Mapping user experience with culture
How subway maps relate to culture.
What would you recommend to someone who comes to New York City for the first time? Visit Central Park? Check out a Broadway show? See the Statue of Liberty?
My first answer would be to download an offline subway map. This was suggested to me when I first arrived in NYC and it has saved me countless times.
When I moved to New York, I was quickly introduced to the city’s most iconic landmark: the largest transportation system in the world — the New York City Subway. I learned about which subway cars I should take, the places I could go from which stops, and, most importantly, where the exit of each stop took me.
I didn’t understand why people told me to download an offline map, or taught me so much about an underground rail system.*After all, I had used a subway in Istanbul every day.
When I first saw the New York City Subway Map, I realized the differences. Subway maps are used all around the world, but each map has a different design. These differences are based on the people, their language, reading direction, habits, and city infrastructure. Culture shapes the structure of many things, including subway maps. The New York City map was geographically detailed.
Has the map of one of the oldest transportation systems in the world ever changed?
I traveled to the New York Transit Museum, via the F train, with this question in mind. There were multiple subway maps showcased. Ranging from the first that was designed in 1904 to the most recent, released in 2020. How have the maps changed over the last 116 years?
Since the first-ever map of the subway system, many redesigns have occurred. The most notable redesign was released in 1972 by Massimo Vignelli. Even though this map was based on previous editions, it remained in use for only seven years. Unlike the other maps, it was diagrammatic in appearance; train lines were colored and designed to look good to the eye, lines were linear, and stops were bundled together.
During the brief time Vignelli’s map was used, it was not popular amongst subway riders in New York City.
Why didn’t the map work for New Yorkers?
The main issue was that Vignelli’s map did not represent the real distances and locations of what was above ground in the city. There were also other key factors in this map that made it extremely unclear:
- The color hues of subway lines were similar to each other, which made distinguishing them difficult;
- Bodies of water were not colored blue (they were beige);
- Parks were not colored green, as they are in real life;
- Stations were positioned next to each other, even if a transfer was not available between them.
Thus, on paper, the subway map and the real world did not match, affecting the experience of the riders.
When looked at in hindsight, the short lifespan of Vignelli’s map seems to be only a result of New Yorkers disliking it. However, when further researched, it is seen that the map did not correlate with the structures of the city and did not correspond to people’s previous experience with subway maps. People were using maps that matched the city’s geographical details and structure before they used Vignelli’s map. This could be seen as an old habit of NYC residents, which is why New Yorkers had a hard time using this diagrammatic map.
After Vignelli’s map was discontinued, New York City reverted to a geographical map, which is still used today. Michael Hertz designed and developed the map together with the Subway Map Committee, led by John Tauranac; Hertz played a critical role in creating the new map design. Hertz added street and landmark names to it. Despite Hertz’s criticisms of Vignelli’s map, Hertz and Tauranac made use of Vignelli’s eight-color palette in their final rendition.
With its use of geographic details, accurate location of stations, and the more vibrant colors, the new and still used New York Subway Map is closer to what New Yorkers are used to seeing in their daily lives.
How does culture even affect the experience of a product?
Experience and design are equally important for a product. It could be designed in a way that pleases the eye. But, does this product serve people’s needs or provide a solution?
To create useful products for society, finding out which factors are more meaningful for the user and how these factors affect them is critical. Thus, users’ daily practices, values, rituals, opinions, and experiences — in short, their culture — should be studied to provide a more worthwhile experience.
What are the main factors that influence the map?
- New York City has a multicultural structure:
People who live in New York City come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. The districts they live in are divided based on race, ethnicity, income, immigration patterns, and various other social factors. Because of this, the residents have created deep bonds with the district they live in. This feeling of belonging allows residents to root themselves within the city.
The map also reflects the relationship commuters have to their communities. These communities are represented on the map indirectly. This feeling of belonging is portrayed on Hertz’s map with the names of districts like The Bronx, Chinatown, or Mott Haven, which allows commuters to not only know where they are going but to see an important part of their lives showcased on the map.
The NYC Subway is a hub for New Yorkers from all kinds of backgrounds. It provides a sort of social environment of equality. While riding, you could easily see celebrities like Keanu Reeves and Mariah Carey sitting right beside you at any moment.
In this multicultural environment, the subway also provides a shared space to socialize with the other side of the city. The subway is a stage for a dance performance and an emergency shelter for anyone in need. Or it can be a vehicle to move furniture, as I once used it.
Mapping helps represent the relationship between systems, spaces, and regions. The subway map is a reflection of the city, used as a tool to show the transportation system while representing the city’s culture.
