Not just the ticket

It is sad to see that the last of the old ticket vending machines at Reading are being removed. Although even I can avoid being emotional over the loss of a ticket machine the truth is that the replacements are in some respects considerably inferior. From the software point of view, there is the decision to use an alphabetic rather than querty keyboard layout. Whatever its faults, to anybody who uses a keyboard the querty layout is far more familiar; I would guess the alphabetic layout is there because it means the ‘keys’ can be really big. I will accept that those who are fleet of vision should learn another skill if it means that those less able to see can use the keys, but I do wonder whether there was any user testing done, or if the mantra was simply ‘as big as will fit all 26 letters on the screen’.

The second thing that is bad – and much harder to fix – is the position of the card reader screen. It’s about four foot up and points directly forward. The rather dim liquid crystal display is behind reflective glass. If your eyes are four foot above ground, it is perfect. For the rest of us, it's very difficult to use. This is seemingly in direct contradiction of the spirit of that giant virtual keyboard on the main screen. And why can’t the messages from the card reader be shown there instead – why is a second screen needed?