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Merged thread: Countdown graphics, Nearside pedestrian figures, etc etc

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SA_SA_SA_SA:
EDIT someone merged my threads.

I have discovered some TfL pdfs documenting the development of the amber pedestrian crossing countdown units  (used on 'dumb' fixed time crossings)  in London:

it seems the Dft rejected the suggestion of a graphical indication of time remaining in favour of literal  digital seconds:

this seems slightly weird to me (in a UI sense):

surely showing seconds left suggests arriving Pedestrians doing maths to decide between the 3 or 4 notional ideas I expect them to hold when deciding if there is still time for them to cross in time:
1) near start of blackout countdown = plenty of time to cross at a reasonable walking speed
2)  enough time for slightly faster speed walkers to start crossing(I suppose this state could be subdivided into two)
3) Best not to start crossing unless you are flash the superhero :) but time to finish crossing

(I expect very slow persons would only start on the green man)
So that could be a discrete / quantised 3 bar display eg  = =_
or some sort of more analogue indication  etc etc

Does anyone know their reasoning?

NB discussion of whether countdown as implemented is a good or bad idea belongs in another thread :) (although I do think some sort of positive indication of longer 'blackout period's is a good thing as it avoids signals looking broken (NB they rejected a (flashing) amber figure))

Basil:
Yes, saw one of those near Paddington station the other day.  I only realised what it was after crossing.

Kim:
I expect the actual reasoning was something like "The numeric displays were cheaper".

Though thinking about it, I'm not sure it's bad UI.  Seconds mean something.  You know (or can work out for future reference) how many seconds it takes you to cross a road.  It's the opposite of those TFL cycling distance signs which use minutes, rather than a measure of distance:  Good propaganda, poor UI.

An 'is less than' comparison is barely arithmetic.  I suspect the typical human, when comparing, say, '6' to '11' will use a "does it come later in counting order" algorithm, perhaps applying a "how many digits" heuristic, rather than doing true arithmetic.

A proportional indication (count the bars sort of thing) would look pretty, but just be harder to compare with your time it takes to cross safely threshold.  What does a bar represent?  Are they ticking down at the same rate?  Can you tell how many bars there actually are without squinting?  The possible exception would be studio clock style ring of dots, with 6° representing a second, which some people might prefer over digits, although it ostensibly does the same thing.

If I were designing it, I'd put a studio clock ring around a digital countdown.  Best of both worlds.

Kim:
That said, I was interested to see the Dutch approach to this, which I hadn't come across before:  An electromechanical clicker in the push-to-cross button unit, which varies its click frequency according to the state of the lights (about 1Hz when red, 2Hz when green, speeding up in the few seconds before it changes back to red).  This fulfils the same purpose as both the beeper and tactile rotating knob on British crossings, as you can feel the vibration by touching the unit, while being both easier to locate by hearing (as it's not a pure tone sound) and less irritatingly loud than a typical pelican crossing.

Cudzoziemiec:
What is pedestrian amber?

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