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Studying the design of everyday things

Crosswalks- Importance of feedback

By Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez. Wednesday, November 8, 2006 3:53:23 AM

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I'm sure most people don't consider the button they press to cross the street a "UI" persay, but well, it certainly is, and it does a poor job of conveying the "state" of the system to the users. I read some comments from Ken Becker illustrating the lack of feedback in crosswalks and how they could easily be improved.

I see this EVERYDAY on my walk to work without fail. I'm not sure what it is -if you approach a crosswalk and you see someone waiting to cross and standing near the button, it's a pretty good bet that the button has been pressed already....but the vast majority of people go ahead and push it anyway. In fact, they press it three for four times, just to be certain. (ok- I've been known to do this from time to time myself).

Clearly, we have little faith in the system. In some cases you actually do get an audible beep when the button is pressed... but that hasn't stopped us from hammering away at it a few times. What's lacking is feedback that that the machine knows we're waiting to cross the street. Further, anyone walking up to the crosswalk after has no idea what the state of the system is. They walk up and see me standing there looking at the lights and watching the traffic.. but who am I? I could be a nefarious jay-walker for all they know, and they'll have no part of my shenanigans -better press that button lest the authorities charge them with conspiracy to commit illegal street crossing.

Ken rightly points out the elevator button as a nice contrast. The feedback problem was solved by simply illuminating the button after it's been pressed. That way, the systems says "don't worry, I got you covered..." and anyone walking up also knows immediately the state of the system. Of course, that doesn't stop people from occasionally pressing it multiple times. There's some kind of myth or impatience that we have embedded within us that pressing it multiple times will fool the elevator or traffic light into thinking, "Wow! Lots of users today! I better hurry on up and get them where they need to be! Let me just abandon everything I'm doing..."


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Comments

Kenneth Maagekmaage Friday, November 10, 2006 8:50:11 AM

A light only goes part way in communicating the current status of the system.

Everyone knows that elevators and stoplights (wait for it...) take time. And therefore the system is at a certain point in it's cycle, not just in a static state, as a light would suggest. How about counting the number of blinks of the red Ampelmännchen, facing the other street, to estimate how long is left?

Some elevators do it better, displaying the floor that the elevator is on, but the ones I love best are the old analog dials that sweep across the numbers and move continuously toward your floor.

We live in an electronic, binary world, but everyone knows that real life, movement and time are continuous, not discreet. Of course people become frustrated. It's almost as if the system is lying to you about the true state of things.

Imagine a crossing guard who stands completely still, never looks around, doesn't talk, doesn't seem to be doing anything at all, and then bam! begins motioning for you to cross. How rude!

Hill1221 Friday, November 10, 2006 9:30:08 PM

In China at some intersections, they not only have countdown dispalys for the pedestrians, they have them for the cars as well.

When you get to an intersection the time left for the green light (if you happen to get there at the right time)is displayed in green numbers, the wiating tme left for the red light is ( you guessed it) diaplayed in red numbers

Anonymous Monday, November 13, 2006 10:57:45 PM

adria writes: I have to admit, I ALWAYS press the button multiple times. Why? I don't know. I wonder, does pushing it multiple times do anything, or does the system only register the first push and ignore the rest? Why don't crosswalks use the elevator illumination system? It seems like a simple fix. On the other hand, does it really matter?

Eddie LopezEddie_Lopez Monday, November 13, 2006 11:21:52 PM

No... I guess that's the bottom line here. It doesn't really matter. Of course, you could say that about 90 percent of the stuff I post here smile

Hiroyukiinfinity-1 Sunday, December 3, 2006 11:01:10 PM

In the UK, when you press the crossing light, the word "WAIT" lights up in big white letters above the button.
Some people still press it again though, I guess it's just a psychological thing of wanting it to hurry up.

