User Experience – Fare Conversion Table Part 2

One year ago I blogged about how stupid the taxi fare conversion table was designed. Just around end 2008, there was another taxi fare adjustment and therefore our clever Government officials published another fare conversion table and it looks pretty much like that:

So every time after the taxi journey, the driver and you need to find the adjusted taxi fare from this table. And I can tell you, it is a tough job as your eyes need to keep hunting the correct numbers. And the problem is about how the table was designed.

Can you see how this table is designed ? Every 5 fare amount figures are grouped together, but it is not grouped based on the fare amount (e.g. ~$20, ~$30, ~$40 etc.). You may wonder why it is designed that way … and then I found out the reason. The amount figures are grouped per kilometer !! So the first group is the fare amount within the first extra one kilometer, the second group is about the second extra kilometer.

So, why it is designed that way ? Who will search the correct fare amount this way, other than the super smart Government officials ? And here is my design of this new fare amount conversion table. Is it a lot easier to use ? Of course 🙂

Author: Michael Yung

Michael possessed over 30 years of experience in Information Technology with focuses on complex application development, database technologies and IT strategy. He also spent the last 20 years in Internet technology, eCommerce development / operations, web usability, computer security and Public Key Infrastructure technologies. View all posts by Michael Yung