All I wanted to do was book a train ticket online

India is well regarded all over the world as a hot destination for software technology. Last time I was in Bangalore I was simply amazed with all the technological advancement where a pan shop owner, a vegetable vendor, a bus conductor were carrying cell phones and all the internet café were filled with enthusiastic students. I have no doubts about the advanced software skills India has to offer, but I am really not impressed with the basic utility type of websites to get your job done online.

I heard that The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has introduced online booking for train tickets and I wanted to try out this service. All I wanted to do was book a train ticket online from Pune to Bangalore and I was thinking in my mind that this should be easy.

Alas!! not really .. website The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation is not only confusing, but it is very very poorly designed. Too many ads on this page, it forces me to login for finding any useful information , the registration is too cumbersome and even after all that it does not really show the availability, etc. And after trying for about 30 Mins I gave up. I thought calling an agent to get this done would be much easier. If a tech savvy person like me is turned off by the design .. I can only imagine the plight of an ordinary user.

I wonder why can't the web designers for Indian Railways learn from so many examples all over the internet to come up with an intuitive design. I think users like me have to wait another couple of years before attempting to conduct business online in India.