A usabiluty issue about crossings in the UK though is the sloping pavement at the crossing which is used to avoid having a kerb. This is fine for those who are crossing the road, but for those walking along the pavement and not crossing, they have to walk transverse across the slope. Add to this the bobbled surface which alerts blind people that they are at a crossing point, and you have a pavement which throws infirm people off balance as the pass the crossing point! My elderly father has to avoid certain places because he overbalances and falls into the road when passing these crossings which ironically were intended to help the disabled and infirm cross the road.

Anonymous Monday, December 4, 2006 11:09:36 PM

Jim writes: Ellen DeGeneres has a comedy bit about pushing the (elevator) button which is also a good analysis of the UI angle. It's on the album "Taste This". Even if the button is already pushed when you get there, you tend to push it again. Just to be sure. And then the next person comes up and *they* push it, at which point you look at them and think "What a jerk. He pushed it and I pushed, why did you push it?" And then someone comes and pushes hard or lots of times, as though the elevator might have been slowly taking it's time getting to your floor, but now it's going to think "Whoa! There's a whole lot of people there! I'd better hurry!" Ellen's delivery is better, of course, but the bit is so funny because it's so correct, I think.

AmyAmy_E Tuesday, December 5, 2006 8:53:11 PM

Lol.. That is funny. I just think it prooves how freaking impatient people are.

But, hey, it might be a good idea.

Anonymous Tuesday, December 12, 2006 8:17:07 PM

Anonymous writes: I cross several of these crossings in London every day. Pressing the button makes no difference! There's (at least) two types of these crossings in the UK, the 'stand-alone' type where you press the button, it says 'WAIT' it white letters, the lights change to stop the traffic, the 'red man' light changes to a 'green man' light and there's a regular bleeping to tell blind people the same. Then the 'green man' starts flashing on and off and the beeping stops -- this tells pedestrians there isn't enough time left for them to cross (this is where they madly run across the road -- jaywalking isn't illegal). Drivers see the orange light flashing, which means they're free to go so long as the last pedestrian has left the crossing. The other type of crossing is normally part of a road junction. There isn't the flashing-green-man bit, or the beeping, and to the best of my knowledge pressing the button just lights up the 'WAIT' light until it's safe to cross, i.e. the sequence comes around to stopping the traffic for that particular crossing. I think it's there to encourage people to be patient. You can identify which type it is by looking at the panel above the button -- there's either a picture of a flashing green man light, or there isn't (just a red man and a green man).

Kenneth Maagekmaage Wednesday, December 13, 2006 3:42:34 PM

There's a T intersection on the way to my bus stop... (this is so embarrasing), and if I notice that the bus is coming up fast behind me... (I can't believe I'm posting this on the internet)...

I push the button for the other direction, giving the bus a red light, and I have enough time to run the last block to the bus stop! whistle

Ah, the myriad uses for technology.

Power to pedestrians!

Anonymous Friday, December 29, 2006 8:02:47 PM

Jim writes: One thing that people don't tend to realize about these signals is that many of them -- especially in downtown areas -- genuinely don't work. During the business day, anyway. Where traffic is running at a regular pace, it's more important to keep the signals timed for good traffic flow, even if it means pedestrians can't get immediate response to their request to cross. Walkers just have to wait until the regular timed crossing. It's more valuable to let 100 vehicles through than a dozen walkers. At night or otherwise outside of high traffic/commerce times, the buttons should be more responsive. Of course, that goes back to the core of this post: giving proper feedback. If the button only works at certain times, it sure would be nice to know when those times are.

Anonymous Tuesday, April 17, 2007 8:19:24 PM

J-walker writes: so one day i was walking across a cross walk when a dog came up and attacked me and ate my shirt. from that day on i have boycotted crosswalks. so when ever i have to cross the street, i J-walk.

Anonymous Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:17:15 PM

DucatiRider writes: At lights that are triggered by a scale, my motorcycle frequently has insufficient mass to trigger the light. I've been known to dismount, push the pedestrian crossing button, and hop back on.

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