Explorability

The design challenge is to promote citizenship. We developed a concept system called Explorability to promote the citizenship in Bloomington utilizing the bus system.

Explorability is the combination of the words ‘explore’ and ‘possibility’, which means exploring the possibilities that are available in Bloomington.

The ‘explore’ part means getting out and getting to know the town you live in. We mainly focus on the exploration in existing bus network, which happens when you go from one place to another, in your daily routine, or simply when you go anywhere.

The ‘Possibility’ part means all the great and interesting things in town you may know or not, such as the not widely known secrets, interesting events and places.

How does the Explorability tie to promoting citizenship?

Civic pride is based on understanding. By exploring the possibilities in town, one gets to be involved in the city life and to know the town better, and becomes proud of the city.

Our design direction is to encourage and facilitate explorability utilizing public transportation, in order to enhance citizenship in Bloomington through increasing involvement, familiarity and pride of the residents.

We organized our concepts into three category according to the bus network, which are ‘at the bus stop’, ‘riding the bus’ and ‘expanding bus network’.

In the first category-at the bus stop, we take advantages of the waiting time to provide bus riders opportunity to explore the city.

In the second category-riding the bus, we focused on enriching bus riding experience by providing interesting and useful information to riders.

The concepts in the last category-expanding bus network, expand bus service outside of the bus routes making explorability more convenient.

We developed our concepts with three groups of target audience in mind, which are visitors, new students (Bloomington is a college town) and local families. Now we’re

going to walk you through our concepts through three stories.

The first story is Susan’s experience during her visit to Bloomington. She encounters four concepts of Explorability.

The first concept is Hologram Guide which is a wayshowing installation.

The Bubble Car concept for expanding bus network.

A Market Bus enriching bus riding experience.

A Digital Map concept showing public transit information.

Susan comes to Bloomington to visit her friends. Her flight to Indianapolis was late. She doesn’t know the schedule of the shuttles to Bloomington nor where to take them. At that time, a hologram guide at the airport catches her attention. The hologram guide

shows her information about Bloomington Shuttles, and also tells her how to take Bubble Car to get there.

She uses her cell phone to call a bubbler car, and it comes to her in a very short time. The bubble car, driven by solar power, takes her directly to a Bloomington shuttle.

The shuttle bus is a market bus, where local farmers can sell their produce on it.

Susan tastes some fresh and delicious fruits during the bus ride.

There is an interactive digital map for her to figure out how to get around in Bloomington by public transportation getting familiar with the town without wasting time.

The concepts in the first story show the following values: providing directions to people who might not otherwise explore and travel to other nearby cities. Handy information

saves much time, and by providing opportunities on bus to learn about Bloomington, we enrich the riding experience.

The second story tells the experience of a new college student Mike. He will encounter three concepts.

The concepts Round LED Sign is itself a bus stop sign with rich and real-time information about Bloomington.

Tailgate Bus enriching bus riding experience.

and also Bubble car

Mike passes by the LED Sign bus stop and notices there is a football game is going on now at the stadium. He has nothing to do, so he decides to take a bus to watch the

football game.

Mike recognizes his bus for far away because there is a huge red and white helmet on the front of the bus. The current score is on the ticker. Mike gets on the bus and

notices another riding playing Xbox 360. He joins him for a few rounds on the way to the stadium.

Mike gets off but doesn’t know where to buy tickets. Mike notices a Bubble Car pulling up to the curve.

Mikes gets in and types ‘ticket booth’, and the Bubble Car takes him to the nearest ticket booth and gate.

On his way back, he recycles his soda bottles and paper cups.

The values of the concepts in this story are: developing familiarity, involving people in community events, and making it more convenient.

The last story is about family outing. Carla’s family will encounter four concepts.

The Event Calendar is a bus stop sign itself.

Events Calendar has an online component.

iPhone Guide concept, a mobile wayshowing and information application.

Recycle Bus promoting green behavior in town.

Carla lives in Bloomington with her husband and two children. One weekend, she wants to take her child to see the new movie Bolt, but her car is broken and her husband is out of town. One day, when she is waiting for the bus at the bus stop, she noticed the new event calendar stop sign. She finds out there is a movie theater on the bus route that

passes by her home too.

She goes to the events calendar website, and finds out the theater location and how to get there by bus.

She downloads the route plan to her iPhone Guide, and took their children out to movie next day. On the way, the iPhone Guide is showing where they are, when the bus will come and when to get off, and other useful information. They arrives at theatre without

any difficulty. .

On their way back, they took a recycle bus.

Carla asks their children to compost the leftover pop corn and recycle the soda cans in the bus. It is a good opportunity to educate her children about sustainability.

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The concepts can be educational for families. Explorability isn’t just for individuals, but also helps create outing plans with friends and family. When multiple concepts work together, the interconnecting provides multiple entry points to the services providing

fluid experience.

Here are some extra concepts that are not in the stories.

‘Circuit’ board showing where the nearest bus stop is, how to get around on bus and finally come back after exploration.

Green Arrows showing you where to go after getting off the bus.

Interactive Digital Bus Shelter showing interesting visit plans while you waiting for the bus.