This is the ticket that I bought to get to Uni today. It was from the Stagecoach Bus Company and, to be honest, it is pretty horrible. The typeface used is sans-serif and is pixilated. This pixilated style is called a bitmap or raster font which means it is made up, on a computer, consisting of dots or pixels which in turn creates each character. These sorts of fonts when scaled up lose quality and are usually used when a computer's processing power is smaller in size. As this ticket comes out of a fairly basic machine this explains why this font was used, as the machines do not have the ability to print in fancy font or curved typeface. As a computer produces it there isn’t a historical reference but it does, in a wa,y fulfill its purpose by showing the correct basic information, which the ticket needs to show.
The ticket does show hierarchy and this is achieved through point size and perhaps boldness. The main information which stagecoach must think is important is in a larger, bolder point size i.e the price and the date, whereas the rest of the less important information on the ticket is kept to the same, smaller size. The information on the ticket doesn’t have any order and seems to be randomly placed about the page making it hard to understand unless studied for a while. The leading on the smaller information on the ticket is very small making it even harder to read. There also seems to be a random use throughout the ticket of all caps and mixed caps and lowercase for no apparent reason. I think other information such as the route and bus number should be made more prominent as these are important factors the bus driver would need to see when checking a ticket, if someone has bought a return.
This kind of ticket will be used on a day-to-day basis by a wide variety of people ranging from young school kids right up to old age pensioners. Students, teachers, business men, disabled people, old people will all need to use these tickets therefore it should be readable by all. Therefore I think it fails in fulfilling its job as a ticket as the very small writing may be hard for older people to read, the pixilated font may be hard for younger kids, people with visual impairments and again older people to read. The important information on this ticket should be readable at a short glance, making people's day easier and therefore less hassle would be caused worrying about having the correct ticket.
My Ticket Idea:
Here is my idea for a new Stagecoach bus ticket. As the ticket will have to be printed in large amounts I tried to keep the amount of ink that would be used to a minimum. I have also followed Stagecoach’s existing brand idea using their circle logo as an influence for the design. By using the stagecoach blue colour in the type I have also emphasized their brand identity and it also makes it more attractive compared to the bland, boring black text they use just now. I have also included a coloured main logo to show the company’s branding and this again makes the ticket that little bit more interesting. The typeface is Helvetica. I chose this typeface because it has already proven to work in the transport industry and is very legible meaning it could be read easily by all the users. Hierarchy is shown through point size and is emphasized by the circle design that I have used on the ticket. The amount of information on the ticket has been kept to a minimum and only includes the important information a person would need to know, and the information that the bus driver needs to have has been placed to the bottom and kept very small to emphasize the fact that this is for admin' use only. The layout of the ticket is easily transferable to other routes and buses as the design is very clean and simple. The bus number has been incorporated into the circle design but again this can be changed for other routes such as X24 and X37.
You could be more thorough in your user analysis and use this more effectively in your redesign. For instance, who else looks at the ticket? What is the purpose of the date and the time and how important is the price once you've paid for it? Is it possible that the bus driver is the primary user as he needs to see it more clearly (and quickly) that the holder of the ticket? That's sort of where the heart of this particular design problem is. What are the circumstances of use and how can you improve them? Or do they need to be improved? Also, the font will be printed from a machine there on the bus, so there will be technical issues with changing to Helvetica or similar...not something you need to fully understand (although you touched on it at the beginning), but something to be aware of.
ReplyDeleteSorry, meant to say that this is a good start and your new design is more pleasing to the eye and well considered.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I have included the date and time is because on the stagecoach a return ticket is valid for 30 days from the time it is bought. By having the date in a larger size compared to other information on the ticket it allows the driver to quickly glance and check if it is firstly, in date, then if the ticket runs out on the that specific day, he can then check the time to make sure it is still a valid ticket.
ReplyDeleteThe bus driver’s information has been kept very small, as this would only be checked if there was a ticket inspection on the bus, which happens very rarely and in fact has never happened to me which proves the point they rarely do this inspection.
The use of Helvetica may be a problem with the printers that the buses have, but I think they should invest in some better printers to make the tickets look that little better and our days a little more pleasant in the same process.