Having a Smarter City through Digital Urban Interfaces: An Evaluation Method

This paper appraises a tool developed to evaluate user experiences of urban digital interfaces. The authors propose an evaluation method that uses 14 guidelines to analyze questions pertaining to efficiency, assistance and instructions, content structure, resemblance to reality, feedback interface, visual design, cognitive processes, internationalization, and perceptive access. The proposed tool serves to identify obstacles that once identified can then be tackled and resolved in the design phase. Addressing obstacles in the design phase serves to prevent the creation of inefficient interfaces that would lead to poor user experiences, or, likewise, the rejection of these interfaces by users. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed guidelines in a real-world environment a field study has been conducted in which eight urban interfaces located in different cities and countries were observed. The study reveals the issues typically encountered by users that prevent them from having satisfactory or enjoyable experiences when using digital urban interfaces. The paper concludes by identifying and discussing areas of opportunity for further research and improvements to the proposed guidelines.