Didn't see the important info that said that the NR buses come ONLY on Fridays, Sats and eves of Public Holidays, bcos the words were printed in tiny, tiny letters.
I'm normally a meticulous person, but frankly, even I missed out on that info. So wrote an email to the ST Forum, inspired in part by Shuyi's own forum posting. (Proud of ya, sis!)
(It does give you a rush, seeing your name up there on the ST Forum... hee hee...)
Like how the ST Forum Editor managed to condense my 'loh-soh' email.
Original email:
Better page design and typography sorely needed for Transitlink Guide
As a freelance designer with experience in information design, I have observed to my dismay that, currently, the TransitLink Guide makes use of a lot of tiny narrow letters densely packed together in a linear
list.
Furthermore, essential key information, e.g. days of service and bus-timings, are not well-structured and not sufficiently visual enough for a quick glance. You have to carefully scrutinize the information, and even then, you may not be clear. I believe there are many fellow commuters who can understand what I am saying.
Such poor design of the bus schedules can cause those with poorer eyesight (e.g. senior citizens) or reading in poor lighting conditions to misunderstand or miss out on critical information, e.g. the NightRider services only come on Fridays, Saturdays and eves of Public Holidays, but this important information is not immediately obvious at first glance.
Thus, I strongly suggest that the design of the Guide can be much improved by using a better design e.g. using a table of days and highlighting in bright colours only those days that the bus will arrive. I think this kind of simple redesigning will not take up too much page space or cost too much to amend, and will go a long way in
further enhancing the quality and usability of a very useful Guide.
If the designer of the TransitLink Guide is not yet sufficiently convinced, may I suggest that he/she tries using his/her own copy on a dark and stormy night at 11.30 pm with terrible street-lighting while trying to look out for the bus at the same time?
*******
And this is the edited one that came out:
Dec 21, 2006
Bus guide is poorly designed. Make it more user-friendly
As a freelance designer with experience in information design, I have observed to my dismay that the TransitLink Guide makes use of a lot of tiny letters densely packed together in a linear list.
Essential information such as days of service and bus arrival/departure times are not well-structured and are hard to read at a quick glance.
You have to scrutinise the information carefully and even then, you may not be clear about the information.
I believe many commuters know what I am saying.
Such a poor design of the bus schedules can cause those with poor eyesight (eg. senior citizens) or those reading them in poor lighting conditions, to misunderstand or miss out critical information.
For example, the NightRider services are available only on Fridays, Saturdays and the eve of public holidays, but this important information is not immediately obvious at first glance.
I suggest that the design of the guide be improved, eg. by using a table and highlighting in bright colours only the days that the bus operates.
This kind of simple redesigning will not take up space or cost too much to amend, and it will go a long way to further enhancing the quality of what's a very useful guide.
If the designer of the TransitLink Guide is not convinced, he should try using it on a dark night in a place with bad street-lighting while looking out for the bus to come at the same time.
Yeo Yeu Ann
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