My daughter just got a TAP card. For those not familiar with TAP, it is a loadable value card that MTA (oops) RTD Metro is using to replace bus passes in Los Angeles. TAP has some advantages, like supposedly being usable on multiple systems, and permitting loading of value over the Internet.
Being the good dad that I am, I created my daughter an account so we can load her card with value. It is this process I’m commenting on, for it demonstrates how not to design a user interface. Just going to the logon page told me something: a SAP system. I know this because I recognize the boxes from our payroll system at work. When you get create an account and look at your card, it just shows you the raw database fields with no explanations of what they mean, no formatting, even no clear expansion of values. This was not designed to be user friendly — it was certainly not designed for non-computer scientists. I’m unsure why they let it go live in this form, but they did.
In any case, I’ll figure out to use it. It does have advantages over the previous paper card system, where passes were like money, and a pain to get each month. Still, I wish they had actually taken the time to design the interface.
