Now Indian Railways is not really concerned about usability, but they do some interesting things sometimes, which sometimes go bad, and sometimes good.
A recent example is when they started using a new standard for coach names. The earlier standard for naming A/C coaches was AS1, AS2 etc., which everybody understood. AS1 stood for A/C sleeper 1. The last time I was travelling, I was surprised to find the coach name as B2. Now this didn't convey anything. It also created apprehension that the system might have assigned a non-A/C coach against my reservation.
Thankfully, when the train finally came, I realized they've changed the standard!!!
The next surprise came when I was ready to sleep. I noticed there was an overhead lamp, and it had the seat numbers on it.
Its clear why they did this. People who get on at night don't disturb those who are sleeping. But how obvious is it that you have to stare straight up to read it? Maybe they just expect everybody to look up for help from dear God whenever they're confused, and VOILA!! :)
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Bad Usability on Rails?!
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3 comments:
Is Indian Railways adopting the US Immigration services' convention ;)?
Are the 2nd class non a/c compartments called H1 by any chance?
Kiran, There is a usability problem in the photo you have taken. There is no frame of reference. The viewer is not able to judge for himself if you have a valid point.
Nice analogy Sowmya..LOL.. :) :)
I see the problem Sunil. Took the photo when I was lying in my cramped side upper berth (UB is the abbreviation for those interested in Indian Railways abbreviation, or traveling to India :) ) as thats when I noticed it.
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