I frequently think this when traveling and, if anything, it's probably gotten worse. It used to be a case of giving some cash to someone in a booth. Now it's often about fumbling around with some machine, hoping your credit card works if you're in a different country, figuring out what the appropriate fare type is, etc. Oh, and doing this in a tourist destination like an airport so there's a long line of people doing the same thing. No one who designs these systems gives more than 30 seconds thought to their use by people who don't use them every day.
In Melbourne, the designers got their comeuppance. The barristers ganged up with the judges, and for a while it became a principle of Victorian law that the ergonomics of public transport tickets were irredeemable, and anyone who claimed to have made a reasonable attempt to pay their fare would be let off.
That didn't last long, but the panic it provoked in the bureaucracy was hilarious.
