Elevating Interactivity

I knew I couldn’t be the only one who appreciated the tactile and auditory sensibility of those old train station flip-boards signs. I’ve been aware for a while now that their function has been completely supplanted by newer technologies that do the same job better and cheaper. But there was always something nice about those mechanical signs, especially that uniquely recognizable sound they would make when they changed the information.

Evidently the folks at Amtrak feel the same way. On a recentr trip to Boston I noticed that they’ve replaced their old mechanical board with an LED board. But they implemented an audio track that plays that familiar old flip-board sound when the information changes. I think the impetus for them to do this was that this sound serves as an auditory cue to pay attention to the board when it updates, because people tend to stand around waiting for their gate info to get posted. In any case, it’s a welcome homage to the past by my sensibilities.