The Proposal
A New Reality 1
Libby Parfitt // Hagen Friend
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CONTENTS
Introduction To The Bus Station
Page 6
Our Proposal
Page 16
Questions
Page 24
Illustrations
Page 32
Evaluation
Page 36
INTRODUCTION TO THE BUS STATION
The location we were given was the bus station on Marlborough Street, BS1 3UN. Initially after visiting the bus station, we weren’t very inspired. We felt it was bland, uncomfortable and in need of a renovation. The bus station is used daily by hundreds of people, there to get a bus or coach elsewhere, or just arriving in Bristol. It is a very well used place, but it doesn’t feel very loved. The whole décor is quite clinical – white walls with floor to ceiling windows. The atmosphere feels unfriendly; everyone seems to keep themselves to themselves. Every time we visited there were a lot of people present, often queuing or waiting. We noted the small café inside the bus station always had people sitting in. Aside from the café, there is a small (very overpriced) shop, which didn’t have a huge range of things to choose from, but enough to keep boredom at bay whilst waiting for a journey elsewhere.
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Although the bus station undoubtedly gets regular usage, we couldn’t help but feel it felt a bit unloved. We concluded that it’s a service and place people use because they have to, not because they necessarily choose to. Nobody would be there out of choice – everyone is there for a reason, whether it’s because they are commuting or travelling to somewhere, or whether it’s because their occupation is within the bus station. This encouraged us to want to find out and fully understand the needs of the people using the bus station, and what they would want to improve the station itself.
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“we couldn’t help but feel it felt a bit unloved.”
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The bus station itself is filled with information, complex looking bus timetables, as well as a ticket desk and ticket machines. It’s well lit, and is a relatively clean environment. Considering the amount of people waiting and using the bus station at any one time (from our time spent there we discovered from 3pm until around 8pm tended to be the busiest time) we noticed how there was never enough seating. At each bay in the bus station, there were only four uncomfortable looking seats, which were occupied the majority of the time. We noticed many people standing and waiting further back from the bays, some choosing to sit on the floor against the walls, others standing whilst leaning against the walls.
“complex looking bus timetables� 12
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OUR PROPOSAL
Our proposal is to reinvent the atmosphere at the bus station; we want to relieve people’s boredom whilst waiting and queuing, and also encourage them to engage with the city. From our primary research we found out that many people use the bus station daily, but don’t actually take the time to explore Bristol city and it’s landmarks that often. This made us think about how we can try and make people more interested in exploring what Bristol has to offer, and show people how easily accessible these places are from the bus station.
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We felt that there was much that could be done to improve the bus station, but we wanted to pick something which linked in with the idea of the bus station being one of the first places people arriving into Bristol
There is lots of writing, and very little imagery.
After much discussion and consideration, we finalised our idea, which is to design and illustrate a large map, which opposite where each bus pulls into the bus station, would be a good way of welcoming people to Bristol and inviting them to look at all the different landmarks people have told us they like the most around Bristol.
We chose to make our map with illustrations because we wanted it to contrast the information that is already present in the bus station. There is lots of writing, and very little imagery. We want our map to be the first thing people notice when they come to the bus station. We chose to make a map because maps are predominantly image based, so it contrasts to the rest of the bus station. We also wanted to make it accessible for anyone and everyone; we found through interviewing people in our primary research stage, that the bus station is used daily by many people whose first language isn’t English, so by illustrating a map, rather than providing information in the form of writing, it means that people of any language are able to understand and use our map.
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The bus station will always be a means of people getting somewhere, but we hope through our illustrated map more people will have the desire to visit somewhere around Bristol they have perhaps never been before. The bus station will be the first place people coming into the city centre will arrive, so the illustration will be visible and hopefully intriguing, so people will go and interact with it.
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B
Our illustration will provide information about each landmark, and the map will make it easy for people to understand how to get to each place. We will provide a small pocket-sized version of the map for people to take away with them, along with a checklist to cross off when people have visited the landmarks we’ve suggested on the map.
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This is our final design for our map that people will see at the bus station. There is no writing or language on there, so that people need not to worry about where things are and not understanding it, giving people a break from all of the complex timetables and white space.
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QUESTIONS
We decided what questions to ask people at the bus station by thinking about what answers would be most beneficial for our project. After much brainstorming we thought up an initial list of questions to ask. We eventually narrowed down the questions to three as we felt it would be better to be more concise with our questions. The three questions we asked were, do you live in Bristol? Where are you travelling to today? And what is your favourite Bristol landmark?
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From these questions we wanted a better understanding of who uses the bus station, where they are travelling to or from and what sort of landmarks the people entering and leaving the bus station like to visit. The reason we wanted to gain a better understanding of these things is because we felt they would help us form an idea for our proposal and help decide what we think would help re-invent and improve the bus station.
???
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Do you live in Bristol? Where are you travelling to today?
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What is your favourite landmark in Bristol?
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Excuse me mate, do you have two minutes to answer a couple of questions? UUUH yeah okay. Do you live in Bristol? Nah, I live in Oxford, but I come to Bristol every weekend to see family - I always end up waiting here for long... Where are you travelling today? Back home to Oxford. What’s your favourite landmark in Bristol? Definitely not the bus station, I have to wait here to long and it kills me man. So... What’s your favourite landmark? Uh probably the suspension bridge.
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Favourite landmark?
We asked as many people as we could to tell us there favourite landmarks out of a choice of 15 different places; These were the results.
SS Great Britain - iiiiii
(6) Bristol Zoo - 0
Bristol Cathedral - iiii
Clifton Suspension Bridge - iiiiiii
Hippodrome - iii
Cabot Tower - iii
Ashton Court - iiiii
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery - i
(4) St. Mary Redcliffe - iii
(3)
@ Bristol - i
(1)
Arnolfini - ii
(2)
M Shed - iii
(3)
Bristol Amphitheatre - iii
(3)
(7)
(3)
(3)
(5)
(1) Bristol Aquarium - 0
Millenium Square - i
(1)
Judging on the results this is how we were going to decide on what to add to our designed map 31
ILLUSTRATIONS
Each one of these illustrations where drawn on the basis of asking questions to the general public inside the bus station about what their favourite landmark in Bristol is.
SS Great Britain
St. Mary Redcliffe 32
M Shed
Hippodrome
Clifton Suspension Bridge 33
Bristol Cathedral
Cabot Tower
Ashton Court 34
Arnolfini
Bristol Amphitheatre
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EVALUATION
We felt really happy with our outcome for Designing A New Reality. We think our illustrated map would work really well within the bus station, and would be a great addition to the otherwise boring interior. We feel it would be a good talking point, and something people would want to interact with. With the amount of people coming and going through the bus station daily, we hope our proposal would be something people would take the time to stop and engage with. We’ve really enjoyed speaking to people at the bus station, it’s given us a real insight as to what would help improve it as a location. We also feel that this is an economical way of improving the bus station because it doesn’t cost much to make a poster to get people in the bus station to stop there boredom and engage with it.
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It gives people an incentive to travel Bristol just from being in the bus station. 37