GO Ticket Machine Issues and Upgrades -- GOTransit

[Fritter]

Sisyphean hell of having to help someone using this ticketing machine who accidentally presses cancel each and every time, ad infinitium.

Been there done that, fun days for sure trying to help the Jay's crowd get on the trains.
Having asked the Director of Station Services for GO, I have been told that a fix is in the works to speed up the Ticket Vending Machines. I do not know the timeline for the update though.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Been there done that, fun days for sure trying to help the Jay's crowd get on the trains.
Having asked the Director of Station Services for GO, I have been told that a fix is in the works to speed up the Ticket Vending Machines. I do not know the timeline for the update though.

My condolences. I am curious as to whether the wait for the fix will reflective of the ticket machine experience itself, and how a user experience this bad can be trotted out for prime time in the first place. Did GO not conduct user testing? A week of these machines out should have provided enough data to show that they are awful, if internal tests didn't show that already. Or maybe someone have a timeline to follow and a check mark to deliver, awfulness be damned.

AoD

 

[Fritter]

Did GO not conduct user testing?

In my humble opinion, I think it's a case of persons in towers of power making decisions without knowing how the real world works.

 

[steveintoronto]

In my humble opinion, I think it's a case of persons in towers of power making decisions without knowing how the real world works.

I thought it was just me, I'm getting long in the tooth, and took a college student out on the GO to do some distance cycling week before last, and he's a pretty bright kid, and he was flummoxed trying to figure out how to get the ticket he wanted. After five minutes, we gave up (I've got a problematic Presto Card, but that's a whole other kettle of kough drops) and went to the other entrance where there was this amazing invention called a "live attendant". He had his ticket in tens of seconds.

 

[mdrejhon]

Been there done that, fun days for sure trying to help the Jay's crowd get on the trains.
Having asked the Director of Station Services for GO, I have been told that a fix is in the works to speed up the Ticket Vending Machines. I do not know the timeline for the update though.

If you know how to reach out to Director....

...Inform them of keeping Accept buttons permanently in separate physical location as the Cancel button.

 

[mdrejhon]

I've edited-in a post above to include a Dilbert scenario for a few light chuckles, about their outsourced vending machine vendor:

Dilbert & Pointy Haired Boss at ACME Vending Machines Inc.

[lunch brainstorm meeting begins. Everyone munching]
"...Dilbert: We've received a request from our client to fix the search screen and the Accept/Cancel problem..."
"...Pointy Haired Boss: (Sighs) The new machines are coming, we don't need to do this...."
"...Intern: (Interrupts) but the old vending machines will also be deployed for five more years..."
"...Worker1: The machines don't have enough fast memory for a cache!..."
"...Worker2: The GO network is constantly changing, we can't cache!..."
"...Pointy Haired Boss: Why can't we just upgrade the servers to search faster instead?..."
"...Intern: Excuse me, but we can use the cookie feature in a RAM-drive as a self-expiring search cache..."
"...Dilbert: Oh, brilliant! I could cache the last, say, 4 hours of search results via temporary cookies..."
"...Worker2: Hmmm, that is acceptable. That'll speed up most peak searches to 2 seconds from 2 minutes."
"...Worker1: And massively lighten server load. And save money by not needing new servers!"
"...Pointy Haired Boss: Can you do it in 2 days?..."
"...Dilbert: Uhhh, two weeks...."
"...Pointy Haired Boss: You got four days...."
"...Worker1: You know, that cancel-and-accept button problem is an easy fix..."
"...Worker2: I can fix that UI problem in just 1 day..."
"...Pointy Haired Boss: Approved. And our transit client will be happy with your brilliant cache idea too."
[lunch brainstorm meeting adjorns, meeting room empties except Intern]
"...Intern: but it was my idea!"

 

[mdrejhon]

Okay.

I decided to benchmark the upgraded machines with Presto features.
Alas, it was offpeak so not an extreme benchmark, but the machines did perform slightly faster than the older non-Presto-upgraded machines.

