The challenge of designing a public transportation experience to increase multi-lingual accessibility.

This was a project focused on experiential graphic design. I worked on this project with two other team members, Dallas Dyson and Owen Richard. My responsibilities included researching Seattle demographics, photographing the Transit Tunnel, and designing the visual language for the Animated Display and its mockups.

The Conditions

The city of Seattle is home to more than 700,000 individuals, and it’s growing. The need of public transportation is well known, and Seattle has taken steps in recent years to make public transportation a more viable option for its inhabitants. With increasing ridership, the Seattle Link Light Rail served about 17.5 million riders riders in 2017, and the bus system provided through King County Metro Transit had over a million boardings in 2016.

The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel has platforms for the Link Light Rail and King County Metro, and is a popular area for Seattle public transportation. Downtown Seattle is a busy and diverse area, and the public transportation system should respond to these factors. The current visual branding system feels outdated and lacks memorable traits. As a well-established but ever-growing tech hub, Seattle deserves a system that feels as innovative and unique as the city itself. In addition, as both a home and a destination for people across the globe, and with a growing refugee and immigrant community, there is room for Seattle to be more inclusive of other languages and cultures.

The current system can be confusing even for a local. Discreet signage and poor legibility make it difficult to quickly determine directions and schedules. As the Transit Tunnel is underground, riders can feel disoriented and the lack of obvious signs makes it difficult to determine where to go. Add to this the confusion experienced by speakers of other languages, and this is a recipe for redesign.

While the transit system does a decent job in transporting riders to their destination, the current branding does little to truly take riders on a journey. This is why we see an opportunity in redesigning the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel stations.

the brief

Research Overview

In order to get an accurate view of the project, we went to Seattle to and spent some time observing the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel. We discovered that each station is different in construction and lighting, although overall similar in the information that is presented and types of stations. Each station has four bus bays, with a varying amount of service to each bay. Each platform had eight information panels. We thought of the possible personas using the Link light rail and broke them down into four categories, listed in order of increasing complexity to the design challenge:

1. English-speaking Seattleite
2. Non-English-speaking Seattleite
3. English-speaking Tourist
4. Non-English speaking Tourist

We knew we would have to design a system that would function for a diverse audience for a variety of needs, and that in order to meet these needs we need to make the location and wait times clear.

Individual Research

In order to fully understand the problem, we each set on researching a different area of this challenge. We needed information on the language demographics of Seattle, inspiration from public transportation in other major cities, and how people flow through the Light rail station as it currently stands.

Seattle demographics

I reached out to a King County Demographer and was able to sort through a variety of reports regarding the language breakdowns of Seattle. Because we had initially been looking at the language data of only Downtown Seattle, the Demographer brought to our attention the reality of commuters coming from all across the city and county. By gathering these reports, I was able to create a list and ranking of languages that should be included for our project: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Somali, and Filipino.

International Transportation

Dallas looked at transportation systems from other major cities around the world and how they serve their riders. One of the things that surprised us out of this research was how little variation there was between the signage from different cultures. In approaching later aspects of this project, Dallas tried to move away from the similarities between other systems and focused more on making the system clear through the hierarchy and organization of the type.

Interaction in the Seattle stations

Owen was able to complete most of this research when we took a field trip to Seattle. One thing that we learned from this trip was just how much information covers the walls on the stations. We wanted to simplify the data presented on the signs to the essentials. Owen studied the current set up in Seattle and was able to narrow the information down to the basics. This research would allow us to determine what signs to redesign and how.

research trip

I was responsible for documenting our trip with photography. It later served as a reference to remember the stations and we were able to use the photos as a base for our mockups. 

APPROACH

As we started addressing the research we had gathered, we found ourselves somewhat unsure of what direction to take. While visiting Seattle was helpful in understanding how the light rail and bus stations work, but we became entangled in constraints we faced. Because we weren’t looking at things from the ground up, we were boxing ourselves in and limiting our design solutions to what features the Transit Tunnel currently exhibits. We needed to take a different route.

