The UX Critic: SoundTransit – Exit on your right. No, your other right.

In the mid 90’s, I spent a lot of time using all forms of mass transit in Europe. I can’t tell you how many times in Germany I heard the phrase telling passengers to be careful while boarding, the doors close automatically. The choice few words varied by country and for some reason the phrases have always interested me. It’s somewhat like a call to action on a website – you’ve got just a sentence or two where people are going to pay attention, so you choose your words with great care.

I don’t ride light rail in the US very often. In the Seattle area, it’s fairly new. Recently I was on the SoundTransit light rail system and was comparing it to my experiences in Europe.

The first issue was pointed out by visitors who were confused as to what stop they needed. I didn’t notice this at first, and then a local pointed out to them the sign listing the stops was backwards. The train travels North and South. The graphic they used on the West side of the train was the same as the one on the East side of the train. This is the first time I’ve ever run across a train or light rail map on a car that was not reversed based on which side of the train car it’s on.

Tip #1: Light rail station maps should have correct left & right orientation. For example, if the train is going to the right as the user is looking on the map, then the next stop on the map should be the one to the right of the previous stop.

That one is so painfully obvious, I’m disappointed I have to mention it. SoundTransit does show stops in different order on their website, depending on the direction of the route.

map_clink_nbound map_clink_sbound Continue reading

The UX Critic: Instagram Notification – You have unseen notifications

The first time I saw this on my android phone, I thought “wait a second, you’re notifying me of a notification… why not just show me the notification?” I’m not alone. If you haven’t seen it, here’s what it looks like.

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Jack Nichols Photography

I obviously don’t read my own blog that often. For a while I was lucky if I posted once a month. Some categories have clearly seen more posts. Clicking through the navigation, I realized this People section hasn’t seen a new post in eight years. I put this here to showcase cool things from people I know. Give me a little slack, Facebook did take off after I started this…

Anyway, because it’s his birthday and he recently setup a Facebook Page, I wanted to showcase Jack Nichols Photography. I do have some friends that are full time photographers. They do amazing work. Jack is a software engineer, and I always think it’s cool when very technically minded people create great visual work – be it video, painting or photography. Here’s some samples.

 

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The UX Critic: Alaska Air Inflight Entertainment

For this inaugural edition of The UX Critic, I’m going to show how Alaska Air could do a little better with their inflight entertainment. And by “a little better” I mean “actually useful”. Earlier in the year I took two trips with them, and neither time was I able to get their service to work. The second time was even more irritating because I already knew of one of the blockers to the system.

Part of the reason I’m picking Alaska Air for the first critique is that I really like them. There’s a few airlines I actively avoid. In May this year I actually paid quite a bit more to fly with Alaska – partially because the whole family was going, including my two & six year old kids. Having traveled often for business, I knew Alaska’s service could easily make the flight be enjoyable while other airlines have proven to me a track record to the contrary.

Alaska Air is always improving. I hope this critique will help them continue the pattern of great service. Continue reading