Getting around (Train Ticket)

My Original Train Ticket

Font Choice:

Through research I have found that the font is called “Rail alphabet” to stop forging it is hard to get onto a computer for home use. However it similar to an “arial” based font but has small tweaks to it to make it very hard if not impossible to forge. I would imagine due to the way its printer, they have special matrix printers to burn the type on, that it would have been used in the rail industry for a number of years. The history behind it then would be great as it would have been used for many years with people from all walks of life and across the whole of the UK. It is clear and easily readable so does its job well, it would have been designed to functional not decorative. It was chosen for the way in which it has been made to look unforgeable (not quite) and the job of being easily read by the public.

Information Hierarchy:

                I would say the hierarchy used is appropriate, the overall look of the ticket, at first glance, it looks method less and that the text was thrown onto it, it looks messy and unpredictable (much like public transport). However on further inspection there is a use of headlines and subheadings, looking at the information there is four pieces of information that are important to be seen. These are:

·         1. Where the trains from

·         2.Where the trains to

·         3.What class is the ticket

·         4.Is it a single, return or all day ticket

When you realise these are the pieces of information that need to be shown, you can see the ticket has been designed reasonably well.  The four pieces of information are shown in a heavier weight with a heavy bold weight instead of the base text being in medium, this is a good technique.  The placement of the text seems to have been designed to be regimented and in rows and columns – however I feel that this has been lost along the way somehow, with a more sloppy layout.

Usability:

                Due to the masses of people from all walks of life, are going to be using these tickets every day, the usability is very important. The man group of people that are going compelled to use it are the ticket masters on the train itself. This is due to the way the system works, you only need your ticket when its asked for by theses officials. These men/women will be trained at reading tickets and will have been through rigorous eye tests to make sure they are able to read small print. However elderly people or people with poor vision could struggle with reading the small font, but this is an issue that can’t really be resolved. Since there is only a certain amount of paper to print the information on, the cant really get rid of anything else to make the font bigger.

I feel this is the main problem - managing the information in a way that is functional but also is aesthetically pleasing. I feel the information could be giving in a much more friendly, and this is what i'm going to show in the small example of how simply it could be changed -  

 

I have changed this, keeping the same information but simply changing the information to make it look more friendly and complete its primary function in the same way. I have used an "Helvetica" based font and varied the weight of the headings to increase readability. I have kept all the same information but have changed the layout to seem less cluttered and more organized.