摘要: |
Interactive kiosk technology has improved to the point where kiosks can be made acceptable to users, in both speed and ease of use, and their cost is no longer prohibitive. It is not surprising then, that many public agencies are taking advantage of this new communication method to disseminate vital information to the public. However, there are many unknowns for the agency that wishes to install these devices -- exactly what technology to use, where to locate the kiosks, and what information should be presented and how. These factors make it difficult for an agency to simply order and install kiosks. Therefore, a study was undertaken by the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) for the Metro-Dade (Miami) Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to carefully examine past kiosk experiences with the goal of determining common pitfalls to avoid, and keys to making a project successful. A thorough literature review revealed many active and recently completed kiosk projects across the U.S. This literature search was followed by telephone interviews, and two site visits, in order to obtain in depth information on many of the projects. Highlights of the information collected are presented in this paper. Additionally, this paper, and the research on which it is based, has a unique slant in that it focused both on transportation and tourist information. Many projects have focused solely on transportation information, but few have looked closely at communicating tourist information. |