Hi Reddit,
After years of feedback, SEPTA is redesigning the way-finding system for our rail transit network – the Market-Frankford Line, Broad Street Line, Norristown High Speed Line, and the 10, 11, 13, 34, 36, 15, 101, and 102 Trolleys.
Last month we released a proposal, including new signage, transit maps, design standards, and nomenclature to make our system easier to navigate no matter your ability, language, or familiarity with the system. These concepts were developed from over a year of research, site visits, and multiple methods of public outreach and stakeholder engagement. Now we’re looking for feedback from the general public before we make any final decisions.
We are three urban planners working at SEPTA, each of us having spent considerable time leading and contributing to the SEPTA Metro project. You can ask us anything about the project—we will not answer off-topic questions.
- Lex Powers, Strategic Planning Manager, SEPTA
- Will Herzog, Planner, SEPTA
- Jenna Fortunati, Planner, SEPTA
We will be live on Oct 20th from 12 PM to 2 PM ET.
Ask us anything about:
- Where did this project come from?
- Why are signs so important, anyway?
- Who has been involved so far?
- Why did are you proposing [X]? Did you consider [Y]?
- Are you changing SEPTA’s name to Metro? (No!)
- When can we expect to see changes?
- Anything about signage, universal design, transit maps, or wayfinding.
- Anything else about the project.
Additional Information:
Project Website: https://planning.septa.org/projects/wayfinding-master-plan/
View the map & renderings: https://map.septa.org/
Read about the recommendations: https://planning.septa.org/projects/wayfinding-master-plan/recommendations/
Read about the proposed wayfinding tools: https://planning.septa.org/projects/wayfinding-master-plan/wayfinding-tools/
Learn about our research: https://planning.septa.org/projects/wayfinding-master-plan/research-and-engagement/
Proof: [https://imgur.com/a/vR8rguL](https://imgur.com/a
... keep reading on reddit ➡
Unlike some other major cities, New York does not have a regional wayfinding standard—each operating agency does their own thing, and some aren't even all that good at following their own wayfinding standards consistently. This leads to a very inconsistent experience for people unfamilar with the region's transit networks.
I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on what they'd like to see out of an example regional wayfinding standard (e.g. which elements of existing wayfinding signs do you like, find helpful, find confusing, etc.). Or good exampels you've seen elsewhere with elements you'd like to adapt for NY.
I personally like the Port Authority's 2013 airport signage standards (which has also been expanded to the bus terminals), but tweaked a bit to have a broader application for train stations, light rail, buses, subways, etc.:
PA 2013 signage standard example
Different modes and services would be organized by color (e.g. yellow = airport and rail facilities; light green = express bus, light rail, ferry services; light blue = local bus and subway services, etc.). This is another alternative design that uses the colors for accents and has a bit more contrast:
PA 2013 signage standard example (modified for higher contrast)
NYCT's signs currently used on the subways, for example, are denser and may be better for cramped enviornments but lack consistency and organization in the messages...it's a bit of everything all over the place. And it generally doesn't use pictograms for non-English speaking travelers.
NYCT signage standard example)
The existing signage used by the railroads are very basic, work ok at outlying suburban stations where there's not much going on, but aren't applied consistently and aren't great in high-density enviornments
Below are some other wayfinding standards for ideas:
- PANYNJ's new 2020 Airport Wayfinding Manual (generally more modern and
Hi all! Started Aberration and still feeling a little disorientated. Usually I have the Obelisks for wayfinding, but obviously they're not underground. I have a temp base for now, but I'd like to setup a larger space to get a chem bench and fabricator up soon so I can get hazard suits going, maybe an indy forge and grill, as well as spacecfor a decent tame pen.
Any ideal locations you can suggest? Also what tips have you used to help orientate yourself underground?
Thanks!
Hello everyone :) I am a graphic design student, and me and some classmates are running a survey to understand people experiences with museums, AR, and accessibility. The survey is short and completely anonymous.
We are looking for a wide range of perspectives, and would love your input! https://forms.gle/8EgVJx9X7SQjbwLq8
In addition, if any of you know of any museum exhibits that use AR well to enhance accessibility or to create a more successful experience, I'd love to hear about it.
