NYMS

flowpdf

Features

• Weather
• Mobility (handicapped, child bearing, etc.)
• Money/Time
• Repurposing printouts

Issues

• Usage time (how usability can improve this)
• Multilingual
• The OCD factor
• Accessibility  (i.e. blind, elderly)

I watched people carefully in the subway try to read the maps. The first couple I approached were new bees and had a difficult time reading the map. I proceeded to to follow them out of the subway tunnel and found them turning around twice. I then saw another couple yelling at each other, disagreeing which direction to go. I saw a man take so long looking at the map, that the person behind him left. There was one point that I went to go read a map myself, but there were homeless people in my way.

1a.

The New York City Subway system is extremely difficult to navigate. There are also numerous factors that are not included in the map such as weather, traffic, and route changes. Traversing the actual subway stations is also often difficult, which is often exacerbated by stations that are not monitored by MTA staff.

1b.

Map systems are already in place, but they don’t tell you the actually path to take.

There are already tools to do this, yet there is a lack of connectivity once you enter the subway system. Examples of these are Hopstop.com and Google Maps.

2.

The New York City transit system is constantly changing; trains are rerouted causing confusion to subway users.  When underground, information to subway riders is limited, they either have access to static maps or brief opportunities for wireless connectivity. This tool gives equal, updated, and intuitive access to subway information to all of its users.  There are also other sub systems (i.e. bus routes) that are not properly visualized in the current subway maps.

3.

The project will manifest itself as a large interactive map of New York City. The proposed map challenges the existing subway map paradigms, by transforming how a user interacts with public transportation maps. Instead of looking at the map to see how to use the subway to navigate between to points, the user simply needs to focus on where they are and where they want to go. A user will point to the location they wish to go, and the map will show/print out /txt the transportation options to get to the desired location.  This system will be dynamically updated to take into account rush hour, weather, and route changes.

5.

Large touch screen, printer, interface.