To skip my yapping and if you just want to see my Proposed Idea, go to Proposed Idea/Fixes.
Fig. 1: The New Wayfinding System - in the initial state before modifications
📷: Samuel Lim
Context
The new Wayfinding system was first launched on the Thomson-East Coast Line stations. It spots a new design system, where the emphasis was mainly on iconographies, rather than pure texts. I for one, am a huge fan of this new design. I love icons and pictorials as compared to texts.
Observations
It's paper signages galore!
When entering a TEL station, you will definitely be greeted with a portable stand holding up an
A4-size paper, mentioning either the lines, or the exit directories. At Woodlands TEL, there are
3 sets of escalators, one would bring you to the NSL, the middle ones would bring you to the Way
Out, and the third one, would bring you to Exits 5-7.
Many commuters would mistakenly take the
middle set of escalators, where it only brings you to the Way Out, and not to NSL, because that
is where the Faregates are. Hence signages like these (Fig. 2) were placed. While useful, it
looks very clunky.
The worst one was seen at Marina Bay, where the portable signages, showing the NSL/CCL direction
and where they should alight to go to the different attractions.
(Fig. 5). I definitely think we can make this permanent, and have a more proper design.
Fig. 2: Woodlands TEL's Portable Signs telling commuters to use the other set of escalators to NSL.
Fig. 3: 5 years on, with the opening of TEL4, paper signages are still a thing. This one thank god, looks decent
Fig. 4: Yep, this was placed right in the middle of an empty space, near the
escalators.
📷: ANN 包車天王 (via Discord)
Fig. 5: Ok... What? Can definitely be designed better LOL
Identify
How can we improve it?
I understand that the whole intention of these new Wayfinding system is to make wayfinding,
well, easier. But how much simpler can these signs go?
As quoted by the designer himself, he said:
“It means that our redesign, in this instance, has failed, because people can’t even see the signage hanging up there above,” said Lim, who works at the Land Transport Authority (LTA), a government agency that oversees the signage system of Singapore’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system."
He has since left that role. Uh-oh.
In my opinion, while it is true that it somehow failed, it's actually fixable. Believe it or not, it just needed something. Yep, it's fine-tuning. To dive in deeper, let's take a look at the different parts the new Wayfinding system did wrong.
Now, let's dissect the new Signage system into different components - Iconographies, Exit Directories, Consistencies, Overall Execution and finally, my proposed idea/fixes.
Part 1: Iconographies
Let's take a look at Fig. 6. The icons are straight-forward, and I applaud that. The earlier
versions of the Line Caplets only saw it as TE, NS, EW etc, before being changed to include
the 'L' (i.e TEL, NSL, EWL).
One may argue "But what do these TEL, NSL short-forms mean?" Well, the MRT map itself has
legends, so people like the tourists will first look at that for reference,
so no issues with that. Also, it's crazy to include the whole name for a line with the
longest name - the Thomson-East Coast Line, for example, so the caplets would suffice.
Fig. 6: A few examples of icons being used in the system. Recreated the real-life ones as accurate as possible
Fig. 7: Self-Explanatory, all included on the bottom part of the MRT map.
However, complexities may arise when only the Icons of different landmarks are shown - some people, like me initially, had no idea what these places are (Fig. 8 & 9).
Fig. 8: 9 different landmark icons. Some are recognisable, some are not. Recreated the real-life ones as accurate as possible
Fig. 9: How about these? Recognise them? Recreated the real-life ones as accurate as possible
But fret not, we can still leave it the way it is, but make it more prominent. You'll see what I mean when I show you my proposed ideas. Some of it are already present, and is currently rolling out, but I hope it will roll out to more places in the future.
Part 2: Exit Directories
I have arrived at my station. Where to, next? This is where the Exit Directories come in. However, the current implementation only has Exit Directories at the Concourse.
Fig. 9: Way Out icons at the Platform. At the Platform, only the 'Way Out'
icon is shown.
📷: Mothership.sg
The Exit Directories are only available at the Concourse level. So why not solve these once and for all - Bring the Exit Directories to the Platforms too. But before doing that, the Exit Directory list itself needs some minor tweaking too.
Fig. 10: Current Exit Directory list. Alphabetical Order, with only Bus Stop Codes.
Part 3: Consistencies
Consistencies are a key to a good design system. The current signage designs are almost
there, but
some parts are not consistent. A most notable example is the Exit Letters/Numbers. TEL uses
Numbers (Exit 1,2,3 etc), while the rest still uses Letters. Raffles Place particularly,
began
the changeout to the new current signage design, but retained the Exit Letters.