Refocus

We reassessed our data and decided to avoid the constraints we were putting on ourselves. We looked back at our brief on what we wanted to accomplish:

In order to find a solution, we determined it was necessary to design for the following:

1. Location Relevance: Riders should see what is important to the station they are in
2. Orientation: Riders should be able to quickly determine the directionality of the route
3. Scheduling: Riders should be able to see wait times and identify times quickly.

By focusing on these three things we gave ourselves permission to use multiple languages as a design element rather than the sole purpose of a strictly-functional redesign. After looking at these factors, we decided in order to meet the brief we will have a display for light rail information, bus information, and something that provides visual interest.

three-part system

We decided to use a color system to address the directionality of the systems, blue for north, green for south. We separated the bus and the light rail and put their important information in relevant and separate areas. The system relies on digital displays or projections to show the information. This keeps the information displayed most relevant to the riders. There were three main displays we designed as a part of this system.

1. Light Rail Display

In order to show riders the light rail information, we decided to use the wall space in the Transit Tunnel to our advantage. We broke the wall into three parts, with train information on the two ends and a more visual piece in the middle.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The two end panels act as a display for the light rail information, and informs the public of where they are in the station and in Seattle to answer the questions of location relevance and orientation. It was important to us to make the arrival time and directionality noticeable. Because one's location in the tunnel is not apparent when you get off the train, it was important to include a map of the area and the other stops on the track.

The end panels make it obvious when the next train is arriving with a large countdown timer, so any riders would be able to know immediately when the next train is scheduled.

It also increases multilingual accessibility by including other languages in presenting crucial information and as a welcome in the center panel of the wall. Emphasizing the multiple languages spoken in Seattle demonstrates a welcoming spirit and raises awareness of the multicultural aspect of the Emerald City.

2. Bus Bay Display

Current bus bays are marked by small panels on tall poles. They are difficult to notice unless you are looking hard for them, and even then it can be a challenge to spot. We made the information clearer by designing tall display posts that included the information relevant to the bay specific buses, as opposed to having the information on the wall where our light rail information is displayed.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The bus bay posts, as digital signage, keep information to a minimum while maximizing relevance of location and operations. The bay letter marker is large and apparent, making finding the location much easier, and orientation is also made clear with the colors used throughout the system.

The multilingual nature is addressed with "bay" written in the other languages as well, which not only provides context. It also highlights the diverse communities within Seattle, and helps paint Seattle as the international city it truly is.

3. Animated Display

The animation provides some visual interest to the middle panel of the light rail display and unique brand elements to the transportation systems within the Transit Tunnel. It upgrades a milder branding system to a distinctive one that uses tried-and-true Seattle colors with a motion piece that pays homage to the technology center that is Seattle. It isn't just a corporate city, it has its own unique quirks and history, and the look of the public transportation system is improved when referencing these realities.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The two other display systems are made stronger when displayed with the animation. Transportation should be quick, constantly moving, and an enjoyable experience. The animation creates an active experience and accomplishes transforming the space into something more. 

cONCLUSIONS

Our redesign of the system and branding of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel reevaluates the standard for public transportation. It simplifies the information and makes it accessible to a wider audience. It stays true to Seattle and aims to take riders on a more unique transit journey, for however long they may be in our great city.

Our brief did not change very much across the project, but our thinking did. We avoided limiting the project to what we witnessed during our field trip, and we were able to develop a simplified system of transportation that is unique to Seattle.

If we were to continue working on this project there are some areas we would like to address. It would be great to do some testing and have real trials with our signage to see how they work in person. It would be also great to develop even more thorough brand guidelines and extend this system of branding and identity across more platforms and different areas in Seattle's public transportation system. We see potential for an even stronger and more cohesive identity by extending the project into these areas in the future.