2. The City has a grid street system:
The streets of New York City have a grid design, and the subway is placed right underneath it. The subway can be found on the major streets like 6th Ave., 8th Ave., and Park Avenue, making subway exits instant landmarks. The reason is that the city’s economic development was shaped by the subway.
According to the transit museum’s director, Concetta Bencivenga, while New Yorkers use the subway system, they are tied to the landmarks above ground in their daily lives. There is a clear link between the aboveground world and the world below. In New York, there are a lot of transportation options to go from one place to another. Walking is almost always an option for New Yorkers. So when commuters use public transportation, they want to know exactly where they are and where they are going. This desire for commuters might be fueled by the city’s subway having a high crime rate in the past.
One of the questions that was most asked by my friends in my first six months of living in NYC was, did you get used to the subway? New Yorkers were both surprised and appreciative of the speed that I learned the ‘in’s and outs’ of the subway system. Geographical expertise is the main factor of belonging (Tejada, Soledad O., 2020). New Yorkers are proud of knowing the locations of the subway stations. When asked, a New Yorker takes pride in helping a fellow commuter by listing various ways to get from Manhattan to Coney Island.
New York Times, 2012: ‘Tourists found it difficult to match their destinations with the representations on the map. In an era before Google Maps, his artistic flair made navigating the City’s underbelly a touch more stressful.’
On Vignelli’s map, the 59th Street Columbus Circle station seems to be a couple of blocks away from Central Park. At first glance, the 1, 2, and 3 lines seem to represent a separate station. However, this is not true. The station stop for all three lines is located underneath the entrance to Central Park. The 1, 2, and 3 trains stop at the same station as the rest. This created a disconnect between the subway map and the real world.
If the user is provided with a product that does not factor in the normal practice of the user, their mindset, and their culture, they will lose touch with reality and feel lost while using the product, creating a worthless experience.
The New York Subway Map is a part of these shared habits, experiences, behaviors, and meanings. It is a part of the culture, and these factors affect the way the map is experienced. New York City has its own unique character, like other cities, and a map representing this city should be designed considering its character.
How would users better experience the product?
When we look at Vignelli’s map design, it has a simple and clean design; it shows how commuters can go from A to B. Vignelli has solved the mess of a complex system, and his design is an iconic version of the map. But his solution did not match real-life usage of this culture.
It is necessary to get to know the users to improve their experience. For this, you must start by identifying and understanding your target users. Observation is the most powerful and fundamental skill to understand society and users. This method allows researchers to identify the needs, problems, habits, expectations, reactions, behaviors, and ideas of a city's culture. Spending time on understanding these factors leads to a deeper understanding of the target users’ natural habitat.
Only gaining insights into the cultural factors is not enough to improve the experience for the users. Analyzing the insight is as important as the observation itself. It helps to provide product solutions that are matched with the target user’s needs. This leads to understanding how users integrate the product into their lives, whether it will be usable, acceptable, or valuable to consumers.
The New York City Subway Map is as iconic as the city itself. The design of the map has not changed drastically in recent years. However, newer maps have been designed in hopes of creating a better experience. There are also some alternative design projects that aim to redesign the subway map.
In October of 2020, MTA rolled out a new map design that brought together the best qualities from Vignelli’s map and Hertz’s map. The color scheme and diagram features were taken from Vignelli and the landmarks and geographical map integration from Hertz’s map, creating a new digital map for New Yorkers to utilize.
It is vital to do an in-depth analysis of the cultural elements to enhance the experience. All of these factors should be evaluated together. So, we must put the user at the core of design decisions to provide a better experience to users.
References
Tylor, E. B. (1889). Primitive culture: Researches into the development of mythology, philosophy, religion, language, art and custom. New York: H. Holt.
Norman, D. A. (2004). Emotional design: Why we love (or hate) everyday things. New York: Basic Books.
Norman, D. A. (2013). The design of everyday things. MIT Press.
Kottak, Conrad Phillip. (2013). Cultural anthropology: appreciating human diversity. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Moalosi, R., Popovic, V. & Hickling-Hudson, A. Culture-orientated product design. Int J Technol Des Educ 20, 175–190 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-008-9069-1
Tejada, Soledad O., The Public and the Personal: Mapping the NYC Subway System as an Urban Memoryscape (2020). Library Map Prize. 7. https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/library_map_prize/7
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/02/nyregion/nyc-subway-map.html
https://www.oreilly.com/content/redesigning-the-new-york-city/
http://www.culturelookingsideways.com/subway-civility-intro
