OMNY needs a facelift
OMNY has a bigger screen but displays less information
New York City is in the process of transitioning commuters to a chip card called OMNY. Switching to chip is a good move but the new user interface is terrible.
Commuters are supposed to tap the OMNY card on the above tablet, and then walks through the turnstile when the light turns green. (Commuters can use their phone or chip credit card to pay as well. I'll be talking about OMNY card users but the content also applies to these others.)
It's as simple as that.
Sadly, the user communication is simple to the point of useless. In my months of tapping, the only responses I have seen are the green light, the red light, and, on a few occasions, the blue light. It's the four corner neons that switch colors.
When it's green, the interface does not inform me how much was charged, nor how much money I have left on my card. This information is provided to commuters in the swipe-card interface on every trip.
In addition, the swipe-card interface tells me I'm using a free transfer, e.g. when transferring from bus to subway. With OMNY, the screen once again lights up green but it shows the same green light whether the trip is charged or free!
It doesn't get better from here. When I do get a red light, it does not indicate why. Is it because I didn't hold the card long enough? Is it because the balance is too low? Is it because of software malfunction? The swipe-card display tells me whether it's out of money, and sometimes, it just tells me to swipe again. With OMNY, it's become the commuter's responsibility to figure out what went wrong (they got rid of most humans many years ago so there is usually no one around to ask, nor would they have the tools to diagnose the problem anyway).
Once in a while, the screen shows blue - I think it's a different hue of blue. It also does not explain itself. On the last occasion this happened to me, I was able to walk through the turnstile as if it was green. Who knows?
***
As a result, it takes a lot more effort to track and audit the charges under OMNY compared to swipe cards. The previous system is more honest. You pay for a service, and your payment is immediately acknowledged.
The OMNY tablet offers a much larger screen, but this real estate is wasted.
