Real World Usability

This is a post on usability - in the "real world" - which may become something of a series.

The subject today is a ticket vending machine - not super exciting, but it's a a new model being rolled out in south east Queensland, so could be considered topical.

First, a picture:



Mmmm, what ever could be a problem with this shiny new design.

Well. A few things unfortunately. Let's see.

1. the coin slot. There's not enough room for a right handed person to insert coins, without constantly scraping them up against the side of the machine. Why?
   
   
   
   
2. the "ticket/change/receipt" hopper is too low. I understand that the machine needs to cater for people of all heights, including wheelchair access - but this is just too low. It requires constant stooping to fetch change and tickets.
   
3. the touch screen. I'm not sure where to start with this one, since there are so many aspects ...
   
   1. the responsiveness (or lack of). there's a lag in the response - so that after you've pressed a soft button, you're not really sure if it's really pressed or not
   
   
   2. the angle - unless your eyes happen to be perpendicular to the screen, your screen presses will be off the mark - it seems that there is enough of a gap between the surface of the touch screen, and the actual LCD screen that this is a real problem.

Then there's the interaction flow. The series of screens you have to wade through to get a ticket is just plain cumbersome. Some issues are:

1. To select a destination station, you need to go through a multi level alphabetical menu, or select from a "map". The map isn't too bad, but in combination with the "angle" problem, it's a little hard to use as well.


2. There are no direct keys for common stations


3. why not allow a one touch "daily to Central" from suburban machines?

I realise that these concerns will not be as prevalent once the smartcard side of things is operational (since most commuters will just use them to top up the value on their cards) - but they will still be relevant for paper tickets.

A little bit of research shows that these machines aren't a one off design for Translink - they're a customized version of an existing design which goes by the name of "Universal Vendor 1000". I wonder how much usability testing they did?