Rounding out the previous two posts, which have been more about the ideas behind the design than their intended look and feel. I kept this after a trip to Watford, more for the bafflement in its design / system design.

It's almost so ugly that it looks cool, but that's a stretch. A bit like how Local Plan Key Diagrams are often so overladen with information and attempts to communicate, and feel interactive at the same time, that they end up looking more like abstract textile pattern designs.

This parking permit 'interface' though represents its own type of hell. Every place I use one they're slightly differently designed. You have to inspect each one and be sure you're using it correctly, and scratching the right boxes and not missing any. Nor missing the little box for your number plate which features occasionally.

I imagine the design for these are so bad because there are multiple competitive companies in the space, and that keeping unit cost low is the priority for the buyers. This means there's no centralised UX team considering a consistent design, and no incentive to manufactures to align or invest in better design.

A case of the free market racing to the bottom on price, rather than competing to make products that are easier and better or end users.

Then again, on a conspiracy level, I do often wonder when it comes to parking permits, machines, tickets and apps, if the bad design and user experience is intentional... Perhaps the manufactures and the buyers of their scratch cards are in a Phoebus cartel-like situation. The more inconsistent all these systems are across the country (if not the world) the more people are likely to make mistakes and end up having to pay fines, even after paying for a scratch card. Just another case of deceptive design patterns, as I wrote a little about here.

That's not the case though. It's just the free market issue. A case of bad design persisting and proliferating when there's no commercial incentive to improve it.

What might improve it though? Could there be a parking disruptor? Or a policy change that pushes the need for it to be done better?