Process Book 02

Research

THE VIA RAIL

Via operates in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Saskatchewan. The only province or territory connected to the continental railway network and not served by Via is the Northwest Territories. Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Yukon have no rail connections to the continental network and thus no Via service.

Via Rail Canada (reporting mark VIA) generally shortened to Via Rail or Via; styled corporately as VIA Rail Canada) is an independent Crown corporation of Canada. Via Rail is mandated to operate intercity passenger rail service across the country and is subsidized by Transport Canada.

Via Rail operates over 500 trains per week across eight Canadian provinces and 12,500 kilometres (7,800 mi) of track, 97% of which is owned and maintained by other railway companies, mostly by Canadian National Railway (CN).

TORONTO-VANCOUVER QUÉBEC-WINDSOR

MONTRÉAL-HALIFAX

MONTRÉAL-JONQUIÈRE

Via operates over 475 trains per week over 19 routes, there are six routes that make people feel and look Canada.

JESPER-PRINCE RUPERT WINNIPEG-CHURCHILL MONTRÉAL-SENNETERRE

RAILWAYS STATIONS IN CANADA

In comparison of large stations and small stations, such as stations of Toronto, MONTRÉAL compare to the Halifax station. We found in the small station, the distance from the ticket office to the platform is very close that passengers do not need spend a long time to walk.

Meanwhile, the station have well basic facilities, but there are not more facilities like hot coffee, comfort benches and entertainment facilities for passengers to enjoy their waiting time.

Large stations have a greater range of facilities, which include shopping center, shops, restaurant, etc. It is more convenient for passengers to buy some local food or souvenirs, so they won’t feel boring while waiting in the train.

Moreover, the space of them is bigger, and their external and internal decoration is more artistic.

HALIFAX RAILWAY STATION

Our first step is to understand how the train station works, what does the train station provide.

To deal with this question, we came to the train station in Halifax. We took pictures of the train station, here we find some infrastructure like information board, telephone booth, vending machines, luggage cart, bathroom, clocks and currency exchange office.

In the train station, we had a conversation with conductors. Through the conversation, we know there are two trains come per week, and they usually come on Wednesday and Friday every week. But we were afraid those informations are not enough for our project; so, we decided to do a survey based on passengers, which we believed that can help us understand better what does “JOY” means to passengers.

SURVEY DATA

Based on our investigation of Halifax rail station, we made a questionnaire that Let us better to know what those passengers need. There are 30 questionnaires for station survey, and another 20 for online survey. We asked and talked with passengers, and got a lot of feedback.

Most passengers told us what facilities they hope for in the train station and their feelings on the train station. We also discussed the definition of happiness together.

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In the field investigation, we found that most of passengers are elderly over 50 years old. Therefore, we thought our products need to be considered the needs of old people. The old people’s need for happiness is different from the young people. In the interview we found that most of old people think comfort and safety are more important. For example, a comfortable chair allowing them to rest may make them feel happy.

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On the other hand, most of passengers think the Halifax train station is very good already. They think it would be better if they can find a coffee, gift shops, or a store for food. But it’s very difficult to combine them into one product because they are more like functional areas.

Whatisthefeelingofthetrainstationenvironmentor experience?

Boring

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DIALOGUE WITH USERS

At the beginning of the study, we believed that not only the questionnaire of data collection, but also the dialogue, which let us know the actual needs and issues from passengers in the train station. Our main purpose was to discuss with the passengers what is joyful and how to unlock joyful at the train station.

What do you usually bring for a travel in past time?

We really want to know what do people need when they spend time in the station. We got some interesting answers, people used to bring Newspaper, Snacks, Diary, Magazines, Handheld, Books, Games, Cameras, Music, Radio, Phone during their trip to kill their boredom.

What do you need but the train station does not provide?

We really pay more attention on this question, we want to know what do passengers need in the station.

Their responses would be the main guidance of our product. Passenger’s answer really opened our mind, their suggestions are: Coffee and food, Power outlets, Information, Luggage locker, Store, Gift shop, Children's entertainment space, Mobile library, Wait entertainment, Washroom, Comfortable chairs, TV, Lounge and Baby care room.

Those suggestions mean a lot to us, with those facilities, we can make train station become a better place. In our next step, we will think about these stuff.

What do you mostly want to know about Canada if you come from other countries?

We have noticed the train station is close to a harbor, so the station usually have a lot of tourists from all the world. Those tourists are a part of our target user, so we want to know what they want to know about Canada.

Where do you think the train station could be improved?

Through this question, we wanted to know how passengers think about this train station. More than 60% people thought this station is already good enough. Others hoped we should think about Food, Infrastructure, Service and Noise. If we can solve those problems, we can make passengers feel more joyful.

