Confusing service information on platforms

[whoosh]

To my eyes the blue surround dominates to the extent that the indicator becomes much, much harder to see; the one on the right is a lot clearer.

How about this one?

X10 bus - National Express West Midlands Platinum - High Street, Halesowen

The 9 and X10 bus routes on the Hagley Road routes now have new smart card readers, with a button that you press down with your Smart card / Swift Card etc. Seems better than the old smart card reader used on other NXWM buses. I got an X10 to Halesowen from near Quinton. As I walked up the...

www.flickr.com

 

[andythebrave]

How about this one?

X10 bus - National Express West Midlands Platinum - High Street, Halesowen

The 9 and X10 bus routes on the Hagley Road routes now have new smart card readers, with a button that you press down with your Smart card / Swift Card etc. Seems better than the old smart card reader used on other NXWM buses. I got an X10 to Halesowen from near Quinton. As I walked up the...

www.flickr.com

Better in that the border doesn't dominate.
However, I believe that most of us know where to look on a bus for its route number and destination.

The subject of left v right alignment on a platform is a different kettle of fish; it would, I suggest, be somewhat clearer if the service at platform was always shown on the screen nearest to it.

At the end of the day though, perhaps the lesson to be learned is just make sure that you allow sufficient time to avoid the predominantly south eastern proclivity to be rushing everywhere and do everything in a hurry. That's when mistakes can be made no matter what way information is provided.

 

[XAM2175]

As it happens I was arguing strongly for ‘nearest the platform’; and I also thought that ‘First train’ should be a permanent printed sign on the top of the monitor. I lost that argument!

In my view this would have been the right solution. Alas.

Is the "screen next to the platform edge shows the next train" something historical or done widely elsewhere?

I also agree that "nearest to platform edge" feels more intuitive.

It's also the pattern used by the two other places that I can think of (off the top of my head, anyway) that use multiple screens to show several departures at once;
Germany:

(from https://drivest.de/4783/deutsche-bahn-rollt-digitale-auslastungsanzeige-in-weiteren-regionen-aus)

and Sydney:

(from https://twitter.com/hgreenies/status/1544435753832566784)

Notice that both configurations also have a different display format for the following trains, causing the next train to appear most prominent.

In particular the blue/cyan is not more eye-catching than the white and the yellow. It is exactly the opposite.

Overall I do wonder if the blue font used to denote the 1st / 2nd trains is not very visible. Its the white that draws me.

I agree on this too; the blue font appears subordinate to the other information. It should be in white or yellow, or reversed out from the background, and maybe even marked on the screen bezel like Bald Rick suggested.

I think a yellow border around the one on the left with a "Next train" sign on the top would help.

Alternately, this.

In an ideal situation what might also be done is to create a right-aligned version of the display for set-ups where the right-hand board is nearer to the track. In this configuration, you'd have the line diagram on the right-hand side of the screen with the station names positioned to the left, mirroring the position of the track as a subconscious clue.

However, I believe that most of us know where to look on a bus for its route number and destination.

Yeah the bus example isn't very applicable, because there's only one display on the front of the bus, and it stands out well enough. Indeed the size of the outline is almost counterproductive in the way it clutters up the front.