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Tube Journey

Personal tech-oriented programme

Through exciting and vivid stories, the comic and exhibition I created allows commuters, especially foreigners who are new to London,  to experience human interaction, to get a glimpse of London's social scene, and to experience a multimedia-rich sensory experience in an immersive and interactive atmosphere.

My Role  

UX designer

Team

Visual Mentor: Darryl

Research Mentor:  Sinead:

Technology Technician: Marius

Date

Jun 2022-Dec 2022

User   

London tube commuters​

The Goal

To craft a compelling and immersive comic strip and virtual exhibition that authentically captures the essence of life on the London Underground, offering both locals and newcomers a sensory-rich, multimedia journey through the diverse social interactions and moments that define this iconic transportation system.


 

Brainstorming

How to present the authentic culture environment with commuters interaction of the London Underground?

The London Underground, an everyday entrance and exit, holds endless stories and emotions. From big to small, every detail is part of London's urban culture and worth exploring in depth.

Brainstorming

Visual: Each stop on the London Underground has its own unique design, from the different wall tiles and textures of the seats to the layout of the tube carriages, all of which reflect the tube's culture. Consider creating a beautiful visual booklet of the Tube to capture these details.

Symbolic: The metro is full of symbols, such as signage, entrance and exit signs, and the distinctive design of specific stations. These symbols have histories and stories behind them that are worth studying.

People-to-people stories: In the underground, there are many fleeting encounters, including a simple conversation between two passengers, a mother comforting her child, lovers looking at each other fondly, or a person deeply engrossed in a book. Comics and GIFs can be used to capture these moments; these vignettes can be strung together into a profoundly moving work through these media.

Elements present for long periods: e.g., adverts, newspapers. These elements that have been present in the Tube for a long time reflect London's social and cultural changes. A timeline could be created to show the evolution of adverts on the Tube to show the changes in London society.

Sound: The sounds of the London Underground are unique, from the 'Mind the Gap' announcements to the chatter of passengers to the sound of the trains, all of which could be used to create a sound documentary that would allow people to experience the charm of the London Underground from an aural point of view.

Online exhibitions: This is a modern way of bringing together all of the above elements to provide an immersive experience for the user. Adding an interactive element to the exhibition allows users to share their Tube stories or leave comments.

Research

Observations: Moments of Dialogue Between Aboveground and Subterranean

I researched the symbolic visual material mentioned above, gaining a deep understanding of the fragmented visual information to deliver a cultural context for the emotions and logic of the narration.

London's Melodic Heartbeat: A dive into the city's musical legacy, from iconic rock anthems to modern grime vibes. Indie album arts, festival and concert adverts offer a rich tapestry of design inspirations.

Urban Advertisements: A panorama of ads from fashion brands like H&M and Nike to diverse promotions for galleries, headphones, dating apps, and targeted platforms like Muslim-specific dating apps.

Echoing Moquette: Observing how above-ground transport features repeated moquette designs reminiscent of buses and other city transport.

Metro Safety Alerts: Anti-harassment campaigns in the metro and safety initiatives like "see it, say it, sort it" juxtaposed with unique alerts in pubs about ensuring safety.

Newspapers: The City's Pulse: From the war narratives in Ukraine highlighting global geopolitics to the sad remembrance of the Queen's passing, METRO newspapers in the tube are an ever-evolving testament to London's heartbeats. They seamlessly stitch together current affairs, encapsulating the city's sentiments as the tube moves.

London's Liquid Culture: Despite signs banning alcohol, the prevalence of discarded bottles on tubes and streets underlines alcohol's significance in London's social fabric - a symbol of post-work relaxation and camaraderie.

Service Info reflects a modern lifestyle: The warm themes of service announcements mirror the fast pace London lifestyle.

The LGBT Presence in London's Metro: While travelling on the Underground, I noticed a significant representation of the LGBT community. This observation was further affirmed when I found art dedicated to LGBT celebrations on the LTM's official website and an intriguing tale of the Northern line's expansion to support the community.

Mrak, his ticket printing machine and a vintage ticket her printed for me

Interview:

On one occasion, I encountered a bus driver adorned with London bus badges napping on the Tube, an old ticket machine placed beside him. I first met him sleeping on the Victoria line. His unique attire caught my attention, prompting me to initiate a conversation upon his awakening. Discovering my interest in transport, Mark eagerly demonstrated his ticket machine, producing a paper ticket for me. His passion didn’t stop there. He accompanied me on a tour through the underground, recounting tales of its past - the electrified tracks, vanished steam engines, and the ongoing work on the circle line platforms.

Tube moments from my friends:

Interesting stories on the social media:

Design

Sketches and handcraft

I sketched memorable moments I encountered on the tube, illustrating them as storyboards. This process aids in shaping the story's foundation - determining its emotional essence, the ideal camera to convey the narrative, and ways to weave these segmented tales into a cohesive story.

Sketches and storyboard of the comic

The handcraft I mad for expressing my lonely tube journey when I was arriving London 

Comic creating

I've utilised newspapers as the narrative camera to ensure viewers fully grasp the myriad stories. They are a daily presence on the tube, browsed by one commuter and handed to another. This medium mirrors the wanderlust, the feeling of floating through London, and resonates with the prevailing sentiments of most London commuters.

Combining my own collection of first-hand stories and those I've gathered from others, a comic was delivered. Users will spend several stops in the tube with the perspective of a newspaper, witnessing breadcrumb-like stories interspersed with rich emotions of joy, pain, and absurdity.

I printed out the comics

The digital comics 

GIFs creating

Some moving moments are made as GIFs to convey vivid feelings.

AR testing

Madmapping  testing

Online exhibition establishing

After the comic was delivered, I received more feedback; people kept sharing their stories with me on the London Underground, which made me realise that the story of London's transport is a story that can go on forever and that this feeling of never-endingness is a feature of life in this metropolis, and to deliver this feature I experimented with technique in the hope of giving the audience a richer experience and making them engage. For a fully immersive experience, I started exploring technologies.

Technology exploration 

Augmented reality

through AR-enhanced merchandise, we added an interactive layer to everyday items, making the digital experience tangible. This augmented aspect of daily life served as a constant reminder of the larger community users were part of.

Madmapping

the projector technology can bring the London Underground experience to life in the form of projections, which I later used to participate in an exhibition on London culture.

VR platform:

I explored two platforms, Frame VR and Virtual gallery.

For a coursework assignment before my group and I used the the first platform, which was not very friendly for Windows XR and the navigation is confusing, but its social features were good, and I kept it as a potential social space and decided to use Virtual Gallery as my exhibition space.

My read group project tested the performance of FramVR

The feedback we got from peers and tutor team pave the way for my personal virtual exhibition

Final exhibition

This pioneering VR-driven online exhibition captures the essence of London's commuter scene. It culminates in vivid, integrating recorded underground sounds, gif format artworks, live recorded sound effects, virtual interactive space, and AR-enhanced merchandise.

https://visit.virtualartgallery.com/tubechat/

Screenshot of the online exhibition

Result

I received over 500+ visits and 68 new story comments during the virtual exhibition. Among them, there were positive responses about this new interactive approach, indicating that it was novel and extended the feeling of comics. Moreover, the sales of exhibition merchandise exceeded £600.

Conclusion:

This project offers commuters who frequently ride the London Tube a chance to delve deep into the fascinating moments within the Tube. Not only does it present a complete narrative in the form of comics, but it also extends this experience in a space that integrates multimedia, thereby enriching the user experience.

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