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Comment on A Better BART Kiosk Interface

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Despite being told it wasn't a touchscreen I tried to click on individual stations on the map multiple times. People are focused on the station they want to go to; if you show it to them, it's going to be staticky for them to figure out they have to focus on something else.

The user interaction analysis on the page points out that people in transit stations don't have the same preconception about interface. In a noisy, dirty, worn out environment, people presented with a durable looking machine with shiny labeled buttons tend to use the buttons and not the screen.

I agree, using it on the internet I kept clicking on the "screen" instead of using the buttons.

Though, I do find myself occasionally futilely poking at ATM and gas-station screens that were made years before touch-screens became common.

But why break the already-established custom of big black arrows that point at the buttons every time you need to use one? I barely even saw the letters on the map.

It sure beats stopping to find and then read the list of stations and fares printed in 8 point type on a sticker that is attached to a random spot on the front of the machine. Great work, but I'm not hopeful about it getting past the lardass bureaucrat brigade.

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