People complain about Boston being hard to get around but I think it’s pretty easy.
Most cities have grids, and I find them pretty disorienting. Every intersection looks pretty much identical so I find it more difficult finding where you are. and especially coming out from underground I have trouble figuring out which way is which. In Boston things are so asymmetric it’s easier.
I also think that main roads being named things like Cambridge St if it goes to Cambridge or Lexington St if it goes to Lexington or Chelsea Street to Chelsea. In other parts of the country streets are named based on where they are not where they go. Which sucks
I also think it’s pretty intuitive that main roads connect major places like squares and such. To get from Everett to Porter Sq is 3 roads just hopping square to square.
I think people get confused because of two reasons
-
they use GPS so they end up using 23 back roads that’s .04 miles shorter than the route that 3 main roads get you to.
-
people drive too fast so end up missing turn lanes or whatever
Hello everyone,
I am representing a group of graduate students enrolled in the course CPSC 544: Fundamentals in Designing Interactive Computational Technology for People. We are developing a project trying to improve information regarding accessible pathways on campus, and to improve campus building accessibility information through a new interactive map/wayfinding tool.
You must be 19 years of age or older (or a UBC student who is 17 years or older) and a person with a disability who is using or interested in using accessibility-supported Wayfinding/navigation tools or centralized accessibility resources at UBC.
What is involved?
You will be asked to do the following over an online video conference call:
● Answer interview questions
● Be observed while doing a routine activity (e.g., using an online navigation tool) What is the time commitment? 20-45 minutes
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, and if you are interested in participating, please email fill this form: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cU3ywz1nnMLlKEC
● Email Mara Solen, solen@cs.ubc.ca
Thought this might be interesting for this small, but growing community! It's a webinar on how you can create your own Augmented Reality Wayfinding (amongst other things).
Would love to get people's thoughts on how we are doing this from this community!
Webinar link here or DM me if you want to test it out (be aware you will need a scan of the space you want to test in - for our accuracy, we rely on these).
I'm trying to sneak a video demo from the developers before hand to post in here - so stay tuned!
Apologies for marketing image, but thought this was better than nothing?
Hoping the /r/sysadmin brains trust can help me on this one since it is so hard to network these days.
I work in a large organisation where we have distinct technology teams request services from end users and from one another. I'm particularly interested in hearing about the experiences of tech team to tech team. Example of "tech-to-tech" requests that end users would never see could be:
- Requesting a DNS record change
- Setting up a new AD group for a new application
- Creating SCCM site boundaries
These are all handled by separate IT teams due to segregation of duties.
However, there isn't an unified way to raise requests for each of these teams - these could be through:
- Fully-fledged ITSM ticketing system (eg Remedy/ServiceNow)
- Simplified web interface that integrates into ITSM tooling
- JIRA Service Desk
- Email DLs/Teams channels
- Direct Teams messages/phone calls/walk-ups
- Help desk requests
Attempts at fixing this include:
- Making help desk triage all requests (drowned our help desk team in emails)
- This was quickly followed by forcing all "tech folks" to raise an ITSM ticket and not contact help desk (which led to creating a "quick interface" for techies to raise/query tickets etc. without having to log in/fill in 50 fields
- Having a single Confluence webpage to direct tech users but these quickly become outdated
Obviously this creates a lot of confusion for new starters who have no idea how to raise requests and rely on others to help navigate the maze that is our IT.
I would love to hear how other companies tackle this problem. Apart from giving tech people admin rights to everything, how does "wayfinding" work for your company where segregation of duties are required? Does it work effectively? How have your techies reacted?
Hello! We are a team of designers researching pain points and current solutions for wayfinding, specifically for people with limited mobility (i.e. mobile disabilities, wheelchairs, canes, etc.). We are looking to interview a diverse group of individuals via a brief Zoom (audio or video) interview.
If you are unable to participate in an interview, you can also participate by filling out a brief anonymous survey here: https://research.typeform.com/to/VLQEK5He
If you're willing to participate in the interview, please let me know and I'll follow up with more info! Thanks so much!
You can complete Destiny 2 The First Rule Wayfinding Dreams Ascendant Mystery following this video guide.
