No Way To Run A Railroad, Or A Swimming Pool For That Matter

Confidential Restonian Operative “Adam” sent us this "Twitter pic" of the useful signage to help people do the one thing they voluntarily go to RA Headquarters to do: pick up a pool pass. Apparently more people than usual are having trouble with what we're going to stop calling WebTrak and start calling PoolRTC, in honor of another exceptional app the people of Reston love, so they've set up a process to help people through.... the process.

Now, we’re not what the kids call “UX” design experts, but any process which requires this much explanation is probably not the most efficient. We feel sorry for the front office staff at RA headquarters trying to help people through this mess, though the multiple lines and explanations make a trip to the DMV look distinctly non-Soviet by comparison.

Also, if we’re going to have this fancy rule requiring pool pass applicants to submit photos in order to crack down on the menace of BIG TIME SWIMMING POOL FRAUD, couldn’t they have added a, whazzitcalled, “upload button” to the WebTrak SwimRTC system instead of requiring people to send photos to a random email address? And what’s next, urine samples so they can sequence the DNA of perpetrators of future pool “accidents” and bring them to justice?

Alls we know is that the RA loves their flowcharts, like this one to remind them to actually tell people before they start ripping up fields and whatnot:

Looks like we should have opted for the UX major instead of the "web logging" one when we shelled out for our PhD by mail degree, the end.