What we did...
On Sep.21, 6 of us in the orange path went together to BART Civic Center station for a field observation. These are what we did that day:
Observed still elements of the BART system.
Observed how riders used the kiosks.
Tried using the kiosks to complete tasks on ourselves.
Helped customers who bumped into problems using the kiosk.
Conducted short interviews with kiosk users after they finished their tasks.
Conducted short interviews with riders on the train platform about their experience with the kiosks.
Talked with the station agent (who is really nice :D) about his job, his observations and chit-chat.
What we took away... A lot of photos (of interfaces, people, scenarios); videos of task flows; many notes and quotes; complaints, confusions + raising eyebrows.
Outputs...After we got home, we started organizing what we got and below is some highlights of our output:
1. List of elements* Wrapped hierarchically
2. User task flow
3. Hierarchy System Diagrams
4. Selected notes and quotes
Signage and wording:
"What does e-purse mean.." - Alissa.
"Why using 'upgrade' not 'charge' or 'top-up'?" - Me.
The sentence “To upgrade Clipper card e-purse” seems confusing to both non-native and native English speakers.
Card reader and instruction image use different point of view:
Interface:
After touching Clipper card to the disk to “upgrade Clipper card e-purse”, the man pressed “Subtract $1” very quickly 17 times to set “Amount to be charged/debited” to $3. This kind of phenomenon always resulted in long queues at the kiosk during peak hours. (Default top-up amount is $20, available options: “Change e-purse value”: Add $1 / Subtract $1 / Add 5¢ / Subtract 5¢.)
Agent’s story: The most common problem people come across with the kiosk is that they didn’t want to add that much money (the default $20) to their Clipper but failed to recognize there are “Subtract” buttons.
It is difficult/time consuming task to find out how much money you need to add if you don’t know how much the ticket costs to your destination. Have to look at 2 interfaces and merge the information. The ticket fare info is a sticker on the kiosk. Not integrated into the digital interface.
An old couple from India couldn’t read the instructions in English. Kept pressing “cancel” instead of printing the ticket. (A guess: "Cancel" was bold and in red).
The entire interface lacks visual hierarchy. All text is in same sans serif font with same type size. Only the print and cancel prompts have green and red color.
The most common problem people come across with the kiosk is that they didn’t want to add that much money (the default $20) to their Clipper but failed to recognize there are “Subtract” buttons.
Receipt & information security
Receipts fall off too quickly which is hard to recognize. Receipts piling up in the receipt box made it harder to identify your receipt.
One man approached the kiosk, tapping his Clipper to check the balance and left instantly, leaving the screen showing the balance of his Clipper. The girl queuing then proceeded and press “Cancel” button to start her own task.
Behavior based observations:
Agent at the service desk is the first person people turn to when bumping into problems. Most customers approached the desk with frustration or/and anger.
People are always on-the-go. No time to waste. Always in a rush
A software engineer said, “Everyone has smartphones and we don’t have time to use this kiosk everyday. It’s about time they introduce a Mobile App system to use the BART”.
For regular BART users, they are required to buy another Parking Permit to park their vehicle. One user said, “It would be helpful if I could add money to my parking permit at the kiosk itself.”
“Everyone has smartphones and we don’t have time to use this kiosk everyday. It’s about time they introduce a Mobile App system to use the BART”
“It would be helpful if I could add money to my parking permit at the kiosk itself.”
4. Sketches
4-Up user behavior sketch:
How people flow around the kiosk:
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