Myrtle-Wyckoff Avs Station Main Turnstiles
The purpose of a NYC subway entry/exit mechanism is to enable the MTA to collect and control payment issued by customers for their service, and likely also for collecting rider statistics. This machine has two points of interaction: the card swipe, and the turnstile. The ideal usage consists of the user walking through the mechanism with little to no pause while carrying out this interaction:
- Swiping card through slot
- Reading visual response from LCD display (“go”, “swipe again”, “insufficient fare”) and/or audible cue
- Pushing through the turnstile
Before observing this in action, I had made assumptions about what I’d see. My assumptions were more or less correct because I have over seven years of daily interaction with this machine. Regardless, I had never taken the time to specifically observe their use. My main assumption was that the turnstiles are specifically designed to be used without pause to account for the fast-paced, crowded, and therefore high stress liminal environment for which it resides; most users will not stop while interacting with the machines.
What I observed was on average true, but there appeared to be many “edge cases”: entering users with their hands full of bags, suitcases, carts, etc requiring them to stop in front of or near the machines to pull out their metro card before swiping through. Some would have to bypass the machines altogether and instead enter through the emergency exit with the aid of a subway attendant or another user. When there are multiple users attempting to enter and exit through the turnstiles simultaneously, their tentative coordination and re-routing among the limited number of turnstiles causes congestion.
A minority of users would have difficulty getting the machine to read their metro card, stopping to swipe more than once before being granted entry. I noticed that there’s an audible “click” sound of the turnstile being unlocked for entry after a successful swipe which enabled most users to more quickly recognize if their swipe was successful. There also appeared to be multiple convenient spots where visual/light-symbol indicators should be along the front of the turnstile fixture, but were not functioning on this particular one. The machine responds to every swipe without any noticeable “thinking” time.
I observed that the turnstiles themselves were unquestionably intuitive/natural to all users, either because of their cylindrical shape and position eluding to a “push” interaction, or because turnstiles are simply ubiquitous (or both). The turnstiles caused no issues for anyone.
The turnstile fixtures appear to impose little to no emotional affect on its users, they are simplistic and discreet, enabling the important parts (the light symbols, the LCD display, the swipe slot and the turnstile) to be the central focal points. This design choice fits the context of the fast-paced liminal space which it inhabits.