Assignment: Pick a piece of interactive technology in public, used by multiple people. Write down your assumptions as to how it’s used, and describe the context in which it’s being used. Watch people use it, preferably without them knowing they’re being observed. Take notes on how they use it, what they do differently, what appear to be the difficulties, what appear to be the easiest parts. Record what takes the longest, what takes the least amount of time, and how long the whole transaction takes. Consider how the readings from Norman and Crawford reflect on what you see.
For this assignment, I wanted to observe the subway fare gates. Mostly out of personal frustration, and to see if there are others who have the same problems as I do sometimes.
My biggest issue with these tollgates is that sometimes my swipe is not readable. I feel like there’s a certain pressure you need to swipe with, or maybe sometimes the swipe reader is broken. When I see a guard about it, they press a button to let me pass without swiping. When a guard is not present, I have to walk to a different entrance and repeat the process. When I’m in a rush and the line for the subway guard is too long, I just bite the bullet and buy a new ticket.
I observed the subway gates for about five minutes. At least three people had to swipe more than two times until their card was read. The traffic was backed up when a woman approached the gate and had to dig through her purse to find the ticket. People are also exiting through these gates, which creates a side-step dance pattern (like when you see a person coming down the hall and you step right to get out of their way and they also step to your right to get out of your way, and then you see them step to your right and you step to their left, and they do the same). A handful of people, from afar, looked like they were not sure which way to swipe the card.
It’s easy though, when swipes do go through– all you have to do is walk through the turnstile. In some other areas, they have the turnstile and also a door so people can’t jump over the turnstile. With that said, it’s also very easy to enter without paying. I saw one lady duck under the turnstile, right in front of the subway guard.
It’d be nice if, instead of swiping our card, it could detect it with RFID. Swiping cards is somewhat difficult because speed and pressure are factored in in some cases. You also have to pause to check that the stripe is facing the right way. Also if it were an RFID, people can throw their bags over the sensor, and not have to dig through their purses or wonder if they are swiping the correct face.
Also I think turnstiles should be one-way only, and there should be a bigger portal for exiting passengers.