Their answer are Food, Weather, Custom, Culture, History, Landscape, Communal facilities, WiFi speed, Shopping local and Transportation. According to their answer, we have a better understand with the information that we need to offer.

This survey really helped us with our project, it opened our mind and gave us a good start for our next step.

BRAINSTORMING

According to our investigation, we gain a deep understanding of facilities in the railway station, and now we concentrate on what facilities people mostly need and which aspects of them could be improved more. Proper facilities typically include vending machine, information facilities (visual notice board, interactive platforms sufficiently showing necessary information of local culture and tourism), mobile library, convenient charger, chairs, interactive entertainment facilities (profitable for young and old), and luggage lockers.

At that point we sum up their characteristics and functions and brainstorm what could be done next on them. In terms of the vending machine, it should be functional and convenience. Roughly speaking, characteristics of it would be better to have self-heating system, diversifying selection, simplifying manipulation, and using both cash and card to pay.

Information navigation facilities must be set in visible position. Contents should be clear and easy to understand and carry out interactive functions to people. We think lockers, chairs and chargers could be effectively combined as a comprehensive product, that will achieve safety, spatial utilization, comfort, convenience and other advantages get together on the product. As for entertainment space and mobile library, they could be “mobile cabinets”, which will provide people quiet resting places, or they can remain a platform to display local specials, artworks, decorations and so on.

BRAINSTORM Of PRODUCT

Conceptualization

JOYFUL DEFINITION

How can our product makes passengers feel joyful ?

The connection between our product and joy

What uniqueness of our vending machine compared to the traditional one is to provide customers an audio-visual and an interactive experience.

People can enjoy the sound when press keys, because each key makes a softer sound, so that people won’t feel extreme and have a good auditory experience.

We change the traditional buying mode, users will be expected to press the ten coloured keys in a specific method to get their product: The customer will select two keys, each of two keys represent a particular product; detailed products and their matching keys will be listed on the introduction paper.

People also can play a challenger game in non-purchased zones. They can follow the LED light guidance and try to play a classic music by using keys in non-purchased zones.

MOOD BOARDS

FUNCTION 1

FUNCTION 2

FORM 1

FORM 2

ART INSTALLATIONS

INITIAL IDEAS

SKETCHES

In our first stage of sketches:

We have too much concentration on bench design, so we think about what other facilities we are able to work with, such as art installations or vending machines.

We pay too much attention on the functions and usabilities of those facilities but we didn’t think enough about how could we increase physical interaction between products and users. What methods can we use to implement more “joyful” effects on our products.

BENCHES

Private space

Physical Interaction（Tangram） Sharing music

Through us did these sketches, we came up with the benches, most passengers said the seats are uncomfortable, and we saw most passengers did not sit close to people who they did not know. So we wonder if the benches can provide customers a private space. Meanwhile, we believed that giving passengers a private space is better to unlock joyful, and we also want to provide opportunities for passengers to choose their own space or to communicate with others.

Then we got inspiration from Tangram, which is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes. These pieces can be put together into other different shapes. We drew this idea on our benches. The benches can be formed into various shapes, so people will have their private space, and also they can enjoy communicating with others. Furthermore, the benches have extra places for baggage, and each bench has a headphone jack for people to listen to music, passengers even can share music with others.

VENDING MACHINES

Food and Drink Gift shop Music/Interesting

During our survey, many of passengers have asked about food, drink and gift shop. Those staff can help our passengers deal with long boring trip. Three keywords, the first one comes into our mind is Vending machine. But not just vending machine, we decided to add “Music”, this element is to create a joyful environment for passengers. We will plan to exchange the traditional buttons into piano keys, and users can play with it. Therefore passengers will be able to enjoy food, drinks and music at the same time. The other direction that we worked with is the “Shape” of vending machine. In the sketch, we employed an old-style Television shape on our vending machine. We hope we can bring passengers a completely different staff and bring joy to them.

SNOW GLOBE

Food and Drink

Idea: the shape of the installation is like “the snow globe”, and as well looks like a maple leaf in closed shape. A platform set up at the bottom to display a train model and miniature tourist attractions of those sites the train pass through. If you push the hexagon buttons, you can see different weathers controlled by visible lighting communication showcase in the “snow globe”.

How can the installation interact with people?

These buttons get together as a honeycomb-shaped modular button wall. People push them into different shapes, each shape can generate a “weather” or “season” effect. These effects are controlled by light.

How does the installation show local information?

At the bottom of it, a miniature train route platform is set up, this platform also establishes various local landscapes. One “weather” button can typically control the environment situation of one place the “small train” goes by （and the first button controls the first place the little train passes, the rest can be done in the same manner), if you create specific shapes on the button group, each shape can have a specific weather.

