It’s around 1 o’clock in the afternoon of a busy, hot summer day in Manila. I need to go back home but don’t want to waste my time battling the traffic in EDSA specially since it’s a Friday. After drinking a glass of sago’t gulaman, I decided that the best way to avoid traffic is by taking a train in LRT-1.
I arrived at the station and saw that there are two lines at the super secure* inspection gates. It’s been a long time since I last rode the LRT so I just decided to line up in the left gate. When I was already near the gate, I noticed the sign on top of it and since my eyesight is not that good, that’s the only time I’m able to read what’s written on it.
Apparently, the left queue are for those who already have tickets and the right one was for those who don’t have tickets yet or need to reload their tickets. I was pissed and took the photo above before going back to line up at the right (punny) queue.
Yes, people who are always riding the LRT already know about the queueing system but just like what my previous projects taught me, you should always design for the extremes.That means before putting up the sign, you should consider the people who are riding it for the first time specially if those people happen to have poor eyesights. — like I said, extremes. Doing so will avoid people who might disrupt the flow of the short-tempered lines of humans all rushing to go home.
So let’s dissect the signs. What went wrong?
- COLOR: At first glance, they look the same because of the color patterns. They don’t give an impression that each line serves a different group of people.
- FONT: The font size is too small, they are not poor-eyesight friendly.
- CONTENT: There’s too much words. People tend to not pay attention to long sentences.
So how can we improve it? I’m proposing this simple design to DOTC that can be used to replace the previous signs.
- COLOR: I based the color pattern from the previous one but instead of mixing them up, I used one color per sign for better distinction between the queues.
- FONT: I made the font bigger for better readability and used Helvetica Neue for familiarity.
- CONTENT: This one’s a little tricky, I used English instead of Tagalog since English is our second language and if you’re a foreigner (again designing for the extremes) you’ll understand English better. I decided to use TICKETS instead of BEEP CARDS because the term TICKETS is generally understood across nations as something you need to ride the train.
Hopefully DOTC or the LRT-1 management consider this simple and cheap improvement that can easily be implement. :)
- does poking your bags using a wooden stick counts as super secure?
Thanks!
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DESIGN
Dear COMELEC, may I suggest a simple suggestion?
I noticed the sign but in a different way.
MUSINGS
