Article 2XH5 Traffic light UX

Traffic light UX

by
ericlippert
from Fabulous adventures in coding on (#2XH5)

We interrupt our series on graph traversal for the following question. Here are some UX elements from a "quiz" program I used recently:

In this series of activities, select whether each person should:

  • Stop now because the action is inappropriate
  • Proceed with caution because the action is questionable
  • Go ahead because the action is appropriate

A scenario is then given, with the following UI element:

traffic-light.png?w=584

That is, the program is testing whether or not the user can correctly apply company policy to the given scenario.

In what ways is this traffic light element wrong from a UX perspective? I am curious to see what you come up with. Please leave problems with this UX in the comments.

Here, I'll start.

The meaning of a solid yellow light on a three-lamp traffic signal is not "proceed with caution" - that's the meaning of flashing single-lamp yellow light. A solid light on a three-lamp traffic signal means "you are hereby warned that this signal is about to turn red, so stop now if you can do so safely". The analogy is therefore subtly flawed.


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