(T)errible user interface <-- HAHAH!!

[prog]

I finally used cash to buy a Charlie Card last night, since they're finally converting Porter Square. (In the past, I've just traded tokens for single-use tickets.)

It took a long time before I realized that the ticket machine won't take your cash bills until you press a button located nowhere near the bill feed telling it that you would like to give it some cash.

That's jaw-droppingly bad UI along multiple axes.

(a) The feed serves no purpose other than taking your money. It does not need to be modal. It is safe to assume that a customer will not insert money unless they wish to buy something. Instead of refusing the money, it should graciously accept it and then enter a dialog with the customer about what they would like to buy.

(b) For every bill-accepting vending machine that I've ever seen, the way you initiate a transaction is feeding it some dough. There are decades of UI tradition in play here; it's what people expect. If you, as a machine, act differently, customers will assume you are broken. As did I. Only when I stepped back and looked for other options did I notice the instructions telling me to poke the screen first.

After finally buying a hot new card, I proceeded to try feeding it through the turnstile, where it made a farting noise, and an integral screen lit up with a message telling me to re-insert it. So I did. Fart. OK, turnstile broken! Try next one over. Fart. WTF? Oh, I see, I'm putting the card in upside-down, because the up-side is clearly the plain white one with a large orange arrow on it, and not the colorful one with three small black arrows on it. Folks, I can understand the cost savings of not putting a strip reader on both sides of the slot, but would it have killed you to clearly print which side was up? (And which side was down?)

Ugh... what a disaster.

radiotelescope adds that the turnstiles, if they drain your ticket of the last of its funds, will hand it back to you anyway. Other cities' subways will chew up a newly empty ticket, say THANK YOU and let you through. Our city's subway, on the other hand, is destined to have a floor littered with dead tickets.

I take it back if the machines give you a bonus for recharging a ticket, like (for example) the LAUNDR-O-MAT does with its cash cards. Otherwise, why would anyone want to bother recharging an empty ticket when it's easier to just buy a new one?

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

the tickets don't even tell you how much you have remaining. Or has that changed?

the whole changeover has been one big pile of fucked up. And my monthly T pass will go up like 50%. I'll get "free bus transfers" with it, but that just means I don't have the option to buy a subway only pass anymore.

Grr.

[prog.livejournal.com]

No they don't tell you that! Z mentioned this too and showed me a DC Metro ticket which stamped a new value on every time it passed through a reader. I guess I haven't used the new system long enough yet to get annoyed at this.

Monthly passes are more expensive too?! Gaagh

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

The screens do tell you how much you have remaining, I think. Or at least the ones I've seen do. But they don't stamp it on the ticket.

[prog.livejournal.com]

This is correct of the screens, but in the likely future event that I shall be the owner of multiple tickets, I won't know upon arrival which (if any!) carry sufficient funds to buy my way through the gate. Nothing to do but stick them in serially until one works... or none work and I have to go over to the ticket machine again. Barf!