1 post filed under london
To provide Londoners with a coherent wayfinding system, the Legible London designers have broken the city down into three key spatial hierarchies:
(Source: thisbigcity)
1 post filed under london
There was a time when London united around the vision of a better future and a group of young idealists were fusing art and science to build an egalitarian city.
This documentary is their story.
1 post filed under london
Satellite technology reveals how the network of city streets is being pushed to the edge of capacity. Watch the GPS traces of 380 London taxis over the course of a single day.
(via Humanscalecities)
1 post filed under london
Barclays Cycle Hire, launching on 30 July 2010, will be a public bicycle sharing scheme for short journeys in and around central London. You’ll be able to pick up a bicycle, use it as you like, then drop it off, ready for the next person.
The bicycles will be available 24 hours a day, all year round. It will be self-service so just turn up and go whenever you get the urge. No need to book.
This is great - a really nice example of modern, urban, multi-channel service design and it’s quite interesting to see that Barclays have claimed it from a brand perspective. I just hope London is kinder to this scheme than Paris was to it’s Vélib service Apparently that article is a distortion of the truth and was published at the same time as JCDecaux were renegotiating their contract. Vélib vandalism was within predicted levels. (thanks @iamdanw).
1 post filed under london
Wonder if there’s going to be any new iBus tech on these. Boris recently promised to wi-fi enable bus stops and lamp posts by 2012 so if he manages to pull that off it could open up some interesting possibilities for the digital side of London Transport.
1 post filed under london
Legible London is a new pedestrian wayfinding system to help people walk around the Capital.
‘Heads-up’ mapping
Rather than having north at the top, on-street signage maps are ‘heads-up’, which means they’re orientated to face the same way as the user is facing. This helps people understand their immediate environment more easily.
Accessibility
Important information is located between 900mm and 1800mm above the ground so it can be easily read by most people. Among other things, the maps show steps, pavement widths and pedestrian crossings, which are important for visually-impaired people, wheelchair users and others with limited mobility.
Time to walk
Research shows people can more easily understand the proximity of places if they know how long it will take, rather than the distance they have to travel. This is why we use time as the scale for Legible London maps.
Walk this way
Directional information is used to point the way towards areas of London, as well as specific attractions.
3D buildings
Illustrations of key buildings are included to help people who struggle to read maps, including those with learning difficulties. They provide a literal representation of key landmarks and make the maps more intuitive.
Planner map
The planner, or 15-minute, map helps orientate the user by showing the proximity of ‘villages’ to each other. This helps give the user the confidence to try longer walking journeys.
The 15-minute walking circle indicates places that can be reached within that time, when walking at an average pace.
Finder map
The finder, or 5-minute, map is more detailed than the planner map and features a number of landmarks, to help guide the user towards specific streets and attractions.
It includes a five-minute walking circle indicating places that can be reached within that time, when walking at an average pace.
Integrated transport
Bus stops, Tube stations and taxi ranks are all included.
Street finder
Street names are listed in alphabetical order to help people locate individual streets, as they would with other maps.
Apparently this photo is a foundation waiting for a Monolith to be installed (Thanks Dan W).
1 post filed under london
I really like the way that this is piggybacking on data from existing infrastructure and adapting every day behaviour to turn something mundane into a game.
“Chromaroma by Mudlark is a game that shows you your movements and location as you swipe your Oyster Card in and out of the Tube.
It connects communities of people who cross paths and routes on a regular basis, and encourages people to make new journeys and use public transport in a different way by exploring new areas and potentially using different modes of public transport.”
Find out more at www.chromaroma.com.
1 post filed under london
I saw this broken Oyster reader on the way to work today.
It’s made me think about error/failure reporting with regard to ubiquitous or pervasive computing.
If your interaction with something is entirely transparent and the result of your action is invisible - how can you tell if it’s worked or not?
In the case of a broken Oyster reader like this I’d tap my card on it and it wouldn’t register. It woudn’t bleep to say it had registered but what if I had headphones on? Is lack of a sound a good way to report an error? It could (would) mean I’m unwittingly paying the maximum fare when I arrive at my destination and tap out. Unless I knew this is the case the only indication I’d get that something was wrong would be when I ran out of money on my card too early or not at all if (like me) your Oyster is tethered to your bank account and you don’t scrutinise your Oyster charges against every journey you make.
What if my interaction with a pervasive system triggers a set of events that result in something happening in a different time or place? If something in the chain failed I wouldn’t have a clue where or when it went wrong but I’d know something did because I’d be unable to do something I’m normally able to do. By that time it could be too late or I could be too far away to remedy the situation.
This is where the conversation about seamlessness vs seamfulness or “beautiful seams” (as coined by Mark Weiser) comes into play. The idea is that seamless transitions in ubiquitous computing could possibly mean a loss of control for participants or users due to them being unaware of when one process stops and another begins. The suggested solution is to create seamfulness or “beautiful seams” where necessary that help people keep track of what’s happening.
It’s probably not necessary for all ubiquitous computing scenarios but error reporting is one instance where a distinct, visible seam might be useful. Maybe a seam only becomes apparent once something goes wrong.
Maybe that Oyster reader should be constantly checking its ability to do its job. It could have some kind of easily recognisable, physical representation of a “ready to help you” state and a “sorry I’m broken and can’t help” state that would be triggered if something goes wrong with it, it goes offline or it loses power. That way you could see at a glance and eventually instinctively know if something was wrong.
