Metro Light

RC
Feb 7, 2023
5 min read

Updated: Dec 4, 2023

This service design aims to build up a guiding system and use the light to guide people to escape from the situation of crowded metro carriages and stations.

Starting Point

[Experience]

It came from my unforgettable experience when I took the metro during the evening rush hour -- People crowded into the subway at each stop, and it was difficult to get out of the crowd when I finally arrived at the station.

[Thought]

Then I start to think about this situation: Getting off the bus during rush hour is HARD!

It will be trouble if someone fails to get out of the carriage.

[Idea]

Finally, I popped out with an idea: I want to do a guiding system to help people get off the carriage easily.

Background information & Research

With this idea, I tried to use desk research and found some secondary research.

Firstly, I find the metros in different countries -- Tokyo and London, to let them compare with the metro in my city (Shenzhen), in order to make sure of Shenzhen metro's highlights and pain points. Because I am brought up in Shenzhen, where the metro is still developing, and the pressure on metro transportation turns higher and higher. Therefore, this project aims to improve the issues of Shenzhen Metro.

Based on the basic data in these three metros, we can know that Shenzhen metro is the youngest one and still developing. Though its daily passenger flow is the lowest, it still let me feel crowded in the carriage. Therefore, I need to do deeper research on the Shenzhen metro. I spent two weeks experiencing the Shenzhen metro stations and carriages during the rush hour and observing its passenger flow as well as the metro’s equipment. And then I visualize my research data and make the illustration for the station’s basic structure:

And I took some photos of rush hour metro stations and observe the stations' passenger flow and equipment.

[Passenger flow]

In passenger flow, I divide it into 5 parts: enter, security check, waiting, carriage, and transfer, which are based on the steps that customers take in the metro.

Enter: Customers need to enter the station entrance. While it will take a super long line in the rush hour (about 400 meters long), to finish the queue, it will take from 10 to even 30 minutes.
Security check: In order to keep safe in the metro and avoid terrorist attacks, all the Chinese metro need to do a security check before getting on the carriage. That is, the queue time turns longer: passengers need to wait for 10-15 minutes to do the check.
Waiting for the carriage: waiting for the next train in rush hour need about 2 to 4 minutes
Carriage period: the duration between the two stations need the train to take about 3 to 4 minutes to arrive.
Transfer: some of the passengers need to transfer to different metro lines to reach their destinations. And some of the stations set a long transfer channel so that some of the passengers need to take about 6 minutes.

As a result, the average commute time of passengers in the Shenzhen metro need about 36 minutes!

[Equipment]

With the observation trip of Shenzhen Metro’s Line 1, Line 3, Line 4, Line 5, as well as Line 11. I find a series of interesting equipment: business carriages, normal carriages, escalators, signs, priority carriages for women, and security check equipment.

Some pain points and advantages of its equipment, here I use green color to label its highlights but use the dark blue color to label its pain points:

Questionnaire & Interview

To make sure about the target audience and their experiences in detail, I design an online questionnaire by wenjuanxing to start a survey for about 162 people in one week

Questionnaire questions

Q1: Do you feel crowded when you take the metro?

The carriage is empty
A little bit crowded maybe
Crowded
Extremely crowded and hard to get in

Q2: Which part do you feel crowded during the whole process of taking the metro?

Entering the station
In the carriage
Transfer
Leaving the station

Q3: Which time is the most crowded when you take the metro?

7-9 am
9-11 am
1- 3 pm
3-5 pm
5-7 pm
7-9 pm
9-11 pm

Q4: Which kind of item is the most attractive when you in the metro carriage?

Nothing but my cellphone
The passing station name and the routine map shows in the carriages
The ad banners showing in the tunnel
All of above

Q5: Have you noticed the broadcasting in the carriage?

Q6: Have you worried about missing the station?

Q7: Do you have the experience of missing the station?

Q8: What is the reason why you miss the station?

Too crowded to get out the carriage
Distracted by the cellphone & and books
Oversleep
All of above

According to the research and the questionnaire, crowding still be a problem in Shenzhen metra. And the white collar takes a major part. Therefore, solving the crowding problem is crucial problem for us to get out of the carriage. And I also visualize the data from the survey result in age and occupation:

also their behaviors in the carriage:

As most of the participants in the survey are over 25 years old, the target users can be certain as white-collar workers, who are the most typical groups in the morning and evening rush hours of Shenzhen metro. And I choose two participants as my interviewees to interview them with some questions:

Interview contents

Through the interviews, the crowded problem does not start in the carriage while beginning at lining up on the platform. And It proved that we need to consider the whole process of taking the metro but not limited to the carriages.

Persona

With references to the questionnaire and the interview, I decided to simulate a character who is white-collar -- Lisa Luo.

She is a market manager, age 26. Her company orders the working time to start at 9 am, so she needs to arrive at the metro station before 8 am. At first, she needs to take six stations in line 1 and then transfer to line 4 to take another three stations so that she can reach the company on time.

(right side of the image is Lisa's mental status in the metro.)

By recording her journey map, we can find out more information about the crowded problem.

Journey map

Here is the period for Lisa to take the metro: during the map, we can find out that the metro not only exists a crowded problem as mentioned before but has the potential to improve these problems:

Idea & Inspirations

With these plenties of primary and secondary research data, it's time to think about how to solve the crowded problem in the metro and how to serve the white-collar groups to commute. And I decided to design a guiding system to guide people well and avoid crowding.

When I was waiting for the train at Children's Palace (station), what made me interested is the screen on the platform gate. So why not use it to inform the passengers? And I drew a group of sketches to show my rough concept of the metro guiding system. Though it seems to have better guidance, the screen also has pain points: it will be ignored by the passengers, and it will be put on the advertisement.

And I started to take further technic research, and find out three interesting interactive technics:

Concept development & Stakeholder map

By summarizing the research and ideas, we can find that the guiding system is the way to improve the Shenzhen metro. To improve the guiding system, we need visual technology to attract people and give them a visual shock.

So the floor lamp, holographic projection, and interactive floor are the main technic equipment in the guiding system. Besides, the system also requires light, broadcast, striking color, and repeating voice. And the style of the system needs to be noticeable, clear, and simple.

For the stakeholder, it covers three types of groups: the passengers (students/ white-collars/ others), the staff (security/ safety inspector/ safety officer), and the metro operators.

In the relationship between passengers and staff, the security guards will guide the passengers to line up for entry. Then the safety inspector will guide passengers to do the safety check to keep the metro safe. Finally, the safety officers manage the platform and carriages to remind passengers to get on or off the train.

And the metro operator will manage the metro staff as they are the employment relationship. Also, the operator prefers to reduce the cost of the carriage in order to save money.

Metro Light

In this part, I finally design the guiding system -- "Metro Light"

Here are the detailed design of the sign system, typography, interactive floor, and installations: