Students Design NYC “In Transit”
January 12, 2010
For their final projects in Jason Santa Maria’s Communicating Design course, students were asked to identify a problem within New York City’s subway system and to design a solution that addressed the problem. Students researched the system in depth, including a class trip to the New York City Transit Museum, and addressed a variety of problems ranging from learning the subway system to keeping track of how much time is spent in the system overall.
Below, a selection of students explain their projects. Photos from all projects are available at the department’s flickr stream.
Children’s Subway Map
Carmen Dukes
“I think it’s safe to assume that the MTA’s most passionate subway riders are children, yet nothing within the subway system is designed specifically for them. I think that there are creative opportunities to augment a child’s ability to learn the subway system as well as enhance their overall experience, therefore I wanted to work on a project that tackled a design challenge for the subway’s youngest riders.
A child’s mental model of the subway system may only contain a few subway stops, so my map is designed to allow a parent or child to personalize the map by only adding relevant subway stops. My inspiration for the icon designs was Ed Emberley’s drawing books. Using his simple drawing guidelines, I was able to create a playful and engaging design for young children.”
BetterMTA.info
Derek Chan and Colleen Miller
“We created BetterMTA.info as a website makeover for the New York City transit system. In our design, we suggest clear functional improvements for riders. Based on a survey of active commuters, updates include live service announcements on the home page, a prominent trip planner, and a cleaner overall layout that streamlines access to important information. We have modified the site architecture to separate different services and corporate data of the MTA system into subdomains for more focused access, in an effort to enhance the user experience. We have also created an app in which commuters can access service updates on their mobile devices.”
Voice of the Community
Richie Lau
“Voice of the Community is an augmented subway application for the iPhone that re-engages New York City’s subway system into one that publicly transports the free opinions and thoughts of its surrounding communities. It allows people to speak without censorship or limitations. The interactive experience transforms the iPhone into a graffiti art supplied tool chest filled with cans of virtual spray paint that allows augmented creations to be posted, seen, and captured.
To use the application, people download the free application and purchase virtual spray cans. Choosing from an assorted color selection, from Green Apple to Cotton Candy. Purchased cans are then stored in the iPhone’s arsenal of paint supplies. Writers shake their virtual spray cans and listen to the marble that gages the paint levels in their cans. Users point their cans at the wall and spray. Motions and movements are stored in the system at specific geographical coordinates. Users use the application’s augmented viewer to view works left at these locations where snapshots can be taken and stored. The built-in subway map marks locations that people have marked, and shared, allowing one to share their creations with their Facebook or Twitter friends and followers.”
ReDirect
Russ Maschmeyer
“Service changes are bad. Very, very bad. They often involve doubling, sometimes tripling the time it takes you to get where you’re going. To add insult to injury, the accompanying service change signage is such a riddle of dates, times, and re-directions that it often requires multiple readings to glean even a basic understanding of the change. For any transit system experiencing redirects, there are four key messages that need to be conveyed: alert the riders to a change, provide a quick overview of that change, course correct any wayward travelers, and finally, guide riders through the hallways to the proper platforms. If done right, no one should have to stop to study a sign, but study them we do. Currently, the MTA employs a single, densely packed sheet of 8.5x11” paper to convey an entire set of messaging. This is a problem worth solving.
I approached this problem with the aim to stretch out that messaging over the rider’s entire subway experience, from entering the station, to the turnstiles, to the platform and then onto the train itself. I devised a simple hack to the current station entrance and turnstile signage involving LEDs surrounding the train symbols, as well as the LED route boards on the new R160 trains, which would alert riders to service changes and cancellations. Once inside the station or on the platform during a transfer, riders would find redesigned fliers, which would include iconography, a strong information hierarchy, and a map of the service change. This is of course just a beginning, but hopefully these small changes would go a long way to making these changes a bit more digestible.”
TrainSpy
Evinn Quinn
“Train Spy is an application ecosystem that I developed for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Train Spy utilizes technological advancements with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and the uniqueness of the iPhone platform to offer an up to the minute, real time subway monitoring system. With the RFID keeping track of every train’s position, the iPhone allows you to view this information and plan accordingly. In addition to the application for iPhone users, there is an in-station viewer installed in every subway station that allows for non-mobile users to take advantage of the system.”
See all student work for In Transit.
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