Next Stop: 2025 An Inclusive Bus Wayfinding System

NEXT STOP: 2025

An Inclusive Bus Wayfinding Solution MAJOR PROJECT REPORT Francisco Rebello 0608634

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CONTENTS-

Abstract Introduction

INITIAL RESEARCH

Opportunity Exploration Location Opportunities Scenarios and Journeys Shortlist of Briefs Selected Design Brief

DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

Current Bus Stops RTI Technology Case Study Survey: Uxbridge Bus Station Focused User Group - Older People User Bus Journeys The Scenario: At the Bus STop Research Conclusions Pre-Development PDS

DEVELOPMENT

Development Introduction Information Breakdown Hierarchy of Information / Needs Initial Concepts Information Board Development Interactive Sign Development Journey Card Development Structure Development Overall Design Guidelines Final Designs

FINAL DESIGN TESTING CONCLUSIONS REFERENCES APPENDIX

4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 21 22 22 23 24 25 26 27 35 40 42 43 49 50 54 60 63 66

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ABSTRACT

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This report summarises the work and development to date for a project focused on inclusive wayfinding at bus stops. With the initial starting point simply being ‘Inclusive Wayfinding’, the project shows the development of research from a variety of wayfinding scenarios and users to a focal point of older people’s bus journeys.. With primary research undertaken into various locations and users, the project picks out key problems and opportunities that are currently neglected in the journeys of older people.

The development of graphical communication of information was then developed based on their feedback. Through prototyping and development new information modules have been proposed, alongside a new family of bus stop structures. Project developed collaboratively with FWDesign.

INTRODUCTION

The project was originally initiated through the offer of a supported project from wayfinding specialist FWDesign, in response to an outreach to do a project on visual communication for the partially sighted. FWD had no specific brief in mind, but were very keen on the interest taken in an inclusive approach. The initial part of the project was to define through wider research a brief that could be developed, this section outlines the initial situation and boundries that had to be considered before beginning the initial research.

FWDesign

FWDesign is a wayfinding consultancy, using their “wayfinding, information graphics and product design skills to create maps, signs and urban realm products that result in spaces that are a joy to be in and navigate through” (FWDesign, 2009). Their client list includes establishments such as te Metropolitan Police, Islington Council, Kings College London and Westfields Shopping Centre.

The Creative Director, Roger Crabtree, has been the primary mentor for project support.

Example wayfinding projects by fwd (fwd, 2009)

Wayfinding

Inclusive Design

Information Graphics

The field of wayfinding is concerned with the navigation and journeys of people in various locations and scenarios. In a commercial sense, clients of wayfinding consultancies may need their expertise for applications such as system signage, campus wayfinding, wayfinding for building complexes, open space signage, transport network signage or individual signs. These clients could be anyone from local governments to hospitals, to retail stores and sports stadiums (Gibson, D 2009).

The Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre uses the quote, ‘Design of mainstream products and/or services that are accessible to, and usable by, people with the widest range of abilities within the widest range of situations without the need for special adaptation or design.’ (British Standards Institution, 2005) to define inclusive design. It is this approach that must be taken on throughout the project.

Visual Communication is concerned with the conveyance of ideas and information through a 2D medium Information Graphics develops on this with the intention of representing complex information quickly and clearly. FWDesign have a dedicated information graphics team that, taking guidance from the research and strategy team, develop suitable graphics to for the 3D forms developed by the product design team.

With these boundaries in mind, and the task of identifying a focused brief, the very first task of the project was to find an area of interest that will provide a solution that would be beneficial to FWD. With the limitations set at an inclusive wayfinding solution, it was necessary to break this down into various problem areas, to find an opportunity for design solution.

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INITIAL RESEARCH

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OPPORTUNITY EXPLORATION

User Group Opportunities

Blind

Partially Sighted

Mobility Impaired

Learning Disabilities and the Cognitively Impaired

Older People

With concern of how the general public travel around various locations, there were many user groups that could be considered from commuters to tourists, however for an inclusive design project, various disabled user groups have been researched, and as a result, these four user groups had been shortlisted as key problem areas.

“Blindness is a substantial and permanent lack of sight. A person can be registered blind if he or she can only just read the top letter of the optician’s eye chart at a distance of three meters or less. This level of visual acuity is known as 3/60 vision.” (RNIB, 2009) From a design point of view, blind users, and partially sighted users are very different, blind people cannot see very much at all, so things such as large print maps and leaflets do not help them, whereas audio and tactile feedback are very useful.

They have no useful vision, although only 25% of the registered blind see nothing at all. “ Partial sight is a less severe loss of vision. A person can register as partially sighted if he or she can only see the top letter of the eye test chart at a distance of six meters or less. This level of visual acuity is known as 6/60 vision. ” There are many different types of eye conditions that can lead to partial sight and the total loss of vision, the four biggest causes of these (RNIB, 2009) According to the Office for Disability Issues, “The percentage of people with mobility difficulties in the general population is 14%. Mobility difficulties tend to affect older people more than younger people. 45% of those aged 70 and over experience mobility difficulties, compared with 5% of those aged 16 to 49. Rates are also higher among women than men. ” (Office of Disable Issues, 2009) Thee figures count for people who are physically disabled, by impaired movement of the limbs.

Although some disabled users may not be physically or sensory impaired, users suffering from learning disabilities and cognitive impairments must also be considered in inclusive design. From Dyslexia to Dementia, these not so obvious disabilities need a new approach to be taken than just physical ergonomic changes. The term ‘dementia’ is used to describe a collection of symptoms, including a decline in memory, reasoning and communication skills, and a gradual loss of skills needed to carryout daily activities. Dementia can affect people of any age, but is most common in older people. (Alzheimer’s Society, 2007) With Britain’s ageing population growing fast, older people were definitely a user group that FWD Creative Director, Roger Crabtree was keen on. It is a user group that has been the focus of previous FWD projects and has a lot of scope for inclusivity. Older people also have varying degrees of the above disabilities, with mobility, vision, hearing and even cognitive skills depleting with age, such a Dementia. According to Age Concern, in 2006, 20.5 million people were aged over 50 in the UK (Age Concern, 2008) making this a massive market

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Location Opportunities

Parallel to researching various user groups of the inclusive public, it was also beneficial to pick out key places where the wayfinding system has failed to be inclusive or is generally quite poor. Going from past experiences and personal feedback from people spoken to, a few places were picked out to further explore Shopping Centres: From speaking to Elvia Carvalho, a former blind carer from the RNIB, it became clear that commercial shopping centres would rarely be visited by blind/visually impaired person on their own. “One of my close friends is blind and finds it very intimidating going into shopping centres” Supermarkets: The issue of navigating around supermarkets came around from a conversation with Simon Harris, who himself is severely blind and works for the Hillingdon Disabled Association. “I could walk into Tesco’s but I would have to ask everyone, ‘Where are the crisps?’ ‘Where is the butter?’”.

Bus Stations: Based upon personal experience and other people’s general experience, bus stations are a major wayfinding problem. Bus stations are usually found in town centres and are where a large amount of busses stop to begin and end their journeys. With a large amount of busses going into a lot of different destinations, with many waiting stands, finding the correct waiting area can often be very confusing.

Bus Timetables: In a bus service survey taken by ‘Help the Aged’ in Portsmouth in 2007, it was noted that 1% of older people stated that “Difficulty in reading or understanding bus timetables” as a main reason preventing them from using the bus. 20% of older people stated this as their “Other Reason” (Help the Aged 2008).

Underground Subways: A wayfinding problem usually found at certain tube stations, where finding the correct pathway to get from the underground turnstiles to the intended station exit can be confusing.

Usually these exits can be specific to a particular bus stop or shop, meaning taking the correct path is vital.

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Westfield Shopping Centre

Iceland Supermarket

Hammersmith Bus Station

Bus Stop Information

Underground Subways

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Scenarios and Journeys

Closely linked to location and user group research, it was also important to look into specific journeys of inclusive members of the public. Out of the people spoken to one older lady helped participate in an observational study of an everyday journey of hers, from her home to the high street to do her daily tasks and then home again. Recommended as a common method used by wayfinding designers, this journey was documented in photos, in which each photo of each stage of the journey was analysed. At each stage of the journey, a problem was found, design opportunity suggested and a current solution (if any) was stated. A similar process was then undertaken with another participant whose vision without their contact lenses was very poor; this journey was again documented in a trip to the local supermarket.

In conclusion to these and some more less detailed scenario studies, a wide variety of problems and design opportunities were pulled out, some related to wayfinding, and some not. The next process to do was to collate all the useful conclusions from the scenario studies, along with the user group and location research into a shortlist of briefs for Roger Crabtree at FWD to go through and suggest the best route to take.

Older Lady Everyday Journey

Low Vision Journey

Observation Analysis 10

Shortlist Of Briefs

The shortlist as presented to FWD was:

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SELECTED BRIEF – BUS STOP INFORMATION

Roger Crabtree, Creative Director FWD, undertook the selection process. Although he found them all useful, briefs 1, 3, and 4 were dismissed as they were more location specific. This meant that research undertaken and designs suggested, would need permission to take and, generally provide a lot more limitations. As stated previously Roger had always been keen on the journeys of older people, therefore briefs 5 and 2 were most appealing to him. Stating that bus transport was a key mode of travel for a lot of older people, an inclusive solution to helping them travel had the biggest potential. With the brief potentially being merged with brief 5, the solution could either be a personal handheld, or fixed public solution.

Design Brief

Together with FWD, a new brief was put together, building on the initial identification of bus stop information, a more focused brief was initiated setting out more clearer directions towards final deliverables and artefacts.

Brief Overview: Re-Design information at bus stops to make it more inclusive to the older population.

Brief Background: User Struggling to view bus information

Based on the information currently given at bus stops and research into the journeys of older people, a solution must be achieved that helps older and partially sighted people to make bus journeys from their home to their destination.

Currently, the most basic of bus stops; flag / bus stands do not all incorporate: ‘Live’ Real Time Information Sufficient Journey Planners / Route Maps Audio Information Location Mapping A focus on older and disabled people Design Brief: Design an information-led Bus Flag Stop that is fully inclusive and accessible for the journeys of older people.

Graphic elements created for stop must be utilized across a range of scales of bus stop (e.g from flag stops, to seated bus stops, and large bus stations).

The focus of the project will be to design an information solution that would improve the journeys of older people, with a secondary focus on designing the three-dimensional structure that holds this information and improves on the existing TFL bus stop structures.

