The Case Of The Bad Button
A UX designer analysis of a button
Recently we got some new buses in the city I live in. There are major bus and truck industry companies located here so this is where they start testing out new buses. The new buses have great features like free WiFi and USB plug-ins so you can use and charge your mobile phone easily on the buss!
The bus also has new green stop buttons that light up red when it has been clicked, indicating that it will stop at the next bus stop.
But I have a problem with the button… It took me a very long time to understand how to use it! I mean, it should be easy… just press in the middle of the big red area and the stop sign should light up. But no, it was not that easy to understand or use. On these bus journeys, I asked myself a lot of questions.
Why do I not understand how to press this button? Is it a touch thingy? Is my hand too dry and cold to make touch not react? Is this particular button just broken? Did I press too early or too late?
These are not good questions and that a user should not ask themselves when using a simple thing as a button.
In the efforts to solve the issue of people not seeing if the bus is going to stop at the next stop or not, they went back on the rest of the basic functions and design that you expect a button to have.
Here are the main issues with the button
The button does not move in when pressed, so you get no feedback when you have successfully pressed it.
The area of where the press will register is only on the small top part of it, not on the full button.
The top area has blind writing (Braille) markings on it, made of hard and sharp plastic that stands out and hurts when you press it with your finger tip.
It fools you by looking like touch button, not as a press button.
What they should have done
The full area should be press-able.
The button should go inwards to give feedback that you are pressing it.
Not have the Braille in hard plastic on the only area you can press on. It’s still great that it’s on the top part, but pressing on the text should not be the only option.
I do like that the button turns red when the button has been clicked…. they should keep that.
A button should be easy to use and do what it’s intended to do in an as good way as possible. It should also be easy to read so you know what will happen when you press it. This buss button does not achieve this.
A bad button with a bad User Experiences.
