Visual signals are the strongest

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A man departing the bus presses his Snapper card against the reader. He’s expecting a green O, meaning he’s successfully ‘tagged off’.

The console displays its red X and says in a tinny male voice, “Fare has already been paid.”

He swipes it again, then again, each time hearing the same message and seeing the red X. Giving up, he starts towards the front of the bus to speak with the driver.

“Fare has already been paid,” the driver calls out.

“Oh, right,” says the man, and hops off the bus.

The driver said exactly the same thing the machine did, using identical words. The man understood the driver, but not the machine.

Why not? They both spoke in English. I understood the machine. I believe it’s this:

Visual signals are the strongest.

The console gave the same feedback signal for this problem as it did for a bad tag-off. The user had probably seen it for the other reason much more often and thought this was happening again.

But the user’s next action differed depending on the error message. Sometimes they could safely hop off, as in this case. Sometimes they had to keep repeating the tag until they got the green O or it would cost them.

Perhaps there was only room for two visual indicators. Perhaps the importance of hurried travelers understanding the error message wasn’t given as much weight as it should have. Perhaps it wasn’t even considered.

Regardless, there’s room for improvement. Usability testing in the design phase could have achieved this.

Related posts:

1. Visual signals important to show completed tasks

Tags: error message, Snapper, Usability testing, visual feedback, visual signals