In order for the project to be beneficial to FWD, any solution must be feasible to todays technology and take into consideration cost limitations

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DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH

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Current Bus Stops

Taking this new more focused brief, it was then necessary to begin to evaluate the current bus system and information at bus stops.

This image shows the current bus and bus stop system. Starting with the bus stations (C), through to the bus shelter (B), and bus flag (A), any information solution must be consistent throughout these different stands. As well as this, the diagram shows bus stops outside this bus route. As many people take more than one bus in one journey, any information solution would need to incorporate these connecting onward journeys outside the single bus route. Finally the diagram also shows the radio transmission of the bus to bus stop countdowns. FWD recommended looking into this and how it can be incorporated in to bus flags, as it is currently not included.

Bus Flag Information

Printed information found at a flag stand Taking TFL and London bus stands as the example, the current flag stands look as shown above Within this there are two blocks of information, there is the flag itself, which includes information such as the bus numbers, bus stop location, direction of busses and the TFL branding. Below that, on the flag stand is the information board (second image), this shows bus information sheets (third image), a location map (fourth image) and on some stands a TFL contact numbers sheet. The bus information sheets contain information for one bus, this includes, bus times on various days, as well as the bus route, key stops on the route, and estimated time to these stops. The location maps, shows key roads, destinations and oyster top-up points in the local area 14

Bus Shelter Information

Additional information found at seated shelters As well as including a bus flag and all of the information that contains, bus shelters also include a large route and destination finder shown above. This is a large map showing the end-to-end routes of busses from that bus stop as well as near-by bus stops. The immediate area includes a geographical local map, but past that the route map is more graphical, like the tube map. Below that is a destination finder in which at least a hundred destinations are listed and indexed to be found inside the map. Each destination contains a bus stop index number, these bus stop index numbers are found at the top of every bus stop, The route finder works by finding your desired destination in the index, identifying the index number, and then finding where that index number is on the map. The map also separates the various bus routes into different colours, allowing it to be used similarly to a tube map so that the user can work out any near-by connection routes.

Current Bus Stop Structures

Current TFL Flag Stand and Seated Shelter As stated earlier, there are two main structures to TFL’s bus stop set-up. The flag stop, the seated bus shelter and the large bus station buildings.

Flag Stops: The majority of flag stands consist of a specially design pole structure which is approximately three and a half meters tall, as well as the standard flag, and information boards many flag stops will have been ‘fitted with solar powered illuminated bus stop flags and timetable.’ In some circumstances, bus stop flags may be mounted on existing street lighting columns, however these are not compatible with the solar powered illuminated functions. (TFL Bus Priority Team, 2006).

Bus Shelters: At busy locations where there may be many people at one time waiting at a bus stop, seated bus shelters are used. Where flag stops are just poles with information, shelters are full structures that contain roofing, lighting, seating and windows for wind protection. Shelters can vary in size and ‘generally consist of between 1 and 4 panels each of 1.3m in length, with end panels of either 1.3m (full width) or 0.65m (half width).‘(TFL Bus Priority Team, 2006) Shelters are also accompanied with a flag stand, and do not exist on their own without a flag.

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RTI TECHNOLOGY

Existing countdown screen (Intelligent Transportation Systems 2002) Currently Real Time Technology (RTI) exists at a number of London bus stops in the form of LED ‘Countdown’ screens. According to Open Guide to London, Simricon the company behind some of the hardware explains that the system works by “battery-powered beacons that are placed on lamp posts along the route, and as a bus passes a beacon it receives a message from it. It re-transmits this location identifier to a central data centre, along with information about the speed that the bus is going at. The central computers use this data (along with historical data for the same route) to work out how much longer the bus is likely to take to reach stops further along its route” (Open Guide to London, 2009) However, TFL are currently updating this system, replacing all their busses with the new ‘iBus’ that uses live bus-tracking to better regulate the service. The iBus’s will give more accurate information to countdowns by using GPS satellite technology, and ‘map matching’ with inputs from a Gyroscope and the busses speedometer, Further to that the current Countdown system is being upgraded to deliver bus arrival information via the internet, mobile phones and new Countdown signs at around 2,500 key bus stops in London. (TFL, 2009) The mobile and web information is planned to be available by early 2011, and the roll out of the new Countdown signs is aimed to begin in Spring 2011. (TFL, 2009)

Information Technology

Considering that the final solution may be an interactive notice board, initial research into various display screens had to be undertaken. .

Plasma Display

Originally developed to produce flat screen TVs to replace the old CRT monitors, Plasma displays solved the problem of having wide screen TVs without having to increase the depth of the monitor.

(Harris Tom, 2002). However, plasma displays are now becoming obsolete, with development in the manufacture of LCD displays becoming better and bigger (De Boer Clint, 2008)

LCD Displays

LCD Touch Screen (Pro Touch 2009)

According to Display Bank, LCD TVs (Figure 5, second image) have become the majority of the TV market with a 50% market share of the 200 million TVs forecasted to ship globally in 2008 (Display Bank 2008). LCDs generally are lighter and more power efficient than plasmas, they can be made thinner, and do not suffer from the same burn-in effects as plasma displays (De Boer Clint, 2008).

Electronic Paper

Richard Crabtree at FWD had made it clear that the cost of installation of these bus stops is essential, and sometimes installing street furniture that needs to be connected to a power source can often be more expensive than the product itself, hence why current flag stop illumination is solar powered With this in mind, conventional TV quality LCD displays would not be feasible at flag bus stops without compromising the costs of installation. A more suitable solution would be the use of electronic or ‘epaper’. This is the type of display found in ‘E-Book’ products such as the Sony Reader (Figure 5 first image).

Sony Reader Touch (Purely Gadgets 2009)

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The image on the left Sony Reader Touch Edition (Purely Gadgets 2009) and conventional LCD Touch Screen Display (Pro Touch 2009) The advantages of electronic paper over conventional displays are that they use up a lot less energy, and would be able to be solar or battery powered. It has the resolution similar to that of a newspaper, can be read in direct sunlight and has a higher viewing angle than conventional displays (E INK, 2008).

Its disadvantages however are its limitation in producing motion graphics preventing the application of dynamic menus or even smooth zooming.

CASE STUDY SURVEY: UXBRIDGE BUS STATION

On the advice of the design strategists at FWD, the next step before starting any design development, was to collate more bus stop specific research in order to find out what the user wanted from bus stop information. It was suggested to take a case study of a specific area or bus stop, collate information on people journeys, and finding out what they actually did find difficult to read or understand at the bus stop. (See Appendix for Questionaire and Results)

Discussion of Results

This survey went underway, taking questions to the general public and bus users of Uxbridge bus station. The majority of the people asked was over 60 and fit into the category of ‘older people’.

Regular Journey Users Uxbridge Bus Station, where survey was conducted

Taking only this particular case study into consideration, most people here were on regular journeys that they knew well. They already knew what destination they were going to and had not needed to plan their journey beforehand. Most of these people, were also not taking an ongoing journey that extended further than the bus they were waiting for,

‘New Journey’ Users

The rest of the people at the bus stop, were making new unfamiliar journeys. These bus users, were very different, they were a lot more interested in using the bus maps and timetable information, and were not as confident as the others about what bus they needed to get. These ‘new journey’ users were also more likely to be taking another form of transport after their bus, whether that is a tube, another bus, or walking.

Survey Results found in Appendix

Bus Stop Information

When finding out about the usefulness of the information given at the bus stops, there were a few interesting results. The majority of people all said that the electronic countdowns were very useful, with two thirds of the sample scoring it at least 4 out of 5. It was also noted that most people said that they did not come across them very often, suggesting that such RTI information is not available at the smaller bus stops used by the older community of Uxbridge.

The printed timetable seems to be less successful, with 2/3 of the sample scoring it under 3/5. Although there were a few people that found it useful, most people either said they found it confusing, or just did not feel the need to use it. Especially in concern of the users that used the bus stops for regular journeys, printed timetables and printed route maps are not used that much, and often just avoided.

As far as people’s vision most people could read the information at bus stops well and had no trouble, however a quarter of the sample scored the legibility of bus stop information as poor, and had difficulties reading it. The sample was finally asked about their vision when viewing the bus approaching, the results of this was fairly mixed. 65% of the sample was comfortable viewing the bus from a distance, however the rest of the sample were not so confident at knowing what bus was approaching until it arrived at the stop.

Conclusion

Doing such a survey proved very useful towards quantifiably identifying what people actually thought worked and didn’t work at the bus stop. In conclusion the users of bus stops can be separated into two groups of users, people making regular, known journey, and those users making new, unfamiliar journeys. It seems that people prefer and are most comfortable with the electronic countdown information, and are not so confident using the printed information, to the extent that it is not used that much.

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FOCUSED USER GROUP - OLDER PEOPLE

After the initial user group exploration was undertaken, and the brief of bus stop information had been defined, the project had become more focused around the specific user group of older people. With the introduction of the freedom pass, anyone over 65 that lives in London can get free travel on “most busses” in the greater London area (London Councils, 2009). This leaves public transport as a major mode of travel for many older people. The initial primary research also shows that a lot of older people use the busses and public transport for journeys that need to be made on their own. As a user group, older people have their own ailments and limitations that overlap into various other disability groups. From a designers perspective it is important to know these impairments to consider these in any design.

The Mayo Foundation breaks down the deterioration of our bodies as so: Bones: “As you age, your bones shrink in size and density. Gradual loss of density weakens your bones and makes them more susceptible to fracture. Muscles, tendons and joints generally lose some strength and flexibility as you age.”

Brain and nervous system: “The number of cells (neurons) in your brain decreases with age, and your memory becomes less efficient. Your reflexes tend to become slower. You also tend to become less coordinated and may have difficulty with balance.”

Eyes: “In your 40s, focusing on objects that are close up may become more difficult. Later, the colored portions of your eyes (irises) stiffen, making your pupils less responsive. This can make it more difficult to adapt to different levels of light. Common conditions that affect aging eyes include cataracts, glaucoma and macular degeneration. “ Ears: About half of all people older than age 85 experience hearing loss. Over the years, noises can damage the sensory hair cells of your inner ears. You may have difficulty hearing high frequencies.

Some people find it difficult to follow a conversation in a crowded room.” (Mayo Foundation, 2008).

