I travel a lot on trains and there's now a lot of tech at stations. A couple of recent incidents made me think about how our behaviour is a little odd when things go wrong, or more correctly, when they don't behave as usual.
- 1. The Ticket Machine
- If like me, you know how to get your ticket out of this machine inside 45 seconds. A lot of people I see at the station are confident with the process. This morning I saw a lone guy who had the 45 seconds aura, but he was struggling for some reason, and dancing between two machines. He gave up and dived up to the regular counters.
- Now my first instinct was that he was the problem because usually these machines purr, so I started out trying my purchase. First I had to cancel his half state transaction, which took a moment or two too long in my mind - like 10 seconds! So my mind slowly begins to empathise with the guy - maybe there is a problem. I continue anyway because the correct opening screen does eventually appear.
- Everything then does happen as usual, just slowly - it took maybe 2 minutes instead of 45 seconds. Meanwhile a woman approaches the second machine. That machine is in a similar state to mine as the guy had tried both before giving up. It dawned on me that he must have ripped his credit card out of both machines before the transaction could complete. Anyway, the woman is pondering the odd state left on the screen as I did. She taps away and gets the correct initial screen. She enters the process but appears unconvinced by the slowness. I tell her that it works fine; just that it's a little slow. My ticket is printing but she decides to give up just as the guy did.
- So to conclude something: fast machines which then go slow make people so dubious they give up; especially if they're in a rush I suppose. I was lucky in that I persevered for a few seconds longer; I was very close to giving up too. In hindsight, I do remember that the process can be slowed by the back end connection to the banks sometimes - a teller told me this a while back. Also then, reassurance from a stranger that things are okay (or not) doesn't help the situation in their minds: people want to find out for themselves and make their own decision.
- 2. The Exit Barrier
- The electronic barriers at my station can be set as entrances or exits. I can't really put a percentage on it, but 93% of the time the 4 gates are set the same way: 2-in, 2-out. One day there was more of a queue than usual getting out: they'd set it to only 1-out. Most people seemed aware of this, hence the queue. A few people; and one in particular seemed to be on auto pilot and aimed for the usually open second gate. Despite a glowing no-exit sign the person was indignant that it didn't open and kept trying to swipe her ticket. Now this was all in a period of 15 seconds or so before they realised the situation.
- Change of mode or speed in our machines stops us in our tracks and we become indignant or dubious; if it is a rare occurance then we are even more put out. People are unsure what to do with unexpected behaviour. We expect electronic utilities to enhance our daily flow and any hindrance seems to feel final. I suppose some frustration comes from that lack of control in the face of change. We also seem to negate social interaction and awareness around electronic abnormalities. The *let me have a go* mentality kicks in.
- Image: mag3737
