“Invitation to the voyage”: The design of tactile metaphors to fulfill occasional travelers´ needs in transportation networks

In spite of the availability of journey planners, too many occasional travellers are distressed when facing the complexity of public transportation networks in large cities. So are regular travellers in case of unexpected perturbations. The haptic modality offers a discrete, eyes-free and ear-free channel of communication that can provide useful information to assist users in their travel. This paper presents the metaphor-based and user-centric methodology used to develop the haptic interaction (hardware and haptic patterns). It led to the design of haptic patterns based on user requirements and tested with a custom tactile wrist bracelet. The evaluation shows that patterns were very well recognized in mobility with limited training and reached a good satisfaction level, thus validating the methodology grounded on metaphors and participatory design. Moreover, the results pointed out user differences in perceiving patterns and raised the need to tune the patterns according to the users´ choice.