This may confuse some people, but I also understood as to why it was done. Changing it to
numbers - may
confuse existing people using the exits, by retaining the letters, it minimises confusion,
but at the
same time, lead to inconsistencies. In my opinion, they SHOULD change to numbers, and the
LTA should also
start consolidating exits to make it simpler.
Fig. 11: A few examples of different icons being used in the system. Raffles Place uses a different set of icons (particularly, the Way Out and Exit Letter icon), which seems like a newer design. Recreated the real-life ones as accurate as possible.
Some stations, take Tampines, for example, uses the older signage design language, along with the current signage design's fonts. Basically rojak. One would think that they would've picked a new design language, and then apply it islandwide, but that does not seem to be the case.
Fig. 12: New fonts, mix with old design? 📷: joofer
Fig. 13: New fonts, new caplets mix with old design?
Fig. 14: Entirely new design 📷: mrtsginfo
Pick your battle, man.
Part 4: Overall Execution
Enough about Design Inconsistencies. Execution Inconsistencies have also arised.
Fig. 15: When two design languages collide. And when you keep churning out new iterations for your design, this is what happens. Recreated the real-life ones as accurate as possible.
Might be subjective, but I prefer the new design, with smaller text. If you want to enlarge the text, just do that, don't touch the other elements (Fig. 16).
Fig. 16: Tadaaaa.
So far, only these stood out. But I'm afraid, more inconsistencies will soon happen if no one spots these minute details.
Proposed Ideas/Fixes
How I'd fix the problems. Remember, my aim here is not to totally replace the current system
into another one, but to just refine and enhance the existing implementation. Here, I'll
break it into two sections, first is fixing the current implementation, second is how I
would redesign certain aspects of the signages.
My Wayfinding Philosophy is as follows:
Alight > Confirm > Exit
Hence,
information at the platform should include the Exit Directories, so immediately upon
alighting from the train, I would know where to go. So once I take the Escalator up, I'd
just tap out, and exit the stations.
Fixes
Fig. 17a: For: TE 2 Woodlands
Fig. 17b: For: TE 2 Woodlands - Annotation
Fig. 18a: For: TE 11 Stevens
Fig. 18b: For: TE 11 Stevens - Annotation
Fig. 19a: For: TE 26 Marine Parade
Fig. 19b: For: TE 26 Marine Parade - Annotation
Fig. 20a: Station Name Signs - Standardised layout
Fig. 20b: Station Name Signs - Standardised layout - Annotation
Fig. 21a: For TE 26 Marine Parade's Exit Directory
Fig. 21b: For TE 26 Marine Parade's Exit Directory - Annotation
New Ideas
Fig. 22: Enhanced Icon Sets
Fig. 22a: Lift Icon sets
Reworked some of the icons (Fig. 22). For the way out, I've decided to use a universal way out icon (literally a guy on his way to an exit). For the Lift Icon, I've decided to replace the elderly with a walking stick to a normal man standing icon. This is because there is a separate 'Priority Use' sign which shows the different set of people who should be prioritised to use the lift.
Fig. 23: Addition of Exit Directories (summarized) at Platforms
I have gathered several feedbacks on my own, and what often pops up among the other requests is the addition of Exit Directories at Platforms. You can see this evidently in TEL4 stations, with paper signages. Here, I've decided to put it at an empty space (exactly where the paper signage were, in Fig. 4), where it corresponds to the Exits the Escalator sets would bring you to.
Fig. 24: Informative Signages, following the current Design Language
If you recall the rather crude Signage in Fig. 5, I've decided to make it a permanent signage. Added in the design cues from the Current Design Language, now it looks more proper. The other poster is a redesign of what is currently being pasted at Jurong East MRT, but I've redesigned it in accordance to the current design, as well.
Fig. 25: Further utilization of Totem Signages
This is an extension of the fixes from Fig. 19a. Exits are clearly labelled in Yellow, with prominent Exit Numbers, so commuters would be aware which exits would that set of Escalators bring them to.
Summing it up
As you can see, redesigns do not need to be drastic. I mean, a major redesign has already
happened back in 2019, thus, it is absurd to introduce yet another design system. Hence i've
taken a different approach - an iterative redesign.
I am also aware that any changes and additions require additional costs, hence I've come up
with a unique fix to an ongoing problem: paper signages! If
you can't fix the problem of
paper signages cropping up everywhere, why not join them, but also make them better?
My new self-made handbook dives in a little more about my proposed fixes and designs. You
can view them here.
Nurafian Zulkifli
Passionate about Technology and Designs - mainly UI Designs, Wayfinding and
Signage Designs.
I also
enjoy replicating stuffs that interests me.