I recently used a fare machine to purchase tickets and noticed an unpleasant change:
When using a credit card, they now require your zip code.
However, what could have been only a minor inconvenience became many times more annoying when the following was revealed: You can't use the physical number layout to enter the code, you have to use the touch screen.
Naturally, everybody goes to the physical number layout, enters their number, and then has to do it again on the screen, thus making a slow process even slower.
But wait, it gets worse!
The numbers are oriented in the oddest manner. 1-5 on the left, 6-0 on the right, with massive spacing. This isn't standard anywhere. Why on earth do this? Who thought this was normal?
Naturally, the machine I used had a defective touch screen, so pushing 0 gave me a 4, and pushing 9 gave me a 5 and so on, meaning I wanted to clear the entry and try my luck again....
BUT WAIT THERES MORE.
At the bottom of the screen, on the left it says clear, on the right it says cancel. So after typing the number wrong, I pushed cancel to clear it, as I had just tried 0 and it didn't work and the button was right below it.
And the machine IMMEDIATELY goes to "touch screen to start". Ive never seen one of these fare machines be so responsive! They usually chug along, but with lightning speed it booted me out. Not to the previous payment screen, not to the ticket type screen, but all the way back to zero!
And yes, clear deletes the entire number, not just the last one typed.
I'm sorry but what on earth were they thinking with this atrocious design?
When using a credit card, they now require your zip code.
However, what could have been only a minor inconvenience became many times more annoying when the following was revealed: You can't use the physical number layout to enter the code, you have to use the touch screen.
Naturally, everybody goes to the physical number layout, enters their number, and then has to do it again on the screen, thus making a slow process even slower.
But wait, it gets worse!
The numbers are oriented in the oddest manner. 1-5 on the left, 6-0 on the right, with massive spacing. This isn't standard anywhere. Why on earth do this? Who thought this was normal?
Naturally, the machine I used had a defective touch screen, so pushing 0 gave me a 4, and pushing 9 gave me a 5 and so on, meaning I wanted to clear the entry and try my luck again....
BUT WAIT THERES MORE.
At the bottom of the screen, on the left it says clear, on the right it says cancel. So after typing the number wrong, I pushed cancel to clear it, as I had just tried 0 and it didn't work and the button was right below it.
And the machine IMMEDIATELY goes to "touch screen to start". Ive never seen one of these fare machines be so responsive! They usually chug along, but with lightning speed it booted me out. Not to the previous payment screen, not to the ticket type screen, but all the way back to zero!
And yes, clear deletes the entire number, not just the last one typed.
I'm sorry but what on earth were they thinking with this atrocious design?