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USER BUS JOURNEYS

Persona Journeys

After collecting the general public feedback from the aforementioned survey, some sample persona journeys were then produced to try and further understand the journeys of older people. The image above shows an example of one of these personas. This shows an actual journey made by an older user going from their home to the church, then to the shops on the high street, and then home again.

By breaking down an individual journey like this, insight is given into how a simple journey is actually made, all the changes of transport included as well as walking between bus stops. This insight can then be used to understand people journey behavior, and what type of formation people need and when.

As well as this, first-hand criticisms and problems stated by the user were recorded to identify the problems they found when waiting at bus stops.

By having a variety of these journeys, they can be then considered and included in the design of any information modules that would come about as an information solution.

‘New’ Bus Journey User Studies

Focusing further into the specific journeys of users, the observations of user studies used earlier in this project was then undertook again with the focus being on using the bus. The point of this study was to look in detail at the various steps a user goes through in the whole journey of using a bus, and then picking out key problems with it and identifying the various stages involved in the process.

Upon identifying the two groups of bus passengers, those making known familiar journeys, and those making new first time journeys, the focus of this study was on user’s making new journeys, to a destination they have never been before, and must work out on their own.

User Study 1

The first study observed a middle-aged lady travelling by bus from her home to Hanger Lane station.

User at Hanger Lane searching for exit

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Key problems observed: Exiting Bus Stop: The user’s final destination was Hanger Lane station, which after arriving at her destination bus stop was on the other side of a dual carriageway, The user assumed there was a crossing or bridge down the road to get to the other side, however after walking down a good five minutes found that there was none. The way to get from the bus stop to the station was through an underground pathway near the bus stop. Unclear signage would be the fault here, as it was never obvious to the user when they exited the bus, that they had to go down that set of stairs.

Walking Between Bus Stops: The journey involved a bus transfer, where the user had to get off the first bus, walk to a near-by bus stop and take another bus. When the user got off her bus at the transfer bus stop, they had to look at the location map to find out the area she was in. The other bus stop was not indicated on the map, and she only got there in the end because she knew the name of the road.

When 2 busses arrive at the same time: When waiting for their bus, 2 busses of their intended route arrived at the same time. Some sort of better communication to the passengers as to which is the least packed may be useful here.

Other Notable Observations: Occasionally, the arriving bus may not stop exactly at the flag stop where everyone is standing. If a blind/partially sighted user had been waiting there, they would not be able to know that their bus had arrived.

As previously observed in the study of Martha’s journey, many older people struggled to get the bus to stop for them, if they were not yet at the bus stop.

User Study 2

The second bus journey study followed the user previously observed shopping without their contact lenses. Similarly, the user travelled without their contact lenses with their distorted vision.

User Searching for destination on map Key Observations: Using the Route Finder: As this was a new journey for the user, without planning their journey beforehand the only way of working out the route to their destination was by using the printed route planners at the shelter stops. Without their lenses it was very difficult for the user to make out the text on the board, particularly in the index of destinations. A major problem was that, in the end the destination they were looking for “Ruislip Gardens” was not listed.

Bus Transfers: Knowing that the final destination was not listed, the other option was to work out what bus stop the user had to travel to where they would be able to get a bus to Ruislip Gardens. This information however was not available, the only option was to take a bus near-by Ruislip Station, and then work out the next step once there.

Identifying Bus: With low vision, it was not possible for the user to know which bus was approaching the bus stop. As the bus stop they were waiting at had about six busses arriving this was a major problem, and only identified the correct bus, as it had arrived and the drown of other users had already approached it.

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THE SCENARIO: AT THE BUS STOP

With enough information collated on the methods of various peoples journeys, and how bus stops are used from beginning to end, the research could now move towards having design development in mind.

The first stage of this would be to break down the method of using a bus stop into separate stages.

Above shows the first three steps in this scenario technique, the full scenario steps are then ordered in the information breakdown in the development stage.

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RESEARCH CONCLUSION

From a very wide investigation of the whole wayfinding discipline and user groups, the research section of the project had been to breakdown real needs and problems of people to identify a good opportunity for design. With real evidence and the backing of wayfinding professionals, the project has taken the focus of wayfinding for bus stops. By analysing the information currently given at London bus stops, and speaking to the users that use them, the project is now at a stage where these issues can be addressed into suitable solutions.

With a more focused view of the bus stop environment and a variety of quotes, feedback and insight from the people that use them, it was now possible to breakdown the various issues into problems that needed addressing: • Information helping user to plan their whole journey, from the initial bus route to their onward

journey, whether that entails another bus or another mode of transport.

• Stopping busses at ‘Request Stops’, and managing driver behaviour.

• Inclusive indicators of bus arrival and bus locations.

• Finding local amenity shops in local area.

• Knowing which direction the bus stop’s busses are travelling to.

Please see appendix for pre-development Product Design Specification.

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DEVELOPMENT

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DEVELOPMENT INTRODUCTION

The beginning of this project started with no real design brief, but simply the task of exploring inclusive wayfinding and identifying an opportunity for design project beneficial to FW Design. Once the area of bus stop information had been highlighted and a brief was set up, research began to move towards the collection of information and insight that would inform the development of a final design.

With the collection of this data concluded, and development suggestions made, the project then moved into its solution development stage.

The brief from FWD was to design information modules that would be compatible with all formats of bus stop. With a strong information focus, the secondary part of the brief was to also design the bus stop structure that this information will be hosed in.

This section of the report is a summary of the development of these designs from initial concepts to final design proposal.

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INFORMATION BREAKDOWN

By the end of the research stage, initial sketch concepts had been suggested to FWD to receive feedback as to the direction that they felt the concepts could go. Their feedback was to build on the concluded research, taking into account the highlighted user problems, survey feedback and scenario knowledge, and produce a hierarchy of information that will dictate the design of the solution’s information modules.

Information Breakdown of /Bus Stop

Prior to making an information hierarchy, the information had to be separated into points that could be put into priorities. Using the questions and steps of “The Scenario” study, a list was created showing the various information points that the user would come across.

Problems that Bus Stops answer, what you do there and when?

Before the bus stop 1.

2.

3.

Identifying where there is a bus stop.

Identifying whether the bus stop has the bus number you want.

Confirming whether that stop is the exact stop you want.

Waiting for the bus 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

Confirming that the destination you want is on that bus route Working out how long you have to wait for the next bus Waiting for the bus to arrive.

Identifying if a bus is approaching.

Identifying what bus this is Hailing the bus to a stop Getting on to the bus

On the bus

11. Identifying the bus stop location, when sitting on top floor.

12. Identifying if the bus is heading to the destination you want, when sitting on top floor.

Exiting the bus 13. Working out where you have to go to next.

14. Identifying how to walk to the next bus stop / tube station / intended destination This breakdown of information was undertook by identifying all of the key steps that a user takes when using a bus stop, from finding the bus stop in the place, to exiting the bus stop and going to the next destination. The points were separated into groups as they were relevant only to that situation, and would not be suitable to compare with each other.

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HIERARCHY OF INFORMATION NEEDS

Taking the identified information points from the information breakdown, these points could then be prioritized in order of most important to the user. A conventional hierarchy would be linear, with a topmost point, followed by the rest. However due to the different situations that are dealt with by the bus stop, such an approach is not appropriate here. Many of the points of the various groups do not compare with each other; therefore each group has its own linear hierarchy of priorities. These situation groups are then prioritized into their own hierarchy, as to what points are the most urgent to the user.

Hierarchy of Information / Needs Identifying the Bus Stop Waiting for the Bus Stop Distinguishing Bus Stop Bus Stop Branding Bus Numbers Direction of Busses Bus Stop Location Bus Stop ID

Next Arrival Time for the Bus Identifying if there is a Bus coming Identifying what the approaching bus is

Exiting the Bus at intended Destination Bus Stop Location

New Journeys.

Finding your Route

Bus Numbers Local Map Key Locations Bus Stops Oyster Top-Upa

Destination Index Bus Index What busses from this this stop go to...

What bus do I need to get?

Where do I need to get off?

What bus stops at my final destination?

If that bus does not go here, where can I get that bus?

If that What bus do I need to get there?

The hierarchy shows that as far as basic human needs of the bus stop, the most fundamental function of the bus stop is that it needs to be found. Without the user finding it, it cannot be used, therefore identifying it as a bus stop, and then as the correct bus stop is the top of the hierarchy.

Following this, all the information needed when waiting for the bus is next on the priority list. In most cases, the user already knows what bus they need to get and therefore mostly just concerned about when their bus is arriving. After this, the user needs to know when they have to get off. This may be provided by on-bus announcements, or from previous knowledge, however this information is also included on the bus flag though the location name. This helps the user confirm that this is the correct stop they need to get down, if they are new to the area, then an area map would also be helpful to them.

The final hierarchy category was not such a straightforward one. For the majority of users that already know their journey, the ‘new journey’ information such as route planners, are not so relevant, and would not really be used, However, for people making first time journeys, this information is valuable, and would probably be the second highest priority in their hierarchy of needs, as they would not know what bus to wait for until they had worked it all out.

It is therefore important to make the distinction now between the two journey types, the ‘regular journeys’ and the ‘new journeys’, both with their own hierarchies.

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INITIAL CONCEPTS

With a hierarchy of information to now work from, the next task was to propose some initial concepts for information solutions that would be discussed with FWD. There were 5 main issues that were highlighted from the Information hierarchy that needed to be addressed in the improved information solutions.

Concept 1: Live Bus Information Board

Concept 2: Personalized Journey Cards

Concept 3: Interactive Planner

Concept 4: Passenger Waiting Flag Illumination

Concept 5: Bus Stop Structure:

Addressing Bus Arrival Times: When at the bus stop, once you know what bus you need, the primary focus of the user is to know when the next bus is arriving. Therefore the first solution concept was a real-time-information board giving live bus arrival information.

Addressing Pre-Journey Planning: Research showed that many older and disabled users planned their journey in detail before they had to go out anywhere on their own. By using existing ‘TFL Journey Planner’ technology, personalized information cards can be made for the user to take on their journey.

Addressing Shelter Route Planner: Currently at seated bus shelters, a large poster map is available that people use to find out how to get to their intended destination. Because it contains a lot information and destination names into printed media, the text is forced to be very small and hard to read. The proposed concept would be to replace this map with an interactive touch screen panel.

Addressing the Hailing of Busses: Research showed that older people often have trouble hailing down busses at bus stops, especially if they were not yet at the stop and the bus would leave before they have a chance to signal it. The proposed concept for this problem is an interactive illuminated flag, which signals the bus driver to stop through flag lighting.

