We live in a fantastic time of technical and design innovation. With devices and services that do more and more with each passing day and are easier and easier to use with each iteration, it seems there is a premium in making things easier to use. But it just takes a quick walk around the real world to see that a lot of this innovation has yet to spill over. It feels like we have a long way to go when you stop and look around and realize just how difficult the real world is to use.
I travel down to LA once a week to work in the office and every time I do, I take the Caltrain to SFO. I hop on my train at 5 in the morning, make it to the airport with just enough time to make it through security and hop onto my plane. And then on the way back home, there I am on the Caltrain again.
Every single train ride, I’m presented with this:
Instead of the emergency exit information instructions being arranged in order, it hops from 3 -> 1 -> 2. And every single time I see it, I wonder why the instructions are laid out in this illogical fashion. But it’s not just these instructions that are illogically designed. Every where you look, the world is riddled with these kinds of usability quirks.
On my weekly commute to LA, there are numerous examples of these design errors:
1. Ticket machines with instructions and interface buttons placed seemingly at random on the front of the machine.
2. The handwritten sign in sharpie taped to the side of the train station wall that explains which platform serves which train.
3. The handwritten sign taped to the exit indicating where to insert your ticket into the turnstile in order to exit.
4. The same sign explaining where to get your ticket back to exit, sometimes in the front of the turnstile, sometimes on top, with the choice appearing to be random.
5. The scrolling sign which sometimes informs you which direction the train is headed but just as often displays the latest news about that one event in that one town you don’t care about.
6. After exiting the train, the lack of a sign letting you know which way to exit to head to the terminal.
This is to say nothing of the security lines run by the TSA, with line dividers apparently setup at random, color coded lines where no one understands the color code, and the lack of instructions on which line to enter at what time.
And that is just my hourlong commute to the airport.
Every day we are confronted with illogical, confusing design, and it adds up. Every sign that tells you to go the wrong way and you miss your train. Every freeway exit with a poorly designed exit sign forcing you to pass your exit. Every door that obscures whether or not you push or pull causing you to run your face into the door. All of it affects your mood and even your decision making.
Each offense is a small irritation, but taken together, they compound into a very real headache. And it seems that its not due to lack of talent or ability, but rather due to a lack of thoughtfulness. Instead of taking the time upfront to figure out how to design something to be easier to use or understand, the details are glossed over and it results in a sub-optimum solution.
All it takes is just a second of thoughtfulness and it changes everything.