyer through their apartment, "trial and error" or "eyeballing it," they liked the
Photo Courtesy/Jessica Derby
Photo Courtesy/Jessica Derby
service. The draw to start using the service was to save time and avoid the hassles of parking. They found it very convenient, reliable, and easy to just jump on the shuttle and go. Most of those
Shuttle Times
Although these few issues did arise, it is reassuring to know that they are not regular issues and only come up every so often. To remedy this issue, some people said they’d like to be notified if a shuttle is full and will skip stops, or if there are any schedule changes. A useful way of doing this would be through the app that is being developed for the shuttle service and will be available in Spring 2020. Of the people who were interviewed, six out of seven said that they would use an app, especially if they could see the shuttles’ schedules, ETA, live map tracking, or notifications if there are any schedule changes. In general, people like the shuttle. They would enjoy seeing a few changes such as a shaded area near the pickup location on campus, more seats available for when the shuttles are busy, and introducing an app that will give a clear overview of the shuttle schedule and any changes. As one person said, "Overall, it is a good service, 7.5 out of 10, would use again.”
Eagle Express Orbit XX:00 Student Union XX:10 Eagle Landing XX:20 Student Union XX:30 Eagle Landing XX:40 Student Union XX:50 Eagle Landing Legacy/Chanute Orbit XX:00 Student Union XX:10 Legacy (1/2) XX:15 Legacy (2/2) XX:20 Chanute XX:30 Student Union XX:40 Legacy (1/2) XX:45 Legacy (2/2) XX:50 Chanute
Interested in the RUX Lab? The Research in User eXperience (RUX) investigates issues related to user experience and usability of software, products, and processes.
Chanute/Eagle Landing Orbit XX:00 Student Union XX:10 Chanute XX:15 Eagle Landing XX:20 Student Union XX:30 Chanute XX:35 Eagle Landing XX:40 Student Union XX:50 Chanute XX:55 Eagle Landing
Not every system is perfect, and a few people experienced some hiccups. One person at Eagle Landing said, "one day, when it was very busy, and there were a lot of people waiting for the shuttle, it could not take everyone," but it only happened once, and they haven't had any issues since. Others have had problems with the inconsistent pickup times. "I went to the pickup spot five minutes before the scheduled time, waited over 25 minutes for the shuttle, and it never arrived to pick me up. I guess they skipped a stop." This can be problematic, as another person pointed out that they've missed their classes due to inaccurate pickup times. Further, the Legacy Chanute route changed their pickup times and caused some temporary confusion.
The lab conducts research and provides consulting services to industry in many different areas. Contact Dr. Barbara S. Chaparro at 386-226-6100 or visit COAS 401.29 Image Courtesy/Jessica Derby
Flier seen on the Chanute Legacy Shuttle describing the route changes.