Influence of simulated physical ageing on heuristic evaluation in airport environments

Abstract

This thesis suggests a new approach for the heuristic evaluation of an airport environment by using simulated physical ageing. A task-based heuristic evaluation method was conducted with the eight evaluators who were professionally working as architects and interior architects. A real airport environment was selected as the experiment building where the evaluators performed task scenarios in line with the real airport experiences of passengers. Four evaluators wore GERT suit and four evaluators did not wear GERT suit to analyze the influence of simulated physical ageing. According to the results, the findings indicated that GERT suit enabled a better inspection of usability of an airport environment, an increased level of physical performance difficulty and enhanced empathy towards elderly people.