Addressing Missed Opportunities in Existing Structures: From the most basic existing structure, the flag, there are many missed opportunities such as shelter and seating. The new concept solution should address such issues and produce a feasible design form.

These concepts were then presented to Roger Crabtree at FWD in presentation boards, to receive his feedback on whether these concepts were any good, and what the next steps in developing these could be.

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Concept 1 Live Bus Information Initial Proposed Concept

Problem:

The existing information board is limited by the restrictions of printed media. Having to fit the information of a whole year into the space of an individual bus sheet 360 mm tall and 260 mm wide. The result is a bus sheet that half covered in columns of numbers for bus arrival times and a small space displaying the bus route with small, diagonally aligned labels.

Existing timetable information

Proposed Concept Solution:

FWD Feedback:

Taking into account the user and scenario research, coupled with the hierarchy of information, it was concluded that the main question that a timetable answered was the question of “When is my bus arriving?� With the use of digital media as opposed to print, this answer can be answered in one digit, telling the user how many minutes are left for their bus to arrive.

It only tells the user the time for the next bus, and not the whole timetable for the year, as that information is available online if needs be, but is not necessarily appropriate when waiting for your bus at the stop.

By shrinking the size of the space used for the arrival times, the majority of the space would then be used to display the route, stop by stop. The route section would also display the busses that are available at each stop on the route to help the user know where they can transfer busses. As well as this, the route will incorporate the live bus information, by having a moving bus indicator communicating to the user the location of the next bus as it moves.

The initial reaction from Roger, the Creative Director was very positive; he remarked that graphically alone it was an obvious improvement on existing timetables and was visually pleasing.

When the concept was explained to him, he said that it was necessary that the feasibility of the digital number idea had to be proven through research, questioning how it could all be powered.

The feasibility and necessity of the moving bus icon was also questioned, stating that the added amount of LED screen needed would be very expensive for what is not necessarily the most important information.

Roger also questioned whether the board may be clearer without the bus transfer icons. He preferred it without and enquired whether they were that useful.

Rger concluded with a table highlighting the different tiers of improvement the information module could achieve: Tier 1: Improved Graphics Tier 2: Improved Graphics + Integrated RTI Time Tier 3: Improved Graphics + Integrated RTI Time + Bus Position The end solution should fit into one of these tiers; with his suggestion of the most realistic being the second tier.

FWD recommended the next stage was to experiment with graphical compromises of the existing boards taking out elements, and testing the boards on users, to see what they prefer.

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Initial Concept and prototype 1 pitched to FWD

Bus Number and Destination

U4 7 Hillingdon

E - Paper Strip

Bus Stop U1

Bus Stop

Time left for bus in minutes Bus Stop on Route

U1

Bus Icon showing where Bus currently is

Bus Stop U1 222

Bus Stop

Busses that stop at that stop

U1 222

Bus Stop

“You are Here�

Indcator

U1 222 U5

Bus Stop 222 U5

Bus Stop

Bus Route

Tube Station next to Stop

U1 222 U5 U1 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222

Bus Stop Bus Stop 222

Bus Stop 222

Bus Stop 222 U5

Bus Stop 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222 U5

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Concept 2 Personalised Journey Cards

Problem:

Proposed Concept Solution:

Currently if bus passengers want to take journey planning information on the journey with them, their two options are printing information from the TFL Journey Planner website, or writing it down themselves, the latter being the most popular with older users noting down instructions on paper or ‘Post-It’ notes.

The concept proposed to FWD was personalized journey cards that were either printed from home, or at the user’s local oyster top-up agent. Based on the stages mapped out in the scenario study, the cards show a step by step guide to direct the user from their home (or location of print) to the necessary bus stop, and provides information as to what bus they need to get and when it would be arriving, as well as directing them from the destination stop to their final destination. This clear step-by-step process is a very user-friendly method, and the use of physical cards as opposed to a digital device is much more appropriate for older people. However the design of these graphics would be appropriate to be used on mobile devices and smart phones.

Getting from the place of purchase or download, to the first Bus Stop

Exit train station, turn left, walk down St Johns Rd. Take 1st right and Bus stop is there.

How long is the bus journey? (time / bus stops) When to get off?

Destination bus stop name.

Bus Stop U1

Bus Stop U1

Bus Stop U1 222

Bus Stop U1 222

Bus Stop U1 222 U5

8 Stops

Bus Stop 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222 U5 U1 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222

Bus Stop Bus Stop 222

Bus Stop 222

Bus Stop

Approx 15 Mins

222 U5

Bus Stop 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222 U5

Bus Stop U1 222 U5

Station Road

Confirming that the bus stop is correct.

Knowing which bus goes to that destination.

The bus arrival times

A17 U5

Towards Hayes & Harlington

222

U5

Towards Hayes & Harlington

12.03 12.14

222 Towards West Drayton Station

Getting from that bus stop to your final destination

Cowley

C08

12.03 12.14

12.32 12.45 Towards West Drayton Station

12.32 12.45

Exit train station, turn left, walk down St Johns Rd. Take 1st right and Bus stop is there.

Concept Pitch to FWD

FWD Feedback:

Again the FWD initial reaction was positive, and was a concept that Roger really liked. Key areas discussed were: The compatibility of the cards with home printing. It was suggested that the cards should be redesigned to be able print from an A4 page, and should work in grayscale as well as in colour. The printing concept was also discussed in the context of printing in top-up agents about, whether these cards could be reformatted to fit the limitations of receipt printers.

Although the concept of travel aid cards was taken positively, the question was raised about the appropriateness of having personalized cards. Roger suggested the concept of general bus network cards that would still be consistent with the bus stop design already conceived.

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Initial prototype cards pitched to FWD

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Concept 3 Interactive Panel

Problem:

Proposed Concept Solution:

Currently the best way of ‘new journey’ users finding their way around is to use the route planning maps at seated bus shelters. This is a graphic poster that includes a bus route map and large index of destinations and busses. However its success is questionable. Feedback from the bus stop survey was that the printed maps were not used that often and were visually quite intimidating. Feedback from the user trials were that the text on the index of names was too small to read and too closely spaced together, as well as this, some important information was placed at the top of the poster, which was not accessible to the user.

The problems related to this map poster are inevitable as it is a difficult task to put so much information on to a limited space of that of a poster. The solution would be to have an interactive touch screen panel. The advantage of having a digital guide is that a lot more information can be communicated in a more clear way. The panel would include a full guide to travelling around the whole of London.

The user waiting at the stop could simply enter their destination and receive all the route planning and journey information they need.

Enter Destination

Enter Destination

Hillingdon

U4

Towards Hayes

Next Bus in

3 mins Get off at Hillingdon Hospital

See Next Bus OR Busses towards

Bus Stop

U1

Hillingdon

Bus Stop

U1 222

Bus Stop

U1 222

U4

Towards Hayes

2

427 5 U2 6 Towards Hayes

Towards Hayes

Bus Stop

Bus Stop U1 222 U5 Bus Stop 222 U5 Bus Stop U1 222 U5 Bus Stop

U1 222U 5

Bus Stop

U1 222

Bus Stop

222

Bus Stop

222

222 Bus Stop

U5

Bus Stop Bus Stop

222U 5

Bus Stop

222U 5

Bus Stop

U1 222 U5

Bus Stop

U1 222U 5

Bus Stop

Concept Pitch to FWD

FWD Feedback:

When taking into consideration the amount for detail needed for a database of locations and the ability to produce a program that calculates the best route to travel through, it was decided that the exclusion of this module from the deliverables of this project would be wise and beneficial to the design of the other modules. A complete travel guide has many destinations and maps, and would be a huge project on its own, therefore including this device would only take up a huge amount of time that would only produce a deliverable that could never be a sufficient refection of a full London bus guide.

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Concept 4 Flag Information

Problem:

Proposed Concept Solution:

From speaking to Simon Harris at the Hillingdon Disabled Association (DASH), a major complaint received was of older and visually impaired users being ignored by bus drivers when waiting at ‘request stops’ at suburban roads where there are many cars parked around the bus stop. Further to this, bus drivers missing older people was also an observation made in the user study research.

In order to solve this issue of waiting passengers being ignored by bus drivers, an innovative flag illumination concept was proposed. It would work by the user selecting the bus they want as they get to the bus stop, and the block on the sign that holds that number would light up red indicating that the user is waiting for that bus. This means that when a bus driver is approaching the stop, they can see from afar that there is somebody at the bus stop wanting their bus, as opposed to a different bus number. The concept also included a feature that when a bus has left the previous stop, its number on the sign would light up blue. This feature would allow the user extra time to prepare themselves for the approaching bus earlier than they previously would. This helps visually impaired users as they previously would not have known their bus was approaching until everyone else had gotten up from their seats, it would also allow older people more time to stand up and find their oyster card or bus money. This would allow all users to be ready for their bus, and avoid people missing their bus as happens currently.

222 427 U4 U5 U4 U5 83 222

E2

427

User selects bus that they need.

83

U4 U5

83

U4 U5

83

222 E2 427 222 E2 427 222 E2 427 Selected bus route number is illuminated in blue to indicate to the driver that user is waiting for their bus.

When an arriving bus leaves the last bus stop, that route number illuminates in red.

When bus is a minute away, the red light pulsates, to allow elderly users to get ready to enter the bus..

583

U2

MON - FRI

U7 N207 NIGHT BUS

Uxbridge High Street

B

Towards Southall or West Drayton

Concept Pitch to FWD

FWD Feedback:

Problem:

This concept was taken well by FWD but at the time was not yet resolved enough for a full review. The idea of communicating to the bus driver was liked, however more thought had to be taken into how the user would select what bus they wanted, and how this interface would integrate into the information boards of concept 1. The function of signalling to users when a bus is arriving was also received well Looking at the current setup of TFL bus stops, from the user’s perspective, the flag stop has many weaknesses. Feedback from user interviews was that the lack of seating and shelter were a real problem for older users.

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Concept 5 Structure

Proposed Concept Solution:

At the time of presentation, the bus stop structure was the least known of all the concepts. Many forms were presented with the aim of a new structure that was intermediate between a flag stop and a seated shelter. The proposed concepts had to be an improvement on the existing flags, this meant including at least the addition of shelter or seating.

Most initial form sketches

FWD Feedback:

First Iteration Stage

The bus stop structure at the time was least developed and guidance from FWD was strongly needed.

