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I hate London Underground ticket barriers.  Don’t get me wrong, they work fantastically, especially with Oyster… most of the time… and that’s the user experience problem. They work great for most situations but…

The biggest annoyances come when using a ticket (not Oyster) and it is invalid and doesn’t go through. At that point the barrier doesn’t open.  An error condition if you will.  The person invariably stands there looking stupid, or walks into the barrier (which can sometimes be very amusing - the confused look is just so funny sometimes).

It’s all down to the way the ticket machine works. You put the ticket in the back and then it comes out of the top. Once you take the ticket, the barrier opens.  However, to get the ticket back, whether it’s valid or invalid, you have to step forwards.

That step forwards, in the subconscious minds of everyone around, is an acceptance of your ticket. Everyone trying to get through the barriers behind you then expects (because that’s what almost always happens) that the barrier will open.

If your ticket is invalid, the queue movement stops, you look stupid, you get annoyed looks from everyone behind you and much jostling as you try to go backwards through a queue that is trying to push forwards.

Not only that, but if you are directly behind and don’t notice the invalid ticket ahead of you, you can put your ticket in and they go through.  If you’re really unlucky, at that point your valid ticket has gone, the person in front with an invalid ticket has disappeared, and you can’t get through the barriers.

There’s a simple solution. Instead of both valid and invalid tickets being treated in the same way, e.g. coming out of the top, all invalid tickets should come back out of the machine the way they were put in. It’s the step forwards that matters to the crowd, not the ticket.  It’s the step that means the normal conditions apply. It would stop the person stepping forwards until their ticket is accepted, and it would stop the person behind being able to put their ticket in.  At the very least, the person behind shouldn’t be able to enter their ticket for maybe 2 seconds after an error condition, to avoid their ticket allowing the wrong person through.

Maybe it’s just me being grumpy about commuting, but I just think that London Underground could significantly improve their ticket barrier user experience.