Relevant information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Traff...
List of participating countries: http://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?&src=TR...
Notable missing countries: China, USA
To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
11–20 of 48 posts
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#12My pet peeve in Europe is the positioning of traffic lights. It drives me crazy that they not on the opposite side of the intersection, like in the US, but at the stop line. If you are in the first car at the stop line, then they are right above you and you have to crawl under the windshield to see them. Worst usability ever.
In the UK they are both; the back of the 'near' traffic lights for you act as the 'far' traffic lights for the opposite drivers, and vice-versa. This allows you both to see the lights at the junction, and to see them easier on approach, even if the junction is at the top of a hill/etc.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#13My pet peeve in Europe is the positioning of traffic lights. It drives me crazy that they not on the opposite side of the intersection, like in the US, but at the stop line. If you are in the first car at the stop line, then they are right above you and you have to crawl under the windshield to see them. Worst usability ever.
Here in Germany they are at least overhead and to the right on the pole, the latter easily visible from the first car. Additionally some intersections have them on the left side on a pole as well.
True, but they are not always so much easier to see if you are in the first car. Also, if you need three lights instead of one, I think that is a sure sign that the design is broken.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
this positioning makes the rules clear: you must _always_ stop before a red light. no exceptions.
I know, but then you should do the same for pedastrians.
Pedestrians have the fear of being run over. I don't think cars have to worry about the same from pedestrians. Actually, that's also the reason the laws tend to favour the pedestrians in all situations, even when they are to blame.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#15Whilst I know the point of this article isn't to say Ireland has terrible road systems compared to the US, I found it amusing that coming from Ireland to the US for a brief trip, I felt the systems there were absolutely crazy.
Now, clearly neither country is perfect, nor are they flawless but the interesting takehome is when put in a pressured situation, how important it is to reduce the cognitive load so you can focus on what's really important e.g. I need to stop or, do I turn here?
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#16> The street signs are in weird spots, or are non existent. Often times they were located after an intersection. Traffic lights were conflicting, there would be a red light on top and a green arrow pointing forward on bottom. We didn’t understand any of the icons. We were always a little nervous pulling up to an intersection and we were out of our comfort zone. There were cues on what to do, but they were never clear and obvious until it was much too late. We missed turns, exits and ran a few lights along the way but we made it through.
Sounds like Texas.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#17My pet peeve in Europe is the positioning of traffic lights. It drives me crazy that they not on the opposite side of the intersection, like in the US, but at the stop line. If you are in the first car at the stop line, then they are right above you and you have to crawl under the windshield to see them. Worst usability ever.
Many countries in Europe have them on both sides. Not having the one on the near side is my biggest problem when driving in the US, it has happened that I have to slam down on the brakes because I'm already 10 meters away from the intersection when I see the red light.
In any case, placing them only on the near side is often intentional, as it forces drivers to stop far away from the intersection itself. This leaves space for pedestrians, and provides drivers from the other directions with more space to look around. It also creates a buffer where cars can move into when an emergency vehicle needs to pass the queues.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#18> The street signs are in weird spots, or are non existent. (Disclaimer: I haven't been to Ireland, but I do live closeby in the UK). I find this interesting, because I found exactly the same thing true when I first went to San Francisco! It took me months to understand where to look for street signs (and I'm still fairly sure many junctions are missing them). I'm not sure if there's some pattern, but they often seem…
Definitely thought some about that. Mostly the point of the article was to say that to grow as a UI/UX dev you need to shock yourself out of being numb. So in that regard, it would work with anyone driving in a country they don't live in. They are all so different. Trying to kill comfort zone.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#19My pet peeve in Europe is the positioning of traffic lights. It drives me crazy that they not on the opposite side of the intersection, like in the US, but at the stop line. If you are in the first car at the stop line, then they are right above you and you have to crawl under the windshield to see them. Worst usability ever.
No. A million times no.
As you said traffic lights in Europe are on the leading edge of an intersection. This may in fact be the simplest and most foundational bit of usability and user experience innovation the US could learn from Europe in intersection design.
1) Placing the signals on the leading edge means that the stop line is ~10 feet back from the intersection. If you decide to ignore the stop line, you can't see the signals. BAM instant conformance to proper road use.
2) Following on that, sitting 10 feet back from the intersection you can see everything in the intersection. You can see pedestrians crossing in front of you and to the right of you. You can see cyclists entering into the intersection and passing you far before you enter the intersection. As a ped or cyclist this makes intersections much, much safer.
3) As you approach an intersection, and the light switches to yellow and then red, there can be no doubt about the state of the light as you enter the intersection. You can't enter or pass through the intersection on a red light as you might in the US, because it will be red before you even get to the intersection. This seriously reduces running lights or flying through the intersection, making intersections much, much safter for motorists.
Re: To be a better UI/UX designer, go to a foreign country, rent a car, and drive.
#20If you're in the US you probably don't have to go to Europe to experience this. Just go to another state. Despite federal standards there's a lot if variation in traffic signage, road markings, lane widths, and allowances. Many regions of Michigan, for example, do not have left turn lanes. You're expected to make a right and then a U-turn. I work in San Diego, but my employer is in Buffalo, NY. After spending a few w…
> Many regions of Michigan, for example, do not have left turn lanes. You're expected to make a right and then a U-turn.
More about the Michigan Left: http://www.michiganhighways.org/indepth/michigan_left.html