

A Better BART Kiosk Interface - bluefish
http://www.bartkiosk.com/
Two UC Berkeley School of Information students redesigned the BART kiosk interface using Flex 3 an Arduino and AS3Glue.
======
jamwt
Presenting the "macros" of SFO/OAK (local airports) is a great idea. Unlike
commuters, airport-goers are probably more episodic in their usage of the bart
system, so they're looking to purchase a ticket of a specific value for that
specific trip, instead of the "large value" ticket they will use over many
days. They also may be less familiar with the route map and ticketing system,
so more hand-holding is a good thing. And of course, these stops are among the
most popular destinations.

Another disproportionately popular destination is whatever stop is adjacent to
the current major sporting event. During a Warriors game, for example, you'll
see the trains loaded with people wearing jerseys and team colors that all
flood out at the Oakland Arena.

So, the addition of dynamic main-screen macros like

"Go to the Warriors Game"

.. based on some local events feed and present during the appropriate hours,
would be slick...

------
ynniv
This is an impressive design. The partitioning of decisions into paged chunks,
and the associated visual representation of that space makes destination entry
easy. Common choices appear early on in the system ("get me to the airport"),
and decisions have appropriate defaults ("purchase multiple tickets"
automatically adds another then presents options to add or remove tickets).
I've always been attracted to good information design, and this is some sweet
candy.

Poor design in large organizations (BART) generally comes from the top, but
BART would be lucky to get off their laurels and use this design.

------
aston
I've always wondered whether it was an intentional feature of the BART
machines that they focus on the cash value on a card rather than the trip
cost. Underpaying isn't allowed--the gates at your destination won't let you
leave--and overpaying puts petty change into the BART's coffers when you
forget about/lose/toss the card.

~~~
anigbrowl
Not to mention the need to add 5c to your ticket if you want it back at the
end of the journey - say for expense or tax deduction purposes if you are
making occasional but expensive long-distance trips for work assignments. I've
spent >$300 on BART fares for a month-long project before, and if you exit the
station with the exact fare on your ticket, there goes your receipt.

~~~
dangrover
Every time I've used BART, in addition to emitting a ticket, the machine emits
a receipt out of the same orifice.

~~~
anigbrowl
For plastic yes, you're right. I tend to use cash for transit fares, I don't
know why. I must have some mental block about it, because I'll even leave the
station to go use the ATM, then come back and make change and then put the $5
bill in and grumble about having a pocket full of quarters. Oh well, I fail.

~~~
dangrover
Ah, that's a weird quirk.

One time I got stuck inside a BART station because the machines on the
_outside_ take plastic, but the ones on the _inside_ are cash-only. I was 40¢
short and had no cash. The person at the station let me through though.

Another one of their design decisions that makes no sense :)

------
tophat02
As someone not familiar with the Boston area, I found I really missed having a
"you are here" indicator when it came time to select my destination. I became
disoriented and worried about traveling too far, even though I "knew" I was
just playing with a web mockup.

~~~
sobriquet
I didn't know BART went all the way to Boston!

~~~
andr
It's still only a plan. They are collecting opinions from the community right
now. :)

For the record, BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit and covers San Francisco and
neighboring towns. MBTA is the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and covers
Greater Boston subway and buses, as well as commuter rail throughout the
state.

------
triplefox
Little-known fact: BART has been using 8-track technology for its ticketing
since the system was created in the 1970's. You can see this when the kiosks
need repairs.

~~~
male_salmon
oh really.

[http://farm1.static.flickr.com/228/519444730_4eb3859a9a_o.jp...](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/228/519444730_4eb3859a9a_o.jpg)

"This machine has Windows 2000 with 256MB ram installed."

[http://www.hightechdad.com/2008/04/16/bart-ticket-kiosks-
run...](http://www.hightechdad.com/2008/04/16/bart-ticket-kiosks-running-
windows-2000-professional/)

------
cvg
Like the SFO and Oak quick ticketing. However, there's an added issue with
buying a ticket to Oak - you need to pay an extra $3 to get an AirBart Ticket
to the actual airport. It would be nice to account for this.

------
Oxryly
Cool system. As someone else pointed out, the station select map should have
some sort of "you are here" indication showing which station you're at.

I suppose one (potentially minor) ongoing expense with this setup would be
that every kiosk would need to be in a its particular location's "mode"...
currently every kiosk runs exactly the same way -- location agnostic.

~~~
ljuba
As they are, the kiosks already know where they are. Each kiosk has the
station name on-screen. Just FYI.

------
misuba
Despite being told it wasn't a touchscreen I tried to click on individual
stations on the map multiple times. People are focused on the station they
want to go to; if you show it to them, it's going to be staticky for them to
figure out they have to focus on something else.

~~~
ynniv
The user interaction analysis on the page points out that people in transit
stations don't have the same preconception about interface. In a noisy, dirty,
worn out environment, people presented with a durable looking machine with
shiny labeled buttons tend to use the buttons and not the screen.

~~~
dsil
I agree, using it on the internet I kept clicking on the "screen" instead of
using the buttons.

Though, I do find myself occasionally futilely poking at ATM and gas-station
screens that were made years before touch-screens became common.

------
sgrove
Assuming the cost isn't too great, I hope BART will collaborate with these two
to develop and benchmark some new interfaces. This prototype is a brilliant
way of presenting the information.

And even though the time savings seems small, I always think of it multiplied
across the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of tickets sold each year, and
how much time is lost collectively. Making these mundane interactions even a
little bit faster provides some huge benefits (in addition to reducing
frustration).

------
donw
I would kill for BART and Caltrain to adopt the same ticketing technology used
in every metro that I've been to in Asia -- namely, a little RFID card that
sits in your wallet, that you just hold over the sensor. Most mobile phones
(in Japan, at least) incorporate the same technology, so you can just hold
your phone over the sensor to handle payment.

No moving parts, and no openings, so they're very durable. And incredibly
convenient.

~~~
menloparkbum
_I would kill for BART and Caltrain to adopt the same ticketing technology
used in every metro that I've been to in Asia_

This is what the Translink card is eventually supposed to do.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransLink_(San_Francisco_Bay_Ar...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransLink_\(San_Francisco_Bay_Area\))

------
dfranke
I don't like not being able to specify the exact value of the ticket. I always
buy tickets in multiples of the cost of a round trip commute, so that a) I'm
on my home, not on my way to work, when I need to buy a new ticket, and thus
not in a rush; b) my balance ends at zero, so that the exit turnstile eats the
ticket, making me aware that it's out of money so that I'm not taken by
surprise by an "insufficient value" message.

~~~
royalpineapple
This design has a "make round trip" button, which would fit your needs
exactly.

~~~
dfranke
That only gets me one round trip, and I don't want to stop at the kiosk every
day. It lets me buy multiple tickets, but not put multiple trips on one
ticket.

------
mlinsey
Looks nifty, but can anyone who is color-blind comment on the "select
destination" page? I feel it may be difficult to tell which stop is in which
region.

~~~
zeke
I am red-green color blind. Still this works, the colors chosen are easy to
differentiate. Also the large letters next to each section help. It might be
possible to add a bit more contrast in the "F" section.

------
rabidsnail
I wish SEPTA (Philly's transit system) had any kind of ticket kiosks. As it is
we have to wait in long lines and deal with slow tellers to buy tickets.

~~~
dbul
That's not true. SEPTA has token kiosks. There are at least three of them at
Frankford Station in Northeast Philly. (Though I wouldn't hesitate to agree
Philly needs to upgrade to at least a magnetic card system.)

------
nebulous
once you pick a region, there ought to be a way to go back in case you picked
incorrectly

