Hacker News Reader

Comment by supernova87a | Hacker News Reader

I will say this though --

Japanese companies and organizations (and people) love diagrams to present to the public. Whether how to navigate a website, book a ticket, check-in to a hotel, etc. the number of process diagrams in daily life (as a perceived effective way of communicating information) is unseen outside Japan.

Also, the amount of highly detailed posters in public places. For example, the departures board of a train line -- far more information than probably the average US rider knows how to comprehend even. Or is interested in.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stem-and-leaf_time_tabl...

https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/rqaoj3/the_crazy_t...

You have to wonder whether this generates a tolerance or expectation that detail is expected to be understood.

View on HN

Both are standard-looking maps, honestly - stem and leaf is so obvious I have problems imagining what other form you'd expect, and I have never seen japanese public transport timetable sign before now. It's just standard over here (Poland, UK).

The format of metro map is actually based on London metro, the only major difference is the amount of lines.

That first board is just a list of departure times by hour, with express trains highlighted. For weekdays and weekends. Not exactly a huge amount of information.

I'm more impressed by their maps of where each station exit leads to, or where on the platform to wait based on your seat number. Those can be tricky to figure out as there are multiple wait points based on the train route and number of carriages. Shinkansen even take into account what end of the carriage you're closest to.

Here's some more examples of exactly that complexity:

https://imgur.com/a/Qzy46WV

https://imgur.com/a/7UtQnMF

That train time table actually looks more readable than a typical bus stop time table from Europe https://formstark.se/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Otraf_buss_2...

How do American public transit agencies present the same information?

From Chicago: https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/1bxiy5s/i_highligh...

Only distributed as a PDF: https://www.transitchicago.com/redline/

Overall train map: https://www.transitchicago.com/assets/1/6/ctamap_Lsystem.png

Overall train+bus maps: https://www.transitchicago.com/maps/system/ + https://www.transitchicago.com/maps/downtown/

Sooo yeah, I agree the Japanese one is much nicer. I don't recall ever even seeing a schedule at the stations, just "train arriving in X minutes". The train map and per-line map are at every station, and the train+bus map is pretty common too.

I notice the Chicago map has multiple stations with the same name -- is this not a problem when using Google Maps and other navigation apps? How would the app know which "Pulaski" I want to go to?

Those are the names of the street the station is at, if you follow the map north/south you'll see all the Pulaski stations are on the same street. In an app you'd use the address for where you want to go and it may or may not include the train. Though the apps can also understand "Blue line Pulaski" if it really is your destination rather than a stop on the way.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com