I wake up at 630 in my south bound journey and start looking outside the window admiring the beauty that nature has to offer. The windows in A/C compartments are tinted, soon it was 730 then 830, and I can still notice no change in the weather, no spot of the slightly sunny early morning that freshens you up.
Its the tinted beauty, where it all seems nice and calm outside, the pleasant weather that one expects the day they are planning a picnic. And just then I happened to step outside the coach and the bright rays of sun shone in my eye, giving them that extra gleam, I could see the true colors, the shades of green, and yellows and blues. And it was amazing. Soon when I returned back to my seat suddenly the view through the window wasn't that lovely anymore.
The rush to run through those fields was suddenly gone, the colors so very dull. I realised , how we spend most of our life looking at it through a tinted glass, the glass could be love, hate, bias, forced or imposed. But, there's so much we miss out. Come out, live, love, explore. There are colors, there's life, there's energy. Waiting to engulf you in its charms.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Information design
Yesterday I experienced one of the most horrible experience of my life with the Indian Railways. And the sole reason behind it was lack of information. INFORMATION. At right place and at right time. And not to my surprise, there were other hundreds of passengers suffering like me. One platform and two trains scheduled to arrrive, where for the one that is supposed to arrive later gets repeated announcements and the one that is scheduled to depart in next five minutes, receives no mention at all. No information as to which platform no., arrival time, departure time. Ok the train is delayed, so aren't you supposed to announce that?
All this because of one technical glitch that if a platform is allotted to a particular train in the database the last one will only pop out and receive announcements. For those who understand the concept of LIFO(Last in First Out), in more technical terms it was the last entry that was popping out, negelecting the currently due train in all respects.
To my dismay, I had a really bad day, and struggled to arrive the station 2 hrs early, despite the heavy rains and traffic, managing all my luggage, to be told that wait on platform one for further announcements, as the platform gets alloted once the arrival is due. Fine, I keep waiting and kill the next two hrs doing something or other, watching people scurry as they receive announcements for their train, eat, chat over the phone. Now there's just 10 mins for my train's arrival and still no news. Only the screen pops the name showing the departure time, which once again is not the original departure time but the arrival time. So if I were to believe that, my train is somewhere on one of the 10 platforms and yes will leave in next 5 mins. You can imagine what reaction this sudden dawning brought upon. PANIC! And hence, so far all the luggage with all the important stuff that I was holding so dear, and not letting off my eye even for a second, was dumped in a go, as I ran to the enquiry counter, and on enquiry this man coolly replies that its platform no. 5, with a look on his face as if I was such a fool who didn't even know her name.
Am flabbergasted! What the train is already here! And not a single announcement! I was like, so when were you planning to announce. And he just looks at me and says thats not my duty, I sit at the enquiry counter and you came and asked me and I did my job right. God! Now the attention goes back to the abandoned luggage.. Hehe... I sprint back with terror, and find it safe there thanks to sweet uncle.
Now begins the struggle to 5th platform on the squishy squashy wet platform that the rain had tormented all day long. Things couldn't get worse. Sudden panic as I wasn't the only one misinformed, suddenly hundreds of people come running for platform 5. Now, as per the announcement people baording the later train are already on the platform, the train scheduled at 11. Ours is supposed to depart at 11. And yes, its 10:54 ans there is no train on the platform. suddenly this lady, turns around and asks this guy next to her, waiting for Rameswaram Express and he says no Kaveri express, its due to arrive in 3 mins!
What? The same reaction from all the people boarding our non existent Rameswaram Express, are we once again on the wrong platform! Some 5 mins later comes the annoying ding dong where the lady talking in Kannada announces something where I can make out the words Mysore and Rameswaram and I see a feeling of assurance on the faces of localites and I realise everything's fine.
Apparently both the trains were delayed by half an hour. But, that half an hour delay caused me two and a half hours mental trauma. And I believe it was the same for the others who finally boarded the train with me. All because of a simple lack of information. Am a student of information and interface design, and my favorite field had always been information design. Lately, I had started to drift towards interface design, as that was what the industry projects involved all the time. But, last night was an eye opener. India needs information design, badly, in various fields. And it can ease millions of lives. Am changing back my profile to information designer from Interaction Designer the moment I reach my destination.
All this because of one technical glitch that if a platform is allotted to a particular train in the database the last one will only pop out and receive announcements. For those who understand the concept of LIFO(Last in First Out), in more technical terms it was the last entry that was popping out, negelecting the currently due train in all respects.
To my dismay, I had a really bad day, and struggled to arrive the station 2 hrs early, despite the heavy rains and traffic, managing all my luggage, to be told that wait on platform one for further announcements, as the platform gets alloted once the arrival is due. Fine, I keep waiting and kill the next two hrs doing something or other, watching people scurry as they receive announcements for their train, eat, chat over the phone. Now there's just 10 mins for my train's arrival and still no news. Only the screen pops the name showing the departure time, which once again is not the original departure time but the arrival time. So if I were to believe that, my train is somewhere on one of the 10 platforms and yes will leave in next 5 mins. You can imagine what reaction this sudden dawning brought upon. PANIC! And hence, so far all the luggage with all the important stuff that I was holding so dear, and not letting off my eye even for a second, was dumped in a go, as I ran to the enquiry counter, and on enquiry this man coolly replies that its platform no. 5, with a look on his face as if I was such a fool who didn't even know her name.
Am flabbergasted! What the train is already here! And not a single announcement! I was like, so when were you planning to announce. And he just looks at me and says thats not my duty, I sit at the enquiry counter and you came and asked me and I did my job right. God! Now the attention goes back to the abandoned luggage.. Hehe... I sprint back with terror, and find it safe there thanks to sweet uncle.
Now begins the struggle to 5th platform on the squishy squashy wet platform that the rain had tormented all day long. Things couldn't get worse. Sudden panic as I wasn't the only one misinformed, suddenly hundreds of people come running for platform 5. Now, as per the announcement people baording the later train are already on the platform, the train scheduled at 11. Ours is supposed to depart at 11. And yes, its 10:54 ans there is no train on the platform. suddenly this lady, turns around and asks this guy next to her, waiting for Rameswaram Express and he says no Kaveri express, its due to arrive in 3 mins!
What? The same reaction from all the people boarding our non existent Rameswaram Express, are we once again on the wrong platform! Some 5 mins later comes the annoying ding dong where the lady talking in Kannada announces something where I can make out the words Mysore and Rameswaram and I see a feeling of assurance on the faces of localites and I realise everything's fine.
Apparently both the trains were delayed by half an hour. But, that half an hour delay caused me two and a half hours mental trauma. And I believe it was the same for the others who finally boarded the train with me. All because of a simple lack of information. Am a student of information and interface design, and my favorite field had always been information design. Lately, I had started to drift towards interface design, as that was what the industry projects involved all the time. But, last night was an eye opener. India needs information design, badly, in various fields. And it can ease millions of lives. Am changing back my profile to information designer from Interaction Designer the moment I reach my destination.
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