CONCLUSION

The vending machine is a more interesting direction. On the one hand, the vending machine mainly produce food and drinks to meet the basic needs of people. In addition to that, we can combine the functions of slot machines and bubblegum machines. so we can design a product which can let passengers get local specialities or souvenirs as rewards through physical interaction. This will allow passengers to have fun while they getting more information about local culture.

On the other hand, we hope to improve the product’s experience through more senses, such as vision and hearing. For example, rich colors and crisp sound usually make people feel happy.

FINAL PRODUCT

FINAL DIRECTION

VENDING MACHINE 1

We want vending machines to make passengers feel joyful through vision, hearing, and physical interaction. So we combined a vending machine with a wooden xylophone, which is a musical instrument. The length of the bars of xylophone determines the different sounds. The buttons of the vending machine in our design are replaced by colorful bars of xylophone.

The codes underneath the item are groups of different colors. If passengers want to buy an item, they just look at the colors on the code, then play the same color bars of xylophone with two mallets.

Meanwhile, there are two ways passengers buy items, one is in the normal way through code to buy a specific item. Another one is like gashapon machine, passengers just play xylophone at random, don’t have to follow the code, they will get an item they don’t know. This way is for people who don't know what to choose.

we want to design a vending machine is not for food or drink, but to provide local specials or souvenirs, connect with the local culture, because we all know most passengers are tourists at the train station.

Vending machine was expected to be streamlined, it gives people a sense of cleanness and modern.

VENDING MACHINE 2

For the shape of the vending machine, I get inspiration from building block.

I think such machine shape can provide more space for setting different function area.

I creat it as a geometrical shape and I want to provide users a strong visual experience.

VENDING MACHINE 3

It is our final direction. We think we can add more function to the vending machine, which make it different, it is not only about money, it is for everybody.

The passengers who want food can get from there, the passengers who want play music can play with it, the passengers who want to challenge themselves can get their challenge from here. Our vending machine open to everybody, either the passengers like to pay or not.

If the passengers want drinks and food, they can get them from our machine, if the passengers just want to enjoy playing music and win gift, they could also have it. Come to the machine, spend some time, enjoy the Food, Drink, Music, reward and lots of fun!

TESTING

In our testing part, we really wanted to make sure our product is accessible for everyone, and can make every passenger feels comfortable. We transformed ourselves to target user and started test.

We investigated the height of disabled wheelchairs and drew heights suiting to different age group, such as children, male and female.

Then we tested different heights to make sure whether it is accessible to everyone. And test where the xylophone should be placed, the height of each layer of food and the use of existing resources to simulate the height of our products.

On the other hand, we looked at traditional vending machine and measured it. Then we collected all the data and wrote them on the wall. We want to make sure where should buttons and shipment port be put, and what height and length they are.

Final scale

Total length: 200 CM

Total height: 170 CM

Length of operating space: 50 CM

Shelf size: 150 * 90 CM

FEATURES

We divide the four user zones into two sections which setted diagonally: buying zone and game zone.

Selection process: for buying zone, our combination button is consist of ten keys, the first three keys from the left indicate the three panels of product shelf at the bottom. The rest of keys with seven colors will be arranged into 21 different types (colour permutation and combination), each type indicates a specific product (products on each panel are divided into 21 areas). Product and its corresponding color combination will list on the instruction paper.

Seven colour: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, Purple 21 Combination: (use words’ initial capital to explain) RO, RY, RG, RC, RB, RP, OY, OG, OC, OB, OP, YG, YC, YB, YP, GC, GB, GP, CB, CP, BP.

Playing process: the non-purchased zones is for rewards winning, product include local souvenirs. In this zone, we have 10 keys and 10 LED light to match each of them. When passengers want to challenge themselves, they can use their phone to scan the code to gain the playing opportunities up to three times; then the LED light starts to work, and the passengers need to follow the light guidance and press the piano buttons. The LED light will guide the passengers to play world classic music, if the passengers press all the right buttons, a reward will come to them.

RENDERING

Top Front

RENDERING

PRODUCT IN CONTEXT

CONCLUSION

Q1: Buy zones: How does our vending machine provide those customers who want to buy food and drinks a different purchase experience that make them feel joyful through this process?

Idea of joy: We change the traditional product-selection method, tourists can press “xylophone keys” in a specific way to get their products and enjoy the music.

Q2:How does our machine give joy to those tourists who have no demand to purchase?

Idea of joy: They can play a challenger game in non-purchased zones.

REFERENCE

https://www.viarail.ca/en

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/359302876522671907/?nic=1

https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/18858892164870757/?nic=1

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_station_(Nova_Scotia)