The initial concept sketches were very vague and showed no particular direction. Creative Director, Roger Crabtree suggested writing up a list of basic requirements that the bus stop must meet, and build a form around this. A basic sketch was also produced showing an example of how the form might work.

Initial Dimension Constraints: The FWD concept pitch and very initial design concepts were all designed to the di-

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Concept 1 Information Boards Development

mensions of the existing TFL board space of 950mm by 260 mm. The initial concept board was 200mm wide by 900mm long. In order to include the other information and white space borders, the space set out for each bus sheet was 260mm by 70mm. this was the set dimensions that all initial concept bus sheets were constrained by.

Applying Initial Concept to an Existing Route: The concept boards pitched to FWD displayed the graphical idea and layout of any information boards, but was not based on any real routes, and an assumption was made on the amount of bus stops there were on a route. Current TFL bus stop boards give a summarized route of bus stops, only showing the key stops on a route The concept that was pitched to FWD was for a full route with all of its bus stops, including the busses that stop at each stop.

The real route used for the concepts was the 427 bus. When including all of the bus stop on this route, it became evident that the initial assumption of bus stop s on a route was highly underestimated. A route map that included all 60 bus stops (London Busses, 2010) on the 427 bus route, was far too dense and clustered, the text had to be very small and there could be very little space between stops. Applying the current system of a summarized route of 12 bus stops to the same space was a lot more clearer and easy to read, however did not add much more information to make it an improvement on the existing sheets.

The idea of including every bus that passed every stop on a route was also misguided, as there were many stops that included more than 6 busses, making it once again very clustered and difficult to read.

Finally the concept of having a live bus icon that moves across the route was now in consideration of removal. If the full route could no longer be used because of the clutter it caused, then the summarized route of key stops would be used. Having the live bus across the summarized route would not be as helpful in telling the user where the bus is, as when it is in between key stops, it would not be clear as to the actual location of the bus.

Cluttered board of full 427 route

Summary of Decisions: After testing out the full route maps against the summarized routes, it was clear that the full route could not be used and users much preferred the summarized route. The next step was to design a graphical compromise between adding information to the route, and keeping it clean and legible.

The concept of having bus number icons for every bus at each top, was at this point removed, as it was unfeasible to do such a thing within the space restrictions, and would also be not that helpful when used on the summarized route.

At this stage, the addition of a live bus icon was also in doubt, although not completely removed, it was removed from subsequent concepts with the mind of fitting it in later, if there was space.

Second Iteration Stage

35

Filling ‘Information Gaps’: Initial feedback from Roger at FWD was that a big part of improving the information boards was to fill in ‘gaps’ where the existing boards are missing information. The initial concept did add additional information with concepts of a live bus location and bus icons per bus stop. However with the demise of these ideas, it became even more necessary to include added information to the concept. It became apparent that the biggest task of this concept was to get the right compromise of adding extra information whilst keeping it as clear and minimal.

Journey Mental Maps In consideration of improving user’s understanding of the bus route, and helping their wayfinding ability in travelling on the bus network, the use of mental models can be used. Mental model are an explanation of someone’s thought process about how something works in the real world. According to David Gibson, there are “four main types of wayfinding strategies, based on connectors, districts, landmarks, and streets” which are in essence “mental maps” (Gibson, 2009).

By speaking to various bus users and finding out how they visualize a journey, logical mental maps can be produced to help explain the journey of a bus. Three main mental models were suggested based on the previously stated strategies.

Landmarks: (Bus Stops) The most obvious way to visualize a journey would be by the stops that users pass. For example, a user may describe a journey as “Take the 427 bus, and get off after 5 stops”. This is the most basic graphic element on the route graphic, and is a possible reason why as many bus stops included in the route, the better.

Landmarks: (Building Landmarks) Further to bus stops being used as landmarks, bus journeys include many visual street landmarks that can also help explaining a journey to a user. Users may think of a journey as “3 bus stops after the church” or “the stop before Uxbridge train station”. Graphically these landmarks could be included in the route, possibly through icons.

Streets: (Road Journey) Many users also visualize their journey through the road journey that the bus actually it takes. For example a user might know that to get to Cowley High Road, they would have to pass Uxbridge Road. This information of a road journey of the bus could also be included in the route mapping.

Districts: (Towns and ‘Villages’) A journey may also be visualised by the towns that the bus passes through. Users may know the approximate area that their destination is located in and the places it passes through, by separating the bus stops into the towns that they lie in, can aid the ‘new bus journey’ users when arriving in a town and understanding the area they need to travel in. This model is also most useful for long journeys that pass through towns, as opposed to local journeys, in which landmarks would be more significant. The execution of this proved difficult, as there was not enough space to the town names in, so experimentation was made by separating 36

Experiment and development of mental model based graphics

37

towns by lines, colours and labels.

Time: (Distance in Minutes) Finally, as well as wanting to know the time it takes to travel to their destination, time can also be used as a journey model, for when explaining that somewhere is “about 15 minutes from the hospital”.

Landmarks for Older People: When looking into the research made into dementia and the journeys of older people, the use of landmarks was very common. Visual landmarks such as churches. hospitals, football grounds and schools are known places that may be embedded in the memory of an older person or dementia sufferer. Where words may be confusing or unclear the use of images or graphics to display these known places should prove useful to these users.

Mixed Route Detail Iteration Stage 1 highlighted the choice of displaying a full route or summarised route. The concept boards used a mixture of these, with a summarized route with the twist of showing the smaller bus stops either side of the stop the user is waiting at.

Therefore local journeys include details of all the bus stops, but journeys further away only show the key stops. For the most part, this compromise seemed to work.

Experimentation was also made with the use of a summarized route, with unnamed mini nodes on the route graphic to communicate the number of stops there are between the key stops.

Third Iteration Stage ‘Next Bus’ Communication The original communication of when the next bus was arriving was through the “minutes remaining” screen, and the live moving bus icon. Since the extra information of areas and landmarks had been added, there was no longer space for the LED track of the bus icon. Experimentation was made to replace this with a screen that indicated the number of stops away the bus was.

Final Iteration ‘You Are Here’ The final iteration included one major decision. Where all the concepts so far had a label or icon to indicate where the user is on the route, the final iteration takes a different approach. Taking inspiration from the route maps used on the London Underground, the final information boards only display the bus stops after the current stop.

Therefore none of the bus stops leading up to the one the user is waiting at is shown.

The reasoning behind this is that the user does not need to find out about the places that the bus they are waiting for is not going to. It also can free up space for clearer graphics, and allows for better orientation distinction, as it would be clear to the user which direction the bus is travelling to.

With the beginning of the route no longer displayed, the question was to how to now 38

communicate that the first stop on the graphic, is not the start of the route, but the middle, and how to show that the last stop on the graphic is actually the end of the route. After experimenting with different graphic icons, it was decided that the first bus stop on the track (if not the starting stop) would be a large downward pointing arrow instead of the standard bus stop nodes. The arrow indicates the direction that the bus is travelling to and suggests that the line of the graphic extends further on.

Map and Additional Information The final touch to the information board was the addition of a map. Using the same area as shown in the existing map information, the map has been re-orientated to be viewed as head up map, with everything to the right of the bus stop, labelled on the right of the map, and same on the left. The bus stop the user is at, as well as the opposing bus stop is labelled on the map by their bus stop indicator code. Also labelled on the map is the symbols showing local landmarks labelled on the bus routes. After experimenting with information layouts, the final rules for all the information is that: If not filled to capacity, bus route sheets must always be placed on the left, and maps and additional information be places on the right. The information space also contains three vertical tiers of information, when not filled to capacity, priority should always be giving to filling the place in the middle tier.

Information Requirements:

Experiment with layout of information, the diagram on the right, indicates how the final layout should be.

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Concept 2 Interactive Sign Development

Based on the existing TFL sign, there were three pieces of information that needed to be included in the sign.

Bus Stop Logo: This is necessary to make the structure distinctive as a bus stop, and indicate without words that this is where to wait for a bus. In London, the TFL logo is recognizable as this sign, however in general, the use of a pictogram of a bus is recommended (DfT, 2006).

Bus Numbers: to inform the user as to what bus routes they can get at the bus stop.

Bus Stop Location and Direction of Travel: Towards (name of next town / principal destination) helps travellers who are not familiar with the area. (DfT, 2006) Dimension Requirements: Sourced from two documents, the Inclusive Mobility Guide, by the Department of Transport (DfT, 2006), and Bus Stop Design Guide by Translink (Translink, 2005), recommendations are stated for the minimum dimension requirements of bus stop design.

The DfT recommends a height of 400 mm by a width of 450 mm for the bus stop sign. The same document suggests minimum height of 50 mm for the height of the bus numbers on the sign.

Information Breakdown: From the previous scenario study and concluding information hierarchy, the sign could then be developed. The scenario study showed, that the very first thing that the user does is to find a bus stop, therefore the sign must be distinctive and clear as a bus stop. Translink recommends a “distinctive design or contrasting colour” to be used, which is why the top band of the bus stop will be red, which will include the TFL logo. The top red band, will also hold an important piece of information for people who disembark their bus at that bus stop and want to know where they are, as this will hold the location name. Below this, in a dark grey band, will be the “Towards …” information, informing the user as to what direction the bus is travelling to, which is the next step on the hierarchy after finding your bus number.

The bus numbers themselves will be the largest type text on the board, and so maintains its position as key to the information hierarchy. As some busses need special messages , the will be placed under the bus number within its box.

The bus stop identification code is the code used to identify bus stops when there are many bus stops within one area. When this is needed, it will be placed appropriately under the location name in the grey band.

Information Volume: The dimensions of the flag were designed to be larger than the minimum requirements, being 500mm by 650 mm. However, consideration had to be taken into a variety of bus stops, from those with only one bus, to those with up to 14 busses at a stop.

The minimum height of a sign recommended by the DfT is 2500 mm. With 9 busses the proposed concept stays within this limit, however if a bus stop needs more than 9 bus routes, the flag dips below the recommended height.

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Illumination Concept: Initially, the concept for this flag was to have a two colour lighting system. The initial idea was that a user selects what bus they want, and that bus number box is lit up on the sign, indicating to the bus driver that someone is waiting for that bus.

Through development of the information boards however, it was decided that the interface needed to support this feature would not plausibly fit into anywhere on the information board. The concept was proposed to stop older users from being missed out at the bus stop, however the secondary lighting system still aids this solution.

