A last-minute problem at work this afternoon meant that I missed my usual train home and so had some time to kill before the next train. I was standing in an area part way down to the subterranean platform where I could still get a mobile signal and saw this list of stations that I’d never really paid any attention to before.

And then it dawned on me that this list was not what I would have expected.

I am used to all the signs and lists on railway stations showing the station stops in the order in which they are found along the route. It hadn’t really occurred to me that there would be another way of ordering them. Until I actually looked properly at this list and realised that it is in alphabetical order.

My initial reaction was one of disdain. How unhelpful. In fact, how misleading. I expected to see Farringdon at the top of this list, as that is the next station southbound, with Sutton, Sevenoaks, Ashford International and Brighton at the bottom, as these are the stations at the ends of the lines served by this platform.

But as I thought about this more I realised that there are plenty of other lists and signs at this station set out in the traditional order and that this list was simply there to serve as a quick indicator of whether you’re heading for the right platform, when speed is of the essence. And as we all know, that’s when alphabetical ordering wins hands down.

So someone has obviously been thinking about user experience (UX), which is a good thing.

I wonder if they’ll now give some thought to UX issues on the trains themselves - such as acknowledging that the current seat widths are at least 25% too small and that the spacing between rows is similarly inadequate. Rather basic points, you would have thought, wouldn’t you? But apparently not.