Rose – PASSENGER INFORMATION – SCIENCE OR NUISANCE 2012

Description

Doug Rose argues that high-quality passenger information is crucial yet undervalued, drawing on over 40 years in information design and wayfinding. Beyond legal obligations, providers should offer information because it generates travel and must be delivered cost-effectively—which requires understanding user needs and usability. Many information products fail because designers ignore varied traveller abilities, expertise, trip contexts, local geography, and cognitive differences. Insider familiarity with services also prevents designers and providers seeing the system from users’ perspectives. Fragmentation—multiple information sources produced by different organisations, bus deregulation, and disputed street infrastructure ownership—means there is rarely a single owner or coherent design process. Mobile devices help but cannot replace real-time, static, and pocket information that reassures users and confirms choices. Good design must include feedback mechanisms and be treated as a science: affordable, professional communication solutions exist and should be seen as a benefit rather than a cost.