The red lighting system, lights up the bus number of the bus that has just left the last bus stop. This still helps the user by allowing them time to get ready and hail the bus themselves manually.

Audio Information Complementary to the graphic and text information, the bus stops will include live announcements, informing users when the bus has left the last stop, allowing inclusivity to the severely blind, and giving a travel journey more similar to waiting at a train platform.

Sign Fabrication: In order to allow for this selective illumination, the sign should be fabricated as a ‘flex-face’ light-box sign system. This is a common system used by sign makers for outdoor illuminated signs and is more efficient than traditional transluscent acrylic (Prestigious Signs 2010). The graphics can then be fabricated in a vinyl appliqué, which is graphics cut from vinyl and pressed on to the sign (Gibson, 2009).

The flag will be totally illuminated at night by white LEDs mounted behind its surface, and red LEDs will be mounted behind each number panel to be triggered on by the bus as it leaves the last stop.

The initial ‘journey cards’ concept pitched to FWD was taken positively, but there were many details that still needed refining.

Labelling: The most initial prototype designed contained solely the instructions needed to make the journey and a grey band at the bottom of the card with a number indicating the order that the card relates to. To make the card system more user friendly, titles were then added to the top of each card, which told the user what the instruction was about as well as including its card number as well.

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Concept 3 Journey Cards Development

Francisco’s Journey Card

From: Brunel University To: Uxbridge Station

1

Walk To Bus Stop

Exit University to Kingston Lane.

Turn left Walk Down Turn left at Hillingdon Road.

Bus Stop is Just Ahead.

1

2

Walk To Bus Stop

Finding correct bus stop

The Greenway

BE Towards Uxbridge and Ruislip

Developed Personal Card

42

Journey Cards or Bus Network Cards: The original idea for this concept was to have cards that the user defined by selecting their destination, and personalized information would be generated specifically for their journey. However when pitching it to FWD, the feedback was to question whether the personalized information idea was feasible, and whether it would be correct to have a ‘product’ that is generated through the internet to be aimed at old people. The creative director, Roger suggested designing a prototype card set that was not personalized, but rather a general bus network card that could be used by many users.

A prototype was produced, named as a ‘Local Bus Stop Card’. This card set is not based on any input by the user, but would be found at a newsagent or train station, giving directions to near-by bus stops. Instead of information specific to one journey, the cards would show the information for all of the busses that stop at that stop. The advantage of this new card is that it is more accessible to be used by everyone, but its disadvantages would be the lack of personalized information.

When weighing up the two card sets against each other, it was decided that the original journey card idea added more to improve the existing TFL system. Based on user research of people noting down directions before they left the house, the personal journey cards would be of greater help, than general bus information that is given now. The point made by FWD about its web-based input not being accessible to older people is valid, however the concept here is not necessarily designed for the present and the project is more focused towards the future when today’s generation will become the older people that make up half of Britain’s population.

Print Compatibility: The initial concept of these ‘cards’ were for them to accessible from a variety of different outlets and media, from home printing via TFL Journey Planner, at the train station via the Oyster Card Kiosk, and even screens on a smartphone.

The final prototype of cards, are printed onto high quality 280 GSM cards, this would be a reflection of the cards that would get printed externally at the tube station Oyster Card kiosk. When shown to FWD they suggested a printer friendly prototype, printing a set, to the limitations of home printing, keeping it to a maximum A4 format in both colour and black and white. With these limitations, the results were still successful.

Consideration had to be put into how the cards would work on a single sided printer, with the final layout being cards laid out vertically, with their counterpart sides printed next to them to be folded over.

Concept 4 Form Structure Development

First Iteration Stage

On the feedback of FWD, the first iteration of this concept was to go back to the basics, and write up a basic requirements list that the form should follow. Looking back at some of the decisions made earlier in the research and information design sections of the project, the following list was compiled in order of priority of the most necessary features.

Space Restriction Priority List: Information Space including Bus Flag Shelter Illumination Solar Charging and Battery Provision Control Set and Electronic Provision Weather Protection Seating This list gave a clearer idea of what basic requirements the bus stop needed to meet, with the requirements being less necessary to include as you go down the list. As well as this, design consideration must be taken into cost limitations for this product to be of any benefit to FWD. The diagram below shows a diagram sketch by Roger visually outlining how the space requirements needed for the information and control provisions will determine the form of the final design.

Sketch by Roger Crabtree

Introduction of Modular Approach: The initial brief of this project was to have modular information that could be applied throughout the various bus stop structures. With these in place, FWD suggested taking a similar modular approach to the structure of the bus stop, almost a “kit-of-parts” approach to design a set of parts that can make a flag stop a shelter, and even extended shelters. A sketch mock up by Roger is shown on the next page outlining this modular approach.

This new modular approach then became the new direction for the structure development section of the project.

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Sketch by Roger Crabtree

Second Iteration Stage

Form Development: Developing on this new modular structure proposed by FWD, the next stage was to design a new form that would meet this modular requirement as well as meet as many of the requirements of the priority list.

Leaving behind the vague hand sketches that were made previous to the new modular approach, a more logical, definite approach was taken by drawing up these new designs in the vector drawing program, Adobe Illustrator. At this initial stage, the forms were designed around the most basic form of bus stop, the flag stop.

Initial Form Designs

The image above shows some of the initial forms designed in response to the new structure developed. Many of the designs were strong, and looked aesthetically pleasing, yet one stood out as having the most potential, this is shown on the next page.

The form takes much from the initial FWD sketch, however the decision to make the 44

flag sign be placed under the roof instead of over it, gives the form a more organic flow allowing the profile of the structure to be more simple. The side profile looks very contemporary and looks like one line bent into a functional form.

Third Iteration Stage

Module Development: With the basic form of the flag stand decided upon, this form could then be applied to the various other formats of bus stop developed.

Firstly in addition to the basic flag, this flag could also be fitted with a seat, making the flag itself a modular structure with the option of having it with or without seating.

As an answer to the existing full TFL seated bus stand, the flag stand form was then taken and extended in length to fit a long seating arrangement. The hanging arm of the flag stand was then extended down to the ground making a second vertical support, and transforming the shelter into a full roof. The depth of the shelter would also increase to double that of the flag stand, so to fit seated and standing people.

In addition to these two established structures of flag stop and seated shelter, an intermediate structure was then devised. This new structure would be larger and hold more people than a flag stop, but would not be as wide and have full seating as the seated shelter would. The structure would also follow that of the seated shelter with two vertical supports instead of the hanging sign of the flag.

Street Planning and Configuration: With the basic module forms generally established, applying these forms to an actual street layout has to take into a lot more considerations. With no knowledge of street planning and inclusive mobility legislation, the initial assumption of how the bus stops would be laid out was as such.

However these initial configurations had to then be changed in order to meet the requirements stated in the ‘Inclusive Mobilty Guide’ by the Department for Transport (Dft, 2006) and the ‘Accessible Bus Stop Design Guidance” by TFL (TFL Bus Priority Team, 2010).

TFL recommends that the space for pedestrian footway between the shelter and the road should be at least 3 meters wide to allow for the passing of wheelchair users (TFL Bus Priority Team, 2006). With this in mind, in small narrow roads the proposed flag stop in its initial orientation may cause obstruction. Using the same isometric drawings as shown above, experimentation was made of the orientation of the flag stop as well as the other modules. The end of this concluded with two main changes:

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The flag stops would no longer be orientated so that the structure is parallel to the road. When it is orientated like this, the full width of the structure is in the way of the pavement, and would cause obstruction on small roads. As well as this, if the bus stop needed to be at the edge of the road (as opposed to the back of the pavement), it would mean that the user would be sitting facing traffic and have no barrier between them and the passing cars.

The new configuration has the flag stop orientated perpendicular to the road. With the Original Orientation back board of the structure facing the road, the user is now given a strong barrier to protect it from the traffic. Further to this, the width of the backboard will no longer be in the way of the pavement as it would be facing the road.

Flag Sign Orientation: With the new orientation, the original area set out for the sign no longer faces the road where it needs to be. In order to resolve this, the sign is now placed in the space between the back panel and the hanging arm, so that the sign now faces the road. The structure will need to have two signs facing either way of pedestrian traffic.

In relation to the other two other structures, the guidelines set out by the Department of Transport also brought about changes to their set-up. Once again the issue is brought about by the flag sign. When the large and intermediate structures are placed at the back of the road, their visibility of the sign may be obstructed to the view of pedestrian and the bus driver. With the existing set-up, bus shelters are never placed alone, and are always accompanied by a flag sign placed at the curb of the road. As the proposed structures from this project all have their flag signs on the structures themselves, problems are caused when the location of the structures are not totally visible.

To resolve this issue, an additional sign has been devised that will be positioned next to the road, when the large shelters are at the back of the pavement. The addition of this means that the bus driver or pedestrians can identify that there is a bus stop there, when the shelter may not be in clear view. The sign will also be taller than the shelter flag, but will not carry the same information. The additional sign will be a red light sign with the TFL logo on it indicating that there is a bus stop here, the normal flag information will then be found on the shelter as originally designed.

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Fourth Iteration Stage Developed Final Orientation

Final Structure Dimensions: With the design of the final form established, and considerations taken into the application of them into real streets, it was then necessary to establish the final dimensions of the structures. The final dimensions were based on a mixture of the dimensions of the existing bus stop structures and recommendations given in the ‘Inclusive Mobility Guide’ by the Department for Transport.

The key dimension decisions that led the design were: Information Boards: The bottom of the information board is placed 900mm off the ground and the top of the information is at 1800 mm off the ground, as in guidance with DfT inclusive mobility guidance.

Flag Sign(s): According to the DfT guide, “The bottom of the flag should not be less than 2500mm above ground.” The flag on the proposed structures fit to this requirement exactly when holding the information for up to 9 busses. When more than 9 busses are needed to displayed, the sign must be fitted with extra panels that bring the flag down to below the recommended height. The additional sign included in the large shelter is designed to be as tall as the height of the current TFL flags, so reaches the height of 3600 mm.

The majority of other dimensions were based directly based on the dimensions of the existing TFL structures, including the width of the large shelter, which follows the exact same dimensions of 3750mm of width.

Fifth Iteration Stage

Technology: Real Time Information As stated previously in the research section, TFL are currently in the process of updating their bus service to enable full GPS live bus tracking. This information will be relayed to their new countdown displays that are planned to be ready for Spring 2011.

