Usability Evaluation of a Dutch Multimodal System for Train Timetable Information

In the MATIS project a multimodal system has been developed for train timetable information. The aim of the project was to obtain guidelines for designing multimodal interfaces for information systems. The MATIS system accepts input both in spoken and in graphical mode (no keyboard input) and provides feedback in the same two modes. The user can choose at any time which of the input modalities (s)he prefers to use for a certain action. A user test was carried out in which 25 subjects were asked to evaluate the system. For comparison, users were also asked to test a GUI (Graphical User Interface) version of the train timetable information system as well as a speech-only version of the system. We measured the efficiency and the effectiveness of the interaction and the user satisfaction with all three systems.