STM to test straps for Azur ceiling bars
The STM is going to test straps for the Azur ceiling bars which many – including myself and commenters here – have noted are out of reach for shorter folks. Then we’ll be straphangers for sure.
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Martin 09:39 on 2019-05-23 Permalink
I don’t understand what is there to test ? Straps have been used in public transport since the 19th century!
Blork 09:42 on 2019-05-23 Permalink
I’m glad Martin isn’t in charge at the STM. New things ALWAYS need to be tested. You need to test the materials, the placement, the height, etc. Perhaps there’s a new design they’re considering. Since those cars were not originally designed to have hanging straps you need to make sure they don’t dangle in people’s faces or present some kind of unexpected hazard. Etc. etc. etc.
Mr.Chinaski 10:55 on 2019-05-23 Permalink
Everything today is about user perception and the feeling of being “listened to” by corporations and companies. This is all a well executed PR exercice. They could easily test this like all engineer stress test stuff, you don’t need users or the feeling of “being heard”.
Blork 11:53 on 2019-05-23 Permalink
Engineering stress testing and user testing are very different things. Stress testing just shows that the thing works as intended and as imagined by the designer. It’s not “real world” so it probably wouldn’t find flaws like: (1) when the train is really crowded, peoples’s elbows tend to knock into other passengers’s faces because of the way the straps are placed; (2) the straps are too low and they dangle in the faces of people who are sitting; (3) people keep bonking into the straps when they stand up from a seated positiona nd because the material is too stiff it knocks their glasses off; (4) there are too many straps near the doors and not enough in the middle of the car.
You need to do usability testing to find those quirky flaws.
Blork 11:56 on 2019-05-23 Permalink
… in case anybody’s wondering, I’ve worked in software development for more than 25 years (NOT as a software developer) and there are hundreds of occasions whereby a new release of software has gone through all the stress testing and QA you can imagine and then I get ahold of it to write the documentation and I find serious — even catastrophic — bugs within five minutes. Because I’m using the software like a user, unlike the testers and QA people, who are using scripts and narrowly-defined processes. Believe me, no testing tests like user testing!
Ian 13:50 on 2019-05-23 Permalink
Haha QA is the best! Not just testing for use case but non-standard use case… what happens to a form if I go back-next 5 times with my keyboard? Enter a number? A random string? Special characters? Copy-paste an image? In industrial design (especially safety design) you get to ask questions like “Can I fit my head in that? A child’s head? my foot?” Sadly I expect the real test case will be whether the STM keeps getting complaints and guessing what the solution might be if there’s any budget for it. I get the feeling their only real QA is form-based panel tests, which would explain why they thought open cars would reduce door crowding…