The designers of this new information system are a company called ACIS (ACIS 2010). ACIS already have a piece of technology out called the ACIS IBIS which is able to provide all of the real-time-technology features that have been proposed in the developed bus stop system. Therefore, all the bus stop structures will need to be fitted with a control system such as the ACIS IBIS, to be housed at the bottom casing of the 47

structure.

Solar Power The project always had to take into consideration cost limitations, and FWD had made it clear that solutions that required power from the mains would be too expensive to be feasible. Their advice was that a solution that could be solar powered would be preferable. Space above the shelter is reserved for these solar panels.

ACIS IBIS (ACIS 2010)

E-Paper Further to this the low-power displays of e-paper technology as previously introduced will be used as the display in all the bus stop structures. Due to its low energy consumption, the e-paper displays will be able to be powered by the bus stop’s solar panels.

Material and Installation The final decisions made for the outline of the bus stop structures, were the suggestions for how the bus stops would be installed and from what materials it would be made from. The majority of these decisions were based on the ‘Legible London’ (AIG 2007) signposts as well as other existing products from the Woodhouse product portfolio (Woodhouse 2010). The breakdown of these materials is shown below:

Solar Panel Powder Coated Alluminium Casing

Peened Stainless Steel Side Channels Peened Stainless Steel Side Channels

Flex-Face Translucent Sign LED Lighting Panel Powder Coated Alluminium Casing

Powder Coated Alluminium Casing

Powder Coated Alluminium Casing For Component Housing Peened Stainless Steel Side Channels Stainless Steel Base Plate

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Powder Coated Alluminium Casing Stainless Steel Side Cover Powder Coated Alluminium Casing

Glass Cover E-Paper Information Housing Powder Coated Alluminium Casing Powder Coated

Casing Although not displayed in the above image, to aid theAlluminium installation For Component of the products, the Housing vertical steel extrusions, will actually past the extend underground past the base plate to give the structure ensured stability.

Legibility

OVERALL DESIGN GUIDELINES

Through early user testing, the typeface of Franklyn Gothic was selected as a visually clear font to use throughout the project, through all formats of information. The size of typeface used for the various information modules depended on the situation that the text would be viewed from. The size of the text depends on the distance it is being viewed from. All of the text in the various information modules all followed the rules displayed in the diagram below (TFL Corporate Design, 2007): The Y-axis of the graph indicates the recommended cap height of text, and the x-axis indicates the distance that the text will be viewed from. Knowing approximately what distance the text will be viewed from, then allows you to choose the appropriate type-size.

Colour In order to keep the project within the live context of London, the choice of colour was kept consistent with the existing colour system of TFL Busses. The combination of red, grey and white has been used throughout all the modules and this consistency of colour and branding has helped keep all the elements related.

For printing, the final spot colours are: Red: C = 0 M = 100 Y = 100 K = 0 Text Size Chart (TFL Corporate Design Grey: C = 0 M = 0 Y = 0 K = 80 2007) Project Name: To finalize the project, a project name of Next Stop, has been given for the new bus stops and bus stop system. The name derives from the concept that the new system offers more networked information about the next stops ahead on the route and information from when the bus has left the previous stop.

Real Life Application Taking into consideration the availability of the technology suggested for this project, and the ongoing development of the current TFL bus system. The bus stop would be most suitable for production and installment in the near future. Based on the timescale of transport technology, a year date of 2025 would be an appropriate time for such a product to be widely distributed.

In conclusion to the development of the project, the final designs are as such:

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FINAL DESIGNS

Bus route and necessary information

Information Boards

E-Paper Screen indicating how many minutes left for next bus Column Titles

Indicator the bus is travelling from a previous bus stop

Town names and division area

You are here Minor stops displayed until next major stop

Major Bus Stops on Route

Minutes from current stop to this stop

Landmark Symbols

Indicators for minor stops

End Stop

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Interactive Sign Bus Stop Location Name

Direction of Bus Travel

The Greenway

TFL Logo, indicating this is a bus stop

Towards Southall

Bus Stop identifier code

U1 U4 Additionl Bus Infomation

U7

Bus Route Number

Express

427 607 A10 Mon - Sat

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Journey Cards

Martha’s Journey Card

1

From: Brunel University To: Uxbridge Station

1

Walk To Bus Stop

Exit University to Kingston Lane.

Turn left Walk Down Turn left at Hillingdon Road.

Bus Stop is Just Ahead.

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2

Walk To Bus Stop

3

What busses you can take:

5

Approximate Journey times: Find Correct Bus Stop

7

427 U1 U4

Towards Uxbridge

427

10 minutes 6 stops away

Towards Ruislip

U1

10 minutes 6 stops away

Towards Uxbridge

U4

10 minutes 6 stops away

You are here

U7

Towards Uxbridge Station

U7

10 minutes 6 stops away

Finding correct bus stop

4

The Greenway

BE Towards Uxbridge and Ruislip

Next arriving buses: Find Correct Bus Stop

427

07:06 07:22

07:14 08:00

U1

07:06 07:22

07:14 08:00

U4

07:06 07:22

07:14 08:00

U7

07:06 07:22

07:14 08:00

6

Bus stop to exit bus:

Uxbridge Station

C Towards Ruislip

Walk To Tube Station

From Bus Stop.

Walk down Park Road.

Uxbridge Station is at the end of the road.

8

Walk To Tube Station

You are here

Structure Modules

For the full breakdown of the final design please see presentation in appendix.

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FINAL DESIGN TESTING

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Introduction Looking back to the initial research and development for a bus stop wayfinding solution, there are some key objectives that can be sought to test the new designs against.

The problems found with the existing travel system were: • • • • • •

Journey planning information, including the onward journey Stopping busses at ‘Request Stops’, and managing driver behaviour.

Inclusive indicators of bus arrival and bus locations.

Finding local amenity shops in local area.

Knowing which direction the bus stop’s busses are travelling to.

Understanding the printed timetable information

These issues were the biggest problems concluded from the research undertook on users of the London bus system. Tests could now be taken to find out whether these existing problems are now resolved with the new information system.

Method To test whether the new information system is an improvement over the existing system, a set of tasks has been devised in which the user is given a bus wayfinding scenario, and asked questions relating to finding information on the provided graphics. These tasks will be first tested on the existing TFL information sheets, and then on the new proposed information graphics. The information graphics used for the propped design, are the final iterations printed out in full scale and is tested as if it were an existing bus stop.

The questions were: Scenario: at the bus stop, travelling to the Hillingdon hospital Where are you currently located?

You want to go to Hillingdon hospital. What bus can you take?

Are you standing at the correct bus stand for the bus you need?

Which bus will arrive first?

How long will that take to arrive?

Scenario: at the bus stop, travelling to a friend’s house.

Your friend lives on Twyford Avenue in Ealing. She has told you that you that she lives 2 bus stops away from Ealing Common Station.

What bus do you need to get there?

Where do you need to get off?

How long will it take you to get there?

(These questions were first undertook using the existing information sheets, and then again with the new designs.)

Scenario: Journey Planning: 55

Record how you normally plan your journey before you leave your house, and what notes you take down to travel with.

After being briefed on the new journey card system, out of ten, how would you rate your method of journey planning, and then you would you rate the improvement of the new method?

Results: The tests were conducted on 10 users, 3 of which were older people, the rest being a mix of students, adults and children. Although the project has had the aim of improving bus information for older people, it is also an inclusive design project, therefore the testing of the project on users other than older people is justified.

Out of the 10 people tested, all of the users found the new design easier to use. Where the existing timetable and information sheets needed a lot more thought and concentration to find the information they were looking for, all the users found their answers a lot quicker on the new designs.

Information Board Testing Results Comments about existing TFL near-distance information: Below shows some of the comments recorded from users whilst and after testing the existing system. “ Wow! That is a lot of numbers!” - Commenting on the timetable of bus arrival times “I’m not quite sure what that says?” - The Older user needed help reading a street name on the route map “Every 6 to 8 minutes? But I don’t know when the last bus left?” - As there is o live information, the user could not give an answer to how many minutes it would take for the next bus so arrive.

“The text of the bus stops is actually quite small!”Use commenting about the text size of location names on the bus route.

Comments about new near-distance proposed information: From testing the new design proposals, the quoted comments from the feedback included: “Yeh, I really like it, it looks really nice” – Comment made by student user after test, also taking well to the look of the graphics.

“I like the idea of the electronic number – that’s a lot easier” – User commenting on the preference of looking at one electronic number over the existing printed timetable of times.

“That’s a good idea having the town names there - that would be handy when I visit my sister-in-law”– User commenting on the addition of town names to the route planner, and relating it back to an actual journey that she makes “What does that mean?” – User did not understand what the school icon meant.

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User testing on full size bus stop graphics

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“This design is easier to use” – General comment by one user, stating that the new design is easier to use than the

Journey Card Testing Results

Existing Planning Methods After this, the journey card test was then undertaken. Different users had different ways of splitting up their journey to plan.

Some of these planning techniques included: Phoning a friend who lives in that area, and noting the word directions on to paper.

Using an A-Z and drawing basic route map of the walking journey between bus stops.

Using TFL’s online Journey planner, and writing down quick notes on key information such as bus number and what bus stop to get off at.

Using TFL’s journey planner and printing out the results directly.

Asking the bus driver. at the bus stop.

New Journey Cards The users were then given a set of journey cards, and asked to go through it from beginning to end, first without any explanation of how they were to be used, and then again after the concept had been explained. The users were then asked to rate their old method of planning, and the improvement to this of the new journey cards.

The users rated the improvement of the new concept as such: 10/10 9/10 8/10 5/10 3/10

- - - - -

1 User 3 Users 3 Users 2 Users 1 Users

Discussion: Information Boards: The feedback of all the near-distance information was all overwhelmingly positive; this can be said as all of the users completed their scenario tests faster than they did using the existing information. The most obvious improvement to all the users, was to the question “How long will the bus take to arrive?”. When using the existing sheets, the users took a fair bit of time sifting through all of the numbers to find the time they, needed, or they were left confused by the descriptions of “bus arriving every 6-8 minutes. On the new information boards, the users knew the time left for the bus straight away, and when explained that this was based on the actual location of the bus (not its timetable time) they reacted even more positively. As far as route-finding, the older users and adults took much better to the new design, with a much large route map compared to the existing sheets. Many users also commented highly on the use of town names, especially to the users who did not use busses that frequently.

