Train of Thought

One of the responses I received to my last mail, was that the mail was more about a bad experience, rather than design, and so, was not enjoyable.

Today, I'd like to set that right!

Bad experiences are easily noticed, and, in our rage-infused times, the most quickly ranted about. It is these experiences that a designer (and marketer, business owner and ideally, everyone in organisation) strives to minimise.

Good design, however, is much more difficult to find. Because the ultimate purpose of design, is to help you achieve your goals. If the design calls attention to itself, then it is distracting you from your goal. The more seamless and invisible the design, the better it is.

In the last story, we'd traveled from Allahabad to Lucknow in an inter-city train, which wasn't a great experience. Once in Lucknow, we boarded the Lucknow Metro, and that was an absolute delight to travel by.

Here's why: the Lucknow Metro is almost identical to the Delhi Metro, which we are very well acquainted with. Every aspect of the system, from buying the tokens, to the frisking and baggage x-ray, the platform layouts, the train coaches, the design of the route map, and the announcements, were identical to the Delhi Metro. If the names of the stations weren't different, it would have been very difficult to point out the difference.

We often associate the term 'design' with creativity. And the term 'creativity', implies creating something new. Sure, design activity is undertaken while creating a new system, product, or solution. But if the said solution is not understood by the intended user, then it isn't a good solution.

One of the principles of interaction design, is 'Consistency and Standards'. People are used to doing things a certain way, and have come to expect certain patterns. For example, links on a website are typically underlined. Logos are mostly on the top left, and clicking on a logo takes one to the home page. These are patterns that people have come to recognise. And changing any of them, just for the sake of changing it, or for 'being different' is, likely, going to drive the user mad.

The reason Lucknow Metro was a breeze to use, was because it was similar to the Delhi Metro. I haven't used overseas Metro /  Subway trains, but something tells me, the Delhi Metro must be similar to them as well. If you have travelled by other systems, I'd love to hear your experiences, and how similar, or different, they are, from each other.

If you know me, you know that I love the Delhi Metro. In the past, I've also dedicated long-form blog posts on the design lessons learnt from the Metro for the design publication, Prototypr: 

• UX Lessons from the Delhi Metro
• Data visualisation: route maps

Public transportation is one of the most sustainable means of getting from one place to another, with minimal carbon footprint. However, in the time between my last mail and now, things have changed: public transportation is the last place anyone should be now.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the easiest, and safest way to stay healthy, is avoiding travel altogether. As one doctor put it, "Coronavirus has a big ego. It won't come home unless you invite it".

It may seem frustrating to stay confined to one place. But like everything else, this too shall pass. The silver lining to this health crisis, is that remote technology is available. We have technology, today, that can help us lead near-normal lives. We can work in remote teams. We can socialise through various social media and video calls. Even our modes of entertainment are in our pockets. Having said that, we do need exercise and sunlight. When possible, do try to get some sunshine at your home.

Let's take this time at home as an opportunity to spend more time with ourselves and our families. Perhaps read books, or pick up long-lost hobbies, or learn new ones! 

How are you spending the extra time at home? Does remote working actually give you the extra time off? Or do you end up working more than you normally do?