One of the oldest usability principles tells you to “Speak the user’s language”.
Are you getting increasingly annoyed at our train companies’ idiot-speak?
In the past few weeks I’ve been to Scotland, Hull, and Sheffield. On each trip a poor “member of the cabin crew” parroted out some pre-scripted drivel. Please have your travel documents ready. My what? Please refrain from smoking in the vestibule-ettes. The what-ettes? Your next calling point is Boxford. The what-point? For your convenience today’s cabin crew are muppets who will be serving a vast array of beverages… and on and on it goes.
Their sterile idiot-speak creates a gulf of affinity between us and them. Words matter - they create meaning and meanings give rise to emotions. In this case negative ones.
We sit there in their hermetically-sealed coffins, not just disengaged from the train company, but disengaged from travelling and, worse, disengaged from life itself.
Oh dear. And relaaaax… 