Chapter 26: Electronic Instrument Design and User Interfaces: Synthesis of a Workshop

The field of electronic user interfaces has seen a dramatic shift in the last 15 years. Timmermans and Hato in the preceding chapter provide a quick review including the use by Ettema et al. of MS-DOS for a computer-assisted tool for an activity diary called MAGIC in the early 1990s. Then, in 1995, the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration conducted a pilot project using GPS with a handheld Sony computer with a touch-screen interface. The proliferation of Microsoft Windows, Apple interfaces (both on personal computers and with iPhones), WiFi-enabled laptops for widespread Internet access, market penetration of mobile phones and, particularly, GPS-enabled mobile phones have made this a rapidly changing (and fun) environment. Electronic tools and advanced applications that travel survey researchers have used recently include: