Passenger Focused Design

From Arup:

"A human-centred design approach to the rail passenger experience would enable operators to deliver real delight. To better understand these issues, Dutch rail operator NS has developed a pyramid of customer needs. In their assessment, travel time, safety and ease of use only meet the baseline of an ‘acceptable’ experience. To reach customer ‘delight’ however, means providing useful amenities like power and Wi-Fi, providing above-average levels of comfort and cleanliness, and engagement with friendly staff.

This approach has been adopted by Transport for London in its ‘Strategy for Improvement’ approach, which includes ‘Delighters’ – customer service measures that improve overall satisfaction, such as receiving local information or personal assistance.

Examples of passenger-centric design thinking might include user-centred technology, such as Citymapper or electronic ticketing on your smartphone, enhancing the passenger experience through great station design, such as King’s Cross/St Pancras or Birmingham New Street station, or perhaps smaller scale measures such as Olympics medal news on display screens at stations to cheer up the weary commuter.: