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Are people stupid, or is it poor UI design? David Mytton | July 14, 2011 at 11:27 am | Categories: Misc | URL: http://wp.me/psUyi-Ah

Yesterday I was on a train standing in an open area with my bike, which also happened to be near to the toilets. If you've been on a train in the UK you'll recognise the type with the automatic sliding door. You have to press the button to open the door, enter, then press one button inside to close the door and another to lock it. For me, it's obvious how to use the controls and there are 2 big signs explaining how to use them, but throughout the journey I saw 3 out of 4 people fail to understand what to do.

One person spent some time looking all around the inside of the toilet (once the door had opened) trying to figure out how to close it. He didn't see the instruction sign or the control panel. Another saw the "Control Layout" sign but thought it was the actual control panel and was pressing the sign where it had a picture of the buttons. The real control panel was right next to the sign.

To complicate matters, the door automatically closed after about a minute of being open so that person probably thought she had made it close. The problem is you have to press another button to lock it, so the door probably remained unlocked.

Are people stupid? Perhaps, if it was just one person who couldn't figure it out. But when several people have trouble then you have to look at the design itself. Our approach to usability is that if there's a single person who doesn't understand or gets it wrong, then there's still work to do.

I managed to take a closer photo of the control panel:

What problems are there?

• The alarm is drawing your attention to it, for obvious reasons, but in doing so distracts from the buttons underneath it. You might assume those 2 buttons are related to the alarm and avoid them.
• This is especially the case because the sign above the alarm says "Pressing this button will delay the train." and the line underneath mentions being prosecuted (most likely for unintentional use, but I can't read the rest). There is colour association with the red button and the red sign but it's not separated from the buttons underneath well enough.
• The buttons underneath are quite low down so you might not see them.
• The control layout sign is much simpler and looks like they could be buttons (if the massive control panel on the right wasn't there). The title "Control layout" is in the same font and size as the rest of the text so it's not clear that this is just a diagram.
• There is a lot of text for people to read.

How could it be improved?

• Move the alarm to a separate panel, perhaps even on the opposite side. And place it under a cover like we're all used to with fire alarms.
• Introduce a 3 step process with 3 buttons (even though the D button here is used twice, it makes it simpler to follow the actual process) i.e. 1) Close 2) Lock 3) Open
• Get rid of the text signs and have a simple flow chart that matches the buttons with arrows directing the flow between the 3 steps.
• Make it clear where to start with a big title and arrow, possibly using colours you'd associate with starting, such as green.

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