Situated interface #2
When going to Waterloo station, my group and I, analysed the space and the movement of the people. Below are pictures and time-lapses of the station:
To view the time lapses, click onto the image and open slide 4 on the presentation.
When going to the station, we analysed the use of the space ( in terms of where the signs, shops and restaurants) were as well as the movement of the people. When walking through the station we saw stores at the back of the station and platforms at the front creating a large hallway in the middle. In this space, there were self-service machines and stairs, disrupting the movement of the people but directing the majority of them to walk a particular direction depending on which side of this ‘invisible divider’ they were on. Furthermore, areas which had more of an open space, displayed timetables above the gates, which were situated at either end of the station as well as the centre of the station, allowing enough people to see the timetables and between them were adverts. To get a better view of the station we went up to the balcony, where we had noticed more restaurants, a couple of stores and plaques but mainly the flow of people in the station. An unexpected thing we had noticed was a hanging sign arranged in a shape of a cube to form, opposite the timetable on one of the ends of the station, and underneath it was a dead space. We started questioning why it was a dead space? Why people weren’t standing underneath the signs? What were the fears? How could we make it inviting?
When returning back to the studio, we followed up on our questions and had a workshop with Elvia Vasconcelos, a data researcher, introducing us to three categories of data researching:
- Thematic mapping: this involves collecting data, discussing them and aligning with them codes such as drivers, instincts and needs. Then, identifying broad themes into simple themes.
- Framework analysis: this involves the same process as thematic processing but indexing data from the themes into a chart to compare contrasting rows to come up with explanations for commonalities to go on and develop typologies.
- Behavioural mapping: involves mapping patterns of behaviour with personas.
We did behavioural mapping and began by listing the types of people we noticed at Waterloo station: tourists, commuters, police, families and staff. Then identified things you would find in a train station in regards to these dimensions: economic (tickets, shops, restaurants etc), political (name of the station, privatisation and non-privatisation of the station), social-cultural (types of people and their behaviour) and environmental (travelling distance, environmental impacts as well as electrical consumption). After having thought about these factors we came up with a few hypotheses and used thought about using – How should dead space be used? As we realised that people react differently when shown a privatised or a non privatised space. Therefore, we will create something that will allow us to test our hypothesis.