Tube Travel: Have you met the 12-eyed lady?
Whether you have or have yet to meet this lady, she's seen you while keeping eyes on her 18-month old baby, 2 kids, purse, carry-on luggage and tube map. The amount of stress and awareness that unconsciously fuels moms while traveling with children is immeasurable.
As part of our first project in the Service Design program, our tutors challenged us to observe an intense service experience, and apply the attributes/strategies of a pleasant service experience to the former. A rather simple task you might say, but the challenges of understanding 'people as they are rather than as market segments or demographics' (Merholz, "Subject to Change" 35) was prominent throughout our discovery phase.
Our group chose a rather widespread metropolitan service experience involving the underground/subway. We explored the culture of travel with children, particularly in the London Tube environment. How does the experience differ from those with children and those without? How can we improve the underground travel journey for those who travel with children? Below are some topline 'high-stress' points we've identified along the journey:
The 'gap' challenge from platform to train and vice versa- baby carriage tilt/lift strategy when entering and exiting the train
The 'dig' just before the turnstiles when you find a mom dig through her pockets/bags for her Oyster card/Metro pass to exit the station
The 'Mount Everest' that awaits when attempting to exit/enter the station with a baby carriage- upon waiting a few seconds during a rush hour period, someone usually stops to offer a hand
Most of the overwhelm and stress comes from the crowd and passerby, where the evolution of the 12-Eyed Lady comes into play in both open and enclosed spaces, such as the platform or inside the train when a mom is looking after her 18-month old baby, 2 kids, purse, carry-on luggage and Tube map above the windows- this is of course, an extreme user case. However, this is in fact, the most vulnerable state of travel- and it remains such even on the platform where our 12-Eyed Lady is most concerned about her kid falling into the tracks while making sure she's got all her belongings together.
As a result of exploring this journey, we discovered a key insight that framed the issue at hand: "Your world shrinks (12-Eyed Lady)." Below are a few unmet needs we've identified throughout our research- these areas will help guide us in forming possible solutions that will address the needs of our 12-Eyed Lady.
The inaccessibility of lifts, the limited personnel support and the amount of obstacles a mom and a baby carriage must endure to get to their destination is a daunting experience, let alone, a frustrating one. Rather than impacting infrastructural changes, which of course, usually takes a long time, we focused on how we can impact the experience of underground travel from a systemic point of view. Hence, the inspiration found in Disney's crowd-control strategy, the control centers would monitor traffic flow in different areas of the park to manage crowds from areas of high density to areas of low density to maintain a balance throughout the park. Taking this technique, a crowd-control center would be useful for moms to inform them of real-time hotspots that can be avoided during their journey.
Another practical application involves Disney's 'Magic Band' experience, where 'access' can be worn rather than tucked away in a wallet or bag. This got us thinking about focusing on a 'seamless' transportation experience. How can a mom and her child delight in the travel experience, rather than having to worry about safety and security? By having an Oyster card become an Oyster band, this might be a simple way to alleviate some of the stress in getting from point A to point B.
Although we did not crack the case, the initial research and exploratory around the culture of travel with children helped us frame particular areas of need for moms traveling through the Tube environment. What are some observations/feelings you've had as a commuter when coming across moms traveling with baby carriages in the underground?
