How To Push Ticket Button When Park Your Motorcycle — UX On Everyday Things

In Indonesia, a motorcycle is favourite today. In 2017, 113 million people use motorcycle (Source: BPS). I think this is a huge number. Can you imagine if many people driving and visit one place? That’s why every “usually visited” place like school, store, and mall have a parking lot. But, how to charge every parked? With that number, it’s not a good idea to do it manually. The better idea is using the barrier gate system.
One of the goals of this system is speed. The flow starts from you enter the place, get a ticket from the machine, and park your vehicle. But, this flow must fast because you’re not the only one that wants to park, right? So, it’ll be faster if the interface of the system easy to understand. Imagine if not, someone will struggle and make the flow slower, right? I used to be that ‘someone’ and that’s why I write this article.
The Incident
Like I said before, I used to be ‘someone’ that slow down the flow. It happens when I want to watch a movie in the mall. I enter the building and arrive in front of the gate. I know that I must push the ticket button then go. The ticket not coming up. I wonder why until the man behind me told me that I push the help button, not the ticket one. With shame, I push the ticket button, grab the ticket, and go.
Go to the place
I’m curious, am I the only one? Or is there someone else that face the same incident? To scratch my itchy, I go to the place and doing observation. First, let me introduce the place to you.

Here I am. Above is the place. There are two machines. Let’s called it machine A (left) and machine B (right). The difference between them is the position and the colour light of the ticket button.
The position

- Machine A: In the right of the street. The first nearest from arrival.
- Machine B: In the left of the street. The second nearest from arrival.
The Colour Light of The Ticket Button

- Machine A: Light off (like help button below it).
- Machine B: Green light on.
Observation
The goal of my observation is to know if the interface of the system (on the machine) already easy to understand and use. From this goal, I break down to two questions that must be answered.
- Is the interface already easy to understand and use?
- Is the difference between the two machines affect users’ behaviour?
To answer the questions and achieve the goal, let’s start the observation. How am I doing the observation? I just see people come and use the machine to get the ticket and go to park their vehicle. While that, I note which machine used and if people success or encountered some issue. I do that for 1 hour and this is the result.
Machine A
- User engagement: 17 people.
- 13 people, success get a ticket.
- 4 people face issues. 1 people push the help button accidentally, and 3 people almost push the help button.
Machine B
- User engagement: 42 people.
- 39 users success get a ticket.
- 3 people push the help button accidentally.
From that result, I find that the difference between machine A and B affect the users' behaviour. But, is the interface already easy to understand and use? I think it needs little changes to make it better.
Little improvement
Roll up the sleeves, let make little changes.
User engagement
Machine B has more user engagement than machine A. Why? User engagement related to the process when people choose the machine. From the arrival view, the only thing seems different only the position. The button not yet seen before people arrive in front of the machine. So, the position plays here. Here is a new position of machine A to improve it.

Fitts’s law said that the distance affects the time to acquire the target. People want the shortest time. So, people tend to choose machine B that the first nearest from arrival. If the position of machine A and B is aligned. I think user engagement of machine A will increase and equal to machine B.
Success rate
Although both machines have made people success get a ticket, few people still face issues. There are two kinds of issue that people face and happen on both machines.
- People push the help button.
- People almost push the help button.
I think if I can understand the issues and do the right improvement, I can increase the success rate. My first clue is the number of issues happen on both machine is different. Issue 1 most happen on machine B while issue 2 most happen on machine A. My second clue is the only different left beside the position. Yes, the colour light of the ticket button plays here.
Issue 1 most happen on machine B. Why? I try to understand it and find related theories. Let’s follow the people step while I explain it.

- People see two buttons. According to the similarity principle, the different colour of the buttons on machine B make people easy to understand that those buttons have a different function. But, at this step people not yet understand the function of each button.
- Follow the natural eye movement, people will see the green light button first because it’s more prominent. Next, the eye will see down naturally and find the label close with the button. According to the proximity principle, people tend to assume that close things have the same function.
- Supported by less contrast of the arrow with the background colour make blindness. At this step people sure that the label below the first button inform its function. Label says that “Hi, this button is a help button”. It’s not the button that people need.
- The only button left is the second button below. That makes people sure it’s a ticket button.
- Accidentally, people push the second button which is the help button.
Issue 2 most happen on machine A. Why? Like before, I have found the theories. Let’s follow the people step while I explain it.

- People see two buttons. According to the similarity principle, people assume that two buttons are the same.
- According to Fitts’s law, people tend to choose the shortest one first. So, their hand will move to the help button first.
- While moving their hand, actually people still think “Which is the ticket button?” because both are similar. This makes people get disfluency that lead them to more learning and slow down the decision to push the button.
- Slowly and carefully, people learn more about both buttons functions. They scan from top to bottom. See the label and arrow clearly. Finally, find the aha moment.
- People move their hand from the help button to the ticket button and push it.
After understanding the issues, I have enough fuel to run my idea generator. This is my idea to solve the issues. I hope I draw it clear enough.

Let me explain my idea.
- I put the distance between the help button and ticket button. It helps people know that both have a different function.
- I also keep the label close to the button. It helps people know about the function of the button that closes to it.
- I keep the ticket button light on green and add a background behind it to make it more prominent. It will take people attention easily.
- I also put the ticket button close to ticket generator. It will convince people that button will do something to the generator.
I hope my idea can be a solution to increase the success rate of the machine. But, all back to the people.
Take away
Hope my incident and creative mind give you something. Thanks for being part of my story. Here are take away for you.
- Get a ticket process will be faster if the interface of the system easy to understand.
- Because of my incident that faces issue while that process, I conduct observation to know if I’m not the only one.
- There two machines that I observe. People face issues and also have different behaviour toward each machine.
- User engagement and success rate are metrics that matter.
- I try to do little improvement to make the metrics better with the theories that I learn like Gestalt theory, Fitts’s law, and disfluency.
