A few weeks ago, we let Matt, one of our design guys, loose in Japan. He came back with tons of ideas and observations on user experience design, so we’ve asked him to share a few of the things that struck him.

I always find travelling refreshes and brings new ideas. Japan was a great place to observe different and new ways of doing things.

As I travelled, I was struck by the efficiency of the transport network in Japan. I also noticed that passengers in Japan get more ‘feedback’ on journeys by public transport - by train, by metro/tube and even on buses. It seemed to me that culturally, Japanese people were keen on knowing the ’status of things’ in general - my perception was that they thrive on being kept informed.

One simple but effective piece of design I saw was on the Tokyo Metro - shown in the picture here. The stations of the Metro line are shown as a ‘line map’ within the carriage, above the doors, as you might expect. But the map goes further than those on say the London Tube system. The map also gives live feedback status to the passengers.

The technology used is not the latest in LCD displays - it’s quite simple cut out areas of the map that light up. But the effect on the passenger user experience is the key.

The status indicators tell the passengers:

1. Which station is next: Great if you miss the voice announcement, also shows the next station just as the train pulls out of the current station - so passengers are ready for their stop;
2. Which station they are at: Good if the passenger can’t see the signage of the station through the window for some reason;
3. Which side the doors will open: Means passengers can queue at the correct side of the train when they are next to get off - this makes a more ordered and more relaxing journey as people don’t have to guess which side at the last minute.

These are small design details, but someone has clearly thought about it and, clearly, it improves the user experience for the individual passenger and all their fellow passengers.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.