However, this YouTube video is rated four turds out of five:

Parental Advisory: Big sigh included.

"Red Buttons Should Not Hop Into Same Physical Screen Locations Of Green Buttons"

 

[MetroMan]

Okay.

I decided to benchmark the upgraded machines with Presto features.
Alas, it was offpeak so not an extreme benchmark, but the machines did perform slightly faster than the older non-Presto-upgraded machines.

However, this YouTube video is rated four turds out of five:

Parental Advisory: Big sigh included.

"Red Buttons Should Not Hop Into Same Physical Screen Locations Of Green Buttons"

Seriously, that Accept button turning into a Cancel button generates the kind of anxiety that makes me lose years off my life. There’s no excuse for bad UX design, only incompetence.

TD’s first iPhone app had these kinds of poor UX decisions that made it clear that it was designed by engineers and bankers rather than UX experts. It was the single thing that caused me to leave the bank that I was with for 10 years and otherwise happy with. After explaining to the teller why I was closing my accounts, she called over the bank manager and he said there was nothing wrong with the app while looking at a full alphanumeric keyboard when promted to insert a dollar value. That was it for me.

If I were a GO rider and had to use this machine every day, I’d seriously buy a car so I’d never have to see that again.

/endRant

 

[mdrejhon]

The new Metrolinx machines are light years better!

Load a TTC pass, get a new Presto card, or add value in just 15 seconds with a snappy instant touchscreen:

Instant-responding touchscreen, so I can breeze money immediately onto a Presto in just 15 seconds (actual video time). Or turn it into a TTC pass.

Alas, these are only at TTC at the moment (Two is at Yonge-Bloor). But I bet future GO ticket machines will eventually use these new machine hardware (I hope!)

 

[Leo_Chan]

The new Metrolinx machines are light years better!

Load a TTC pass, get a new Presto card, or add value in just 15 seconds with a snappy instant touchscreen:

Instant-responding touchscreen, so I can breeze money immediately onto a Presto in just 15 seconds (actual video time). Or turn it into a TTC pass.

Alas, these are only at TTC at the moment (Two is at Yonge-Bloor). But I bet future GO ticket machines will eventually use these new machine hardware (I hope!).

Proceeds to walk towards the Metropass-only gate and taps card on the left reader which opens the gate on it's left...

 

[mdrejhon]

Proceeds to walk towards the Metropass-only gate and taps card on the left reader which opens the gate on it's left...

Ha, good catch.

I was focussed on the camera, and I cut the video before tapping (I didn't re-enter, as I had just exited). In 1-2 years, there will be no swipe readers.

Incidentially, it appears you can't buy swipe Metropasses at Yonge-Bloor anymore.

All the TTC machines have been replaced with Metrolinx machines at Yonge-Bloor:

I award FIVE CHEETAHS accolades to Metrolinx's newer Presto fare vending machine. It's so big an improvement, that machine merits a standing ovation from me.

The black big-vending-machines are that much faster than the green-colored GO station vending machines!

The screen responds as instantly as a brand new iPhone now.

 

[jys]

Hey folks, question about the excessive printing receipt-printing by GO ticket machines. It seems to me that they print receipts for all transactions, including ticket purchases and PRESTO reloads. Not only is this wasteful of paper, those receipts eventually end up somewhere and I frequently see them littered around the machines. Do we know if there is a rationale for this?

I don't need a receipt for PRESTO reloads (records available online), and I think it should be optional for other transactions (i.e., "Would you like a receipt", [select Yes or No]).

 

[Fritter]

don't need a receipt for PRESTO reloads (records available online), and I think it should be optional for other transactions (i.e., "Would you like a receipt", [select Yes or No]).

The newest generation devices now query you if you like a receipt or not. Even with this, I still see left behind receipts. The user obviously responded yes to a receipt and left it behind anyway!