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In my 7th year of engineering education, I started this blog. Many people asked me: Given so many years of engineering training and great career prospects, why design?

I love technology, but love even more the enriching effect of technology on people. I have seen so many talented people who devoted on fascinating products, but failed to let people appreciate how fascinating they are; and so many diligent researchers who worked out long-standing unsolved problems after years' work, but lost their audience/followers in tedious, unintuitive communication. I can't help noticing the so many imperfections in the life, while observing people, talking to people, and understanding people; I can't help brainstorming better ways to solve the problems, and discussing with people to see if they fit their needs. And that happens to be the duty of an UX designer.

This is a blog recording the ideas emerging from our everyday lives, including design critique, need finding, ideation and basic prototyping. Your questions and comments are warmly welcomed!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Where are the train stations? - Design critique of Amtrak website

One day I was making an amtrak reservation, and found this weird design.

While selecting destinations, I would like to know where are those stations (e.g.: How far is it from  "San Francisco - Financial District" to my destination). After clicking the location icon in the red circle, I expect it to show a map of the stations, but it pops up a screen showing the station codes...

- It uses this familiar location icon, but doesn't meet the expectation
- The search query doesn't provide an easy way for user to find out the location of stations. I have to search online or on google map, which requires much more working memory.

It could be much better if it allows people to enter their specific destination address, and shows an interactive map with all the nearby stations on it.


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