Linea
A wayfinding system for a 46-station tram network, from signs to the departure app.
- Client
- Linea Transit Authority
- Role
- Designer
- Year
- 2021
- Team
- Studio of 5, with the transit authority
46
Stations re-signed
4
Lines, one diagram
−21%
Wrong-direction boardings
Timeline
2 years, start to launch
- Audit3 mo
- Sign system8 mo
- Pilot line5 mo
- Network rollout11 mo
The problem
Four tram lines had been built by three operators over thirty years. Each had its own colors, its own station names and its own idea of north.
Approach
We started with the diagram, because everything else would quote it. Lines run at 0, 45 and 90 degrees, interchanges are a single shape, and every station name is set the same way on the map, the platform and the app.
- The line letter sits inside its color, so it still reads for color-blind riders and in low light.
- Only the next three stops. Riders read it in the seconds before the doors close.
Details
The departure screens show minutes, not times, until a tram is more than twenty minutes away. Colors were tested for the three common types of color blindness, and each line also has a letter.
- The next tram is the only thing in color. Everything else stays white.
- Past fifteen minutes the board shows clock time, because nobody counts down from 23 min.
Outcome
The system rolled out station by station over 2021. A year later, the authority counted a fifth fewer passengers boarding in the wrong direction.
“She printed every sign at full size and taped them up in a depot before we committed to a single one. That week saved us a year of complaints.”
Credits
- Design
- Ines Calder, Studio Norte
- Wayfinding lead
- Paulo Mendes
- Client
- Linea transit authority
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