It’s fixed in Hong Kong!
We spent the last week in Hong Kong, attending the RISE conference, seeing friends, colleges and customers. It was amazing, Hong Kong is big, crowded, complex and exciting. But above all, it’s different from our everyday environment, so it was much easier to pay attention to broken/unbroken things. Let’s focus on the unbroken things we found in Hong Kong:
Vending Machines
What’s so exciting about a vending machine and how can they be broken? This is the vending machine we use in the Western world. It’s a transparent fridge packed with different kind of soft drinks or snacks. What’s broken about it?

Take a look at the Hong Kong version and you’ll understand…

So simple. As a user, you don’t really care how many cans there are in the machine. As long as there is one more left, you’ll be able to complete the task you came to do (buy a cold drink and escape for few moments from the Hong Kong heat). By displaying only one (or two) item of each product, we’re reducing visual noise / cognitive, making it easier to scan the products and creating a whole experience that is much more user friendly.
Multi Levels Streets
The streets in Hong Kong are a complex intertwined under, above and across paths. There are many bridges and paths only for pedestrian. Also, lots of the paths are covered (as you can see below) and most of the buildings have a canopy as a prominent design element.

The section I created below describes all these spacial options that are the result of two conditions: the weather and the number of people. First, the weather — it’s hot and humid in Hong Kong. When it’s not humid, it’s raining, so it only makes sense to design the streets to accommodate for these conditions. People want to protect themselves from both rain and sun — the canopies and the shaded paths are a great solution.

The second constraint is the number of people — there are lots of people in Hong Kong, 7 million to be more accurate…same as in all of Israel. That means the streets are packed with people, day and night. Having this amount of people walking the street level means having wider sidewalks and traffic hazards. Instead, having pedestrian paths in multi levels create safer areas for people and places that human activity can take place.
Don’t Make Me Think
Have you figured out the big mystery of every train ride — “on which side will the train doors open”? In Israel this mystery has yet to be solved, it’s always a surprise, even for people who are used to riding the train. In the US, in some cities, the speakers tell you that the “Doors will open to the right”…but which right? My right or the train’s right? And what happens if I can’t hear so well, or there’s a lot of noise in the train, or, I simply couldn’t understand the message? Hong Kong MTR came up with an elegant solution. The digital sign on the train indicates the exit for each station. They could even make it better by replacing the long sentence with an icon or infographic.

Interfaces To Lower Anxiety
The express train that takes people to and from the airport has a very simple feature that provides feedback to riders and lowers their anxiety level.

Each car has a sign that indicates the train’s current location on the journey to/from the airport. The spaces between the stations are at scale, so after the first couple of stations one gets a sense of how long the journey will take and can follow the indicator light until the train reaches its destination. It’s a great feature that takes location-based notification one step further.
The Future Of McDonald’s
In Hong Kong, stores are a great escape from the heat. For us, one of these escapes was McDonald’s. We wanted to wait in line for the server to take our order, but very soon we noticed there’s no one to take your order. Instead they were only serving customers their orders….we were puzzled and looked around to find this…

A self-serving interface in which customers can order and pay for their meal. It was cool, the interface was great, large buttons, very easy navigation, fast interaction. We placed the order and waited for our food…
Addendum: yesterday I saw a TV ad for these interfaces in Israel, so, apparently it’s a global thing McDonald’s is rolling out.
Something’s Broken After All
There are no benches in Hong Kong — not on the streets, not in the malls, not in front of or inside buildings. We don’t know why but suspect it’s because the local government doesn’t want people congregating or occupying public spaces over long periods of time (e.g., the homeless, domestic helpers, etc.). But it was hard to walk all day with no benches to sit on. So, next time, when you’re in Hong Kong, take a folding chair with you.

