Getting Around

First Glasgow Bus Ticket

The font used on the ticket appears to be a transitional sans serif typeface. Its uniform and upright characters resemble that of transitional serif letters. The typeface holds similarities of one of the most popular typefaces, Helvetica. Helvetica is typeface which is currently in use and very popular within the transport industry. Although slightly pixilated on the ticket, the typeface is not as intense as bitmap typefaces used on the majority of transport ticket machines. A range of leading lengths have been used which compress and distance information. There appears to be no real reason as to why this is, and just makes the ticket a little ugly? (Not that the tickets should necessarily be extremely attractive.) The typeface chosen I would say does its job. It is very clear and easily legible, no daft characters have been used. For this reason it is why I believe this typeface was chosen.

There is obvious hierarchy used as the company and city is largest in size and is all in capital letters. The fact the ticket is an “adult single” is also visibly clear as it is the only information along with the date which is bold. The type of ticket and date are in bold as they would be the focal pieces of information the driver would view when the ticket is being shown to them. Smaller and insignificant information such as ticket number and driver are clearly smaller in font size as they are rarely looked at or needed on a typical short journey on a bus.

This type of ticket is used everyday by pretty much anyone who wants to. Young children and students, to business people and the elderly would use these tickets. The ticket therefore should be able to be read by all types of people and no complex and unusual language should be used. First group are fairly successful with these regards, although if anything the font could perhaps be increased for elderly people who struggle to read. Although this may no be necessary as the majority of elderly people I see using this form of transport appear to just show some sort of elderly bus card. The image printed on the paper (situated under the text) could also be removed or the opacity could be altered as the dark blue clashes with the black text.

This is my attempt at improving the First Glasgow bus ticket.

Only the vital information is presented in the centre of the ticket so the driver and passenger can easily view all they need to know. The type of ticket has been kept bold as I would agree it’s probably the most important information within the ticket. The smaller information which was placed in all corners of the old ticket, making it extremely busy, has been grouped together in smaller font size and in the corner. This placement makes the info easily accessible yet out of the way. Finally the use of white space has been increased so the ticket doesn’t become over complicated like the old one. Now all important elements are grouped together with suitable and consistent leading.