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Id 2751
Author Birrell S.; Payre W.; Zdanowicz K.; Herriotts P.
Title Urban air mobility infrastructure design: Using virtual reality to capture user experience within the world's first urban airport
Reference

Birrell S.; Payre W.; Zdanowicz K.; Herriotts P. Urban air mobility infrastructure design: Using virtual reality to capture user experience within the world's first urban airport,Applied Ergonomics 105

Keywords Air mobility; Airports; Data visualization; Urban transportation; User centered design; Design-process; Gain insight; Human factors research; Infrastructure design; Mobility infrastructure; Physical environments; Transport infrastructure; Urban air; Urban air mobility; Users' experiences; adult; air transportation; Article; aviation; customer satisfaction; empirical research; female; human; human experiment; male; normal human; personal experience; process design; quantitative study; simulated flight; unmanned aerial vehicle; urban air mobility; urban area; virtual reality; Virtual reality
Link to article https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85133857741&doi=10.1016%2fj.apergo.2022.103843&partnerID=40&md5=745ffad6f46b488966fe44ecb2c270b7
Abstract Human factors research can play an important role in the successful design of infrastructure to support future mobility. Through engaging users and stakeholders early in the design process we can gain insights before the physical environments are built. This paper presents data from a truly novel application of Virtual Reality (VR), where user experience and wayfinding were evaluated within an emerging future transport infrastructure to support urban air mobility (UAM) – the urban airport (aka vertiports). Urban airports are located in city centres where drones or ‘flying cars’ would land and take off from. Previous quantitative studies have investigated passenger experience in traditional airports using field observation and surveys, but this paper is the first to present qualitative research on user experience in this emerging mobility infrastructure using an immersive VR environment. Twenty participants completed a series of six scenarios aimed at understanding customer ‘exciters’ and ‘pain points’ within an urban airport. Results and recommendations from this empirical research will help inform the design of all future mobility infrastructure solutions, through improving user experience before the infrastructure is physically deployed. Finally, this paper highlights the benefits of engaging users at an early stage of the design process to ensure that future transport infrastructure will be accessible, easy to navigate and a pleasure to use. © 2022 The Authors

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DOI 10.1016/j.apergo.2022.103843
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