We don't need no information

I saw this information leaflet on what to do in the case of a terrorist attack in Warsaw, at ... a bus stop.

Away from any political discussion here, I’m intrigued that they decided to put this up here. The information itself seems quite understandable, I am able to get the gist of what it says by just looking at the pictures. I wonder however, how relevant these cases are, and if they are not just there to scare people (coincidentally, the same bus stop has ‘refugees go home’ and ‘all immigrants should die’ written on the sides).

Most translations just states that this object is a hammer. Only the French translation of this sign says what you should actually use the hammer for. I took this picture in the train because I found that a little funny.

Sometimes, we might take it for granted that everybody understands these things. Personally, I know you could use a hammer to break the windows (but only the emergency windows), but I’ve never seen this happen, so I wonder how easy it is.

The symbol underneath is kind of funny too: it doesn’t show you what you have to do with the hammer either, only that you can run to it (or does it enable you to ‘exit with the hammer’, because it looks like an exit sign?).

The German translation indicates that it is an ‘emergency hammer’, but I could also just hit a screaming woman on the head to calm her down in case of emergency. Just saying, that the information provided for this tool could be greatly improved.

All trams and buses should have a map of where they are and where they go.

In a Poznan tram, I saw this screen that shows both the stops on the line and a map of the current location and the upcoming stops. I think this is a really cool idea, giving more context to passengers, especially those who don’t know the system well.

Polish tram systems, like many East-European systems, have notoriously high numbers of lines going from everywhere to everywhere. The upside is that you could probably find a tram line that brings you to your destination directly. The downside is that the frequency will probably be not that good (in Poznan individual lines ran on average every 20 minutes), and that the network becomes very difficult to navigate. You would have to learn the course of many more lines to figure out which trams would take you where you want to go. 

As Google didn’t offer me transit directions in Poznan yet, I had to rely on paper maps and my own orientation to figure this out. This map helped me with checking where I would have to get out to be as close to the train station as possible.

Can you find the stairs?

I saw this new type of information screen in Berlin’s newest U-Bahn train. Although I like the fact that they are easily visible for people, there are still some things to say about it.

The destination (Olympiastadion) and the next stops are shown in the same way with an arrow, which makes it look like Olympiastadion is actually the next stop. A better distinction is needed. Adding the U2 logo to the destination and a line graphic to the next stops could do the trick.

The names of the next stops appear with different type sizes, which looks inconsistent. In this case, I would suggest to split Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz over two lines. You’re never going to get U-Bahn stations like Oskar-Helene-Heim, Karl-Bonhoeffer-Nervenklinik or Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park on one line, so splitting is an obvious solution.

Such a huge screen deserves transfer information per stop, like they already do in Berlin’s newest buses and trams.

The most ridiculous thing on this screen is the information at the bottom, ‘Ausstieg Links’ (exit on the left). As you’d expect, this was the same for screens placed on different sides of the glass, so that people reading it from the other side would try to exit through the opposite side. It actually means ‘exit on the left of the driving direction’, but I fail to understand why they wouldn’t just put an arrow with ‘Ausstieg - Exit’ next to it. It would definitely make things more obvious.

So I decided to design a concept for information screens in Belgian trains myself, with the aim to make the screens more legible from afar and to remove some design inconsistencies and flaws.

I wanted to create a more logical flow for the next stations, so I used a familiar-looking line with circles to indicate stations. For delays, I thought it was best to show the real arrival time, but to still indicate the amount of delay so that people know how bad (or not) it is. The design is, I think, not groundbreaking, but just a no-nonsense and clean view of everything that passengers need to know.

When approaching a station, the screen would show possible connections more clearly. I used circles at the bottom to indicate that there are multiple pages, something familiar for smartphone users. I also added the car number at the top right, so a passenger could for example let their friend know where they are when they get on the train.

The newest train type in Belgium has these new colour LCD screens that show a lot of travel information. That’s awesome, but I feel NMBS/SNCB has proven itself again by showing information in a very bad way.

Frustration number one: if you have this giant screen (I guess 1920x1080 pixels or so), why would there be a need to shorten station names like ‘Bruxelles-Nord’ or ‘Charleroi-Zuid’? Sure there can be a way to show the full name. A traveller might guess what ‘Antw-Centr’ means, but it gets more difficult with names like ‘G’bergen’.

Frustration number two: if you have this giant screen (again), why make the type so small that older people in the back of the train won’t even be able to read it?

Frustration number three: it’s not always easy to find a good solution for showing delays (do you need to show scheduled and/or real-time arrival? Do travellers need to know the precise amount of delay?) without filling the whole screen with numbers, but I feel that just repeating the scheduled time + real-time takes up a lot of space and can be confusing.

In Ghent, a bridge repair leads to three months of interrupted tram traffic in the city center. People unfamiliar with the city will have to figure out how they can continue. The arrow points to a street name for the travelers that want to continue their journey, but there is no map or any other guidance. Also, the text under ‘Alternative’ says that “This tram returns at KORENMARKT!”

Shouting at your passengers is never a good alternative, De Lijn.