The usability of traffic lights
– posted June 5th, 2007 by Colm McBarron Comments (4)
On a recent trip to Dun Laoghaire, I spotted this traffic light stuck at the lights:
Initially, I thought that the bulb was broken on a filtering arrow, but upon closer inspection it’s actually a ‘no turn right’ light, but to anyone who doesn’t have super vision it looks like it’s just a white light.
Putting this new type of traffic lights through user testing would have spotted this major design flaw in 5 minutes.
User testing will bring out seemingly obvious issues that you’d never have thought of while designing.
We try to use user testing as much as possible during any web design project to identify any issue before they become a problem for the users of the site. In the real world new designs should be user tested for the same reasons.
4 comments so far
1. Kevin Cannon on Jun 5th, 2007 - 23:00
Your post reminds me of an interesting article about user testing and the differences between the Windows & OSX development process:
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?306
2. Graham Gosling on Jun 6th, 2007 - 18:31
Great, I’ve seen it too and was amazed that not only did someone fit what looks like the wrong bulb, but no-one goes back to review what’s been done and get it rectified, quickly.
It’s similar to the road signs you see around the City and the country that are either out of date, obscured by trees or damaged by vandals or accidents. Does no-one care about usability?
3. Damien on Jun 14th, 2007 - 14:20
Issues should be reported to the local authority. Like security holes, let the owner know to give them a chance to resolve it.
I keep Dublin City Council’s Traffic Control number in my mobile so I can report blown/broken bulbs, turned signals etc. They are quite good at fixing them - when the know!
4. martin on Jun 17th, 2007 - 13:05
Whats the law on obscured traffic lights? If you cant see it becuase another sign is directly in front of it how can you possibly be expected to obey it? Help
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