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The biggest weakness of the information graphics was the landmark symbols. These were not clear to all users, the train station, church and hospital symbols were relatively fine, but the symbols such as that for schools or academic institutes, were not understood by some users, suggesting more development would be needed into using more standardized symbols.

Journey Cards: Using the results undertook for the journey planning comparison, the success of the journey cards had been fairly successful. At first looks, all of the users enjoyed the concept of the step-by-step journey cards. As shown, seven out of the ten users, rated the journey cards as at least an 8/10 improvement to their current planning methods.

The liked the handiness of having such cards to keep in their oyster card holders, that they could refer to on their journey. Two users were unsure as to how successful the journey cards were scoring them a 5/10, and one user did not really understand how to use them, and scored the new concept 3/10. These unsure users did like the concept of such cards, but when they went through them, they were stuck on certain instructions, and did not fully understand the tasks set out in the cards.

Missed Issues: Due to the information-led nature of the project, only a basic amount of development had been made into any of the electronics that would be needed to power this system.

Because of this, many of the digital and electronic functions of the design had not really been tested. Features such as the live bus time screens, the audio feedback, and most notably, the illuminating interactive sign have been left out of the testing process. This is due the fact that the PPPs used were graphical printouts, and not enough electronic development was conducted to produce working, programmed electronics.

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CONCLUSIONS

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With the final design iteration completed, and principle-proving prototypes produced and tested, the project can now be concluded on how successful it was.

Looking back to the most initial inception of this project, the fundamental aim was to identify a wayfinding problem, and propose an inclusive design solution that would be of benefit to FWD. The success of this however can be broken down into different measures of achievement.

Identifying an inclusive wayfinding problem: More than half of this project was dedicated to research, including development research. The biggest part of this research was the initial phase of finding the answer to this question The initial briefing with FWD, stated that inclusive design, and designing for the disabled and in particular the older population was a key interest of theirs and would be of more benefit to them than a standard design. The project research explored included a wide range of user groups, and wayfinding locations. Alongside literature reviewing, the key successes of the research phase of the project was down to the insight drawn from speaking to and observing real bus users from these different user groups. Much detail had been recorded from following various users as they used the bus system, breaking their whole journey down into steps to develop.

Speaking to these users, the choice of bus information and travel is definitely correct as a suitable project for FWD. Public transport is used widely by older and disabled people, and their enthusiasm in feedback on the bus system, showed that this is a major concern of theirs.

Providing a suitable solution: With a suitable problem identified, the solution system had to then be developed to answer the issues identified in research. These issues were: Route Planning (including onward journeys) Finding local amenity shops in the local area Knowing which direction the bus stop is travelling to Hailing Busses (managing driver behaviour) Allowing visually impaired users to identify bus arrival and bus stop locations Through the information boards, interactive sign, and journey cards, each of these issues have been addressed. Route planning has been given much bigger information space at the bus stand, with much more added information such as local landmarks, and dividing bus stop into towns. The onward journey of a route is also aided by the personalized journey cards. The bus stop landmarks simultaneously help identify local amenity shops and churches, helping older users and mild dementia sufferers navigate through their town by their memories of community landmarks. The direction of bus travel is now addressed, by removing all information on the route planner that is behind the current bus stop, indicating to the user primarily just the bus stop s that are in the direction the bus is travelling to. Finally the interactive sign and audio feedback addresses the issue of hailing busses by having the bus stop alert the user in advance when a bus is approaching, allowing disabled and older users more time to get up and hail down a bus.

Where in theory, these proposals offer solutions to these problems, how they work can also be concluded on. With the graphical PPPs the information displayed on the 61

information board and journey cards have all been tested and critically evaluated. On the most part both of these information modules are successful and an improvement over existing information. However, the details of these design still could be resolved further, the biggest of these details being the design of the landmark symbols.

Finally, the design of the information modules, were mostly build around the bus stops of existing sites, using the bus information of a particular bus stop. Although consideration was taken into designing solutions that would be applicable to other sites, not enough is known about the information volume needed for other locations and busses.

Electronic Feasibility Due to the project being primarily concerned with offering information solutions to the identified problems, only a basic amount of development has been undertook into electronics. Because of this, key features such as the interactive sign and audio feedback could not be assessed on their success. This therefore devalues the validity of the final proposals. Although product research proves that the technology is available for these functions to work, by not applying it to the project’s PPPs, how the user responds to these features could not be tested.

Structure As once again, the project brief stated that information was the primary objective of the project, the detail of the bus stop structures had not been resolved as much as if this had been a full 3D product design project. This project goes to a moderate level of development, providing visualization of a very feasible final form, made from existing materials, and existing installation solutions. Detail of assembly and design for manufacture is however not resolved. The structures are designed with consideration to how the pieces fit together, with detailed extrusions designed, but no screws or clippings are included in the final designs.

The success of the structure could also not be tested fully as it would not have been possible to build a full size model, to test how users liked it, or how it coped with various weather conditions. The project however does go into enough detail to introduce the structure design of the project to a specialist designer and allow them to carry this on into production.

Further Development: To conclude, looking at the whole project overall, there has been many successes, but yet still many more issues that need to be addressed for the proposed design to make it to production. In the context of a real wayfinding consultancy, the project is up to a stage where a concept has been proposed and proven to an extent. The information graphics specialists could then refine some of the unresolved details such the symbol design and the information compatibility with other locations. The biggest need for development would be at the product design stage. Electronics specialists would need to look further into the concepts suggested, and develop and define how they would work. The details of the structure would need to be addressed, resolving how all the suggested parts would physically be connected together, using knowledge of design for manufacture methods. With these physical issues resolved, there is no reason why the Next Stop cannot= be a successful wayfinding system for 2025.

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REFERENCES

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Websites:

ACIS, 2010 ACIS IBIS http://pulboroughparishcouncil.gov.uk/docs/vtpexhibition0906/ibis.pdf [Accessed 13th April 2010]

AIG 2007 Legible London Yellow Book http://www.legiblelondon.info/downloads/ YellowbookSCREEN04.pdf [Accessed 14th April 2010] Alzheimer’s Society, 2007. Dementia UK, The Full Report. http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/download_info.php?fileID=2 [Accessed 26th November 2009] British Standards Institute, 2005. BS 7000-6:200. http://www.techstreet.com/cgi-bin/detail?product_ id=1207111 [Accessed 1st December 2009 via http://www.hhc.rca.ac.uk/204/all/1/inclusive_design. aspx ] De Boer Clint, 2008. LCD vs. Plasma Screen Displays: Technology Comparison. http://www.audioholics.com/education/display-formats-technology/display-technologies-guide-lcd-plasma-dlp-lcos-d-ilacrt/display-technologies-guide-lcd-plasma-dlp-lcos-d-ila-crt-page-3 [Accessed 26th November 2009] E INK, 2008, Technology, Overview. http://www.eink.com/technology/index.html [Accessed 26th November 2009] FWDesign, 2009. Home page. http://www.fwdesign.com/index.php [Accessed 26th November 2009] Harris Tom, 2002. How Plasma Displays Work? http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/plasma-display. htm [Accessed 26th November 2009] Help the Aged, 2008, Bus Travel Survey http://policy.helptheaged.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/16A6F2C3BD07-496E-9AF1-D7449A7C5180/0/bustravelsurvey050207.pdf. [Accessed 28th October 2009] London Busses, 2010. Bus Maps http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaround/maps/buses/ [Accessed 1st April 2010] Mayo Foundation, 2008. Ageing: What to expect as you get older. http://www.mayoclinic.com/print/ aging/HA00040/METHOD=print [Accessed 20th November 2009] Office for Disability Issues, 2009. Transport Factsheet. http://www.odi.gov.uk/docs/res/factsheets/factsheet-transport.pdf http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/mediacentre/faqs/Pages/media_faq. aspx#H2Heading1 [Accessed 8th December 2009] Open Guide to London, 2009. Countdown Electronic Displays. http://london.openguides.org/ wiki/?Countdown_Electronic_Displays [Accessed 6th December 2009] Prestigious Signs, 2010 Illuminated Lightboxes http://www.prestigesigns.net/products.aspx?catid=9 [Accessed 18th April 2010] RNIB, 2009. FAQs for Journalists http://www.rnib.org.uk/aboutus/mediacentre/faqs/Pages/media_faq. aspx#H2Heading1 [Accessed 28th November 2009] TFL, 2009. Countdown. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/11560.aspx [Accessed 3rd December 2009] Woodhouse 2010 Projects http://www.woodhouse.co.uk/dev/projects.php [Accesed 17th April 2009]

Design Guidelines 64

DfT, 2006. Department for Transport Inclusive Mobility Guide http://www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/259428/inclusivemobility [Accessed 12th May 2010) TFL Bus Priority Team, 2006. Accessible Bus Stop Design Guidance http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/businessandpartners/accessibile_bus_stop_design_guidance. pdf [Accessed 8th May 2010] TFL Corporate Design 2007, Bus Station Signage and Display Guidelines http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/ downloads/corporate/buses-signage-and-display-guidelines-issue02.pdf [Accessed 15th April 2010] Translink 2005 Bus Stop Design Guide http://www.planningni.gov.uk/index/policy/supplementary_ guidance/guides/guides_bus_stops.htm [Accessed May 15th 2010]

Books:

Gibson, D. THE WAYFINDING HANDBOOK, Information Design for Public Places. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Personal Correspondence:

Crabtree, R. 2009. FWDesign, Creative Director Harris, S. 2009. Disabled Association Hillingdon Carvalho, E. 2009. RNIB, Former Blind Persons Carer

Images:

ACIS, 2010 ACIS IBIS http://pulboroughparishcouncil.gov.uk/docs/vtpexhibition0906/ibis.pdf [Accessed 13th April 2010] fwd, 2009 FWD, Achieve http://www.fwdesign.com/achieve.php [Accessed 29th March 2010] Intelligent Transportation Systems 2002, Real Time Transit Information Sssessment, http://www.itsdocs.fhwa.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/13845.html [Accessed 7th December 2009] Purely Gadgets 2009, Portable Gadgets. http://www.purelygadgets.co.uk/images/user/products/sony_ prs-600_reader_touch_edition_3.jpg [Accessed 7th December 2009] Pro Touch 2009, Products, Touch Screen Monitors. http://www.protouch.co.uk/Item/ DU17LSXXX004/#overview [Accessed 7th December 2009] All images that are not references are diagrams or photgraphs taken by the author Francisco Rebello.

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APPENDIX

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