Taking my first shot at UX
3 Good Designs:
#1 Appealing to Emotions

The label “Reserved Seat” makes it clear to train passengers that this seat could only be used by certain, intended users. The poster right above the seat further illustrates who these users are: (1) handicapped/injured, (2) parents with young infants/toddlers, (3) elderly and (4) pregnant mothers. The crafting of the headline message “Show You Care” also appeals emotionally to train passengers to spare a thought for other more needy users, even bordering on the line of guilt-tripping.
#2 Clear Illustrations

With the proliferation of the sharing economy, there has been a variety of sharing apps made available in Singapore. One such example is the stationless bike-sharing app, oBike. As there are no specific points for users to pick up and drop off these shared bicycles, it has been a growing issue where users park these bicycles at inappropriate places, thus obstructing human traffic. One solution, as shown above, is to explicitly mark out designated parking areas at probable locations where users would stop using the bicycles. The area above is at a HDB void deck, where it could be assumed that users would use the shared bicycles to get home before dropping them off somewhere convenient. The yellow box naturally signals that this is an area to be cordoned off, while the graphic illustration of a bicycle explicitly shows the intended vehicle to be parked.
#3 Where’s My Bus?


The mobile app, SG Buses, provides a seamless and intuitive experience for users to discover their nearest modes and frequency of public transport.
When opening the app, the screen immediately displays the various bus stops that are geographically close to the user. The user could click into one of the listed bus stops to find out which buses pass by and their expected arrival timings. By providing 2 to 3 forecasted timings, it also allows the user to plan his schedule if he has other plans before catching one of the buses at a later timing. The colouring system of the numbers and words also signal how crowded the buses are: (1) white means the bus is not crowded, (2) orange shows the bus is relatively crowded, where passengers may not be able to get a seat and (3) red signals the bus is really crowded where passengers may not be able to get on. The usage of orange and red matches with the “traffic light” conceptual model most users would have in mind, where red indicates stop, while amber or orange represents caution.


The search function on the app also allows users to find particular buses, bus stops, roads and stop numbers in mind. As shown in the righthand picture above, the app automatically displays relevant search results after a single prompt in the search bar of the “1” digit. This display of relevant results as users are typing in the search bar helps to cut down the time taken and unnecessary hassle.
3 Bad Designs:
#1 Up or Down?

The direction of the escalators makes it hard for the people who are entering and leaving the underpass.
On the right side of the picture is an unseen exit (after the stairs landing) where people would leave the walkway to cross the road. By placing the down escalator on the right side, people who want to enter the underpass would bump into others exiting and heading towards the exit. The walking paths clash as people prefer taking shortcuts and would cut across the walkway diagonally (even before reaching the steps) to use the exit.
Swapping the directions of the escalators would actually make life easier for everyone. People who are exiting the underpass have 2 choices of movement: (1) to head straight (2) to cut diagonally across to the exit. However, people entering the walkway only have 1 destination, which is to use the escalators to reach the underpass. Changing the directions would thus prevent any unnecessary obstruction of movement for users of both sides of the escalators.
#2 PayNow, PaySlow or PayWhen?


Banks in Singapore have launched a new system where consumers can now send money to registered users with either their mobile or NRIC numbers. Sounds like a good idea? Definitely, but the design of a local bank’s mobile app could be further improved to make the process more fuss-free.
When users select the option to pay via the mobile number, a next screen appears to search for a “mobile number”. On first sight of the “search tool” icon, I’ve assumed the screen would lead me to my phone’s contact book to find the mobile number linked to the person I’m planning to send money to. However, the screen’s purpose is to actually search the database if a particular mobile number is registered for PayNow usage. This creates much hassle for the user as one usually does not remember phone or mobile numbers these days. By syncing up the contacts with the app, it would cut down on the time taken and frustration to switch screens back and forth to manually find the mobile number and paste into the bar.

After the process, the user receives a SMS acknowledging that the money has been transferred to the intended person. However, there is no similar message triggered to the recipient of the funds transfer. The sender would need to manually alert the recipient and the recipient would then log into his or her account to verify the transaction. The process could be made more seamless by providing an option to the sender at the end to trigger an automatic message to the recipient.
#3 Where do I start my trip?

The Google Trips app is an electronic travel planner, which aims to help users organise their travel information, find places to visit and things to do in their holiday destination(s).


By clicking into the “Day plans” section, a user could explore suggested itineraries or create a new travel plan for his vacation. The main issue lies with creating a new itinerary from scratch. If a user plans to visit a particular country for his holiday destination, it could be assumed that he has never visited that country before. By starting the first screen of itinerary creation with a zoomed out map of the country, the app expects the user to immediately identify his places of interest by their geographical locations using the blue indicators. This creates a lot of hassle for the user where he has to spend some time clicking around the map to find his desired destinations on a trial and error basis.
It may be a better approach to sync the functionalities of “Google Maps” into this app to allow users to search for landmarks, restaurants or hotel accommodations by their names, instead of blindly pressing around on a map with no visible street names.
