Experience of a Ticket Vending Machine User

..:: This post was among the winners at the TWIN Technical Writing Blogging contest 2008 ::..

The ticket-buying experience at a Mumbai railway station is always a time-consuming task; even on weekends and even at 5.00 am in the morning! However, the recent introduction of the ticket vending machines by Western Railways, with an interactive touch screen, has made it quite a convenient experience.

You have to purchase a smart card and use it on the vending machine to print tickets for your desired destination. After placing the card on a sensor, you see the Mumbai map and the railway stations as the touch points on the opening screen. You first select (touch) a station that you are currently at. Next, you select the station you want to travel to, the number of passengers, whether they are adults or children, the class (first or second), and whether you want a one way or two way (return) journey ticket. Selecting the Print button takes you to the next screen where a preview of the ticket is shown. Finally, once you confirm, the ticket is printed.

My tech-savvy quotient and only an occasional need to travel by train triggered me to try a vending machine. I wanted to avoid the long ticket queues. Imagine waiting 15 minutes for a ticket when the actual travel may sometimes take just about 10 minutes if the destination is close. The first time I used the machine, I found the interface very intuitive and convenient. So much so that I hardly took any time to learn the steps to print a ticket. The machine seemed to be designed for the common man who is often semi literate or even illiterate at times. Use of the machine, the next couple of times, made me believe that I will not face any usability issues.

However, my experience on April 21, 2008 when I mistakenly printed an extra return journey ticket, brought forth an unexpected usability issue. The system seems to have been designed with a lot of assumptions. Some of them include:

• Users will never make a mistake.
• Users will always print only a single (one-way) ticket.
• Users will know that return journey tickets for two or more persons will be printed on a single ticket.
• Users with return journey tickets will always travel together.

The third and fourth assumptions cost me price worth one return journey ticket. I required two return journey tickets. I followed the steps as stated in the first paragraph above and waited for two tickets to be printed. Only one ticket popped out. I didn't read what was printed and thought that the steps had to be repeated again for one more ticket and I did so. It was only when I boarded the train that I realized that the first ticket was valid for two persons.

Was it my fault that I did not preview the ticket displayed on screen before printing it? A typical user will face the same question, I suppose. Although, the next time the user will be more careful, a feeling of failure will prevail. The user, especially a beginner, may become averse to the machine and may stop using it. This will defeat the purpose of having help-yourself machines. Is that the intent of such systems?

Recommendations:

• Give the users a choice of printing two or more tickets separately. This will enable two or more passengers to travel separately–at different times or in different compartments.
  
• Include a confirmation message such as 'Do you want the ticket(s) to be printed on a single card?' before the user presses the Print button.