Without a car in the Bay Area I find myself among +350,000 people taking public transportation. Many may see this as an unfavorable approach to get to and from work: crowded trains with disgusting cloth seats (public transportation seats should never be cloth covered) late arrivals and a thousand more things that would make public transportation seem less than ideal. While it isn’t my favorite, there are a few perks.
As an indirect result of working in the design industry I have an innate curiosity towards human behavior specific to culture. For the purposes of this post, culture refers to the status an individual is trying to achieve through their demeanor and appearance. While culture is a much deeper topic, this definition presents a high level, unorthodox view which communicates a belief that culture is inherently tied to the brands an individual surrounds them self with. Each brand signifies its own value and attracts people with similar values thereby creating a culture. Within this newly created culture lies a plethora of sub-cultures based on the unique attributes every individual brings.
Here is where the perks of public transportation are exhibited. Specific to the Bay Area, public transportation attracts many types of cultures because there are many people from different geographic backgrounds trying to get through the heavy traffic caused by the Bay Bridge bottleneck. Those that prefer not to battle traffic in their car use available means of public transportation. This means an average of +350,000 people use public transportation every day, providing an opportunity to observe people and their culture.
Since no one has to pay attention to what is in front or behind them because they aren’t in control of the moving vehicle they occupy themselves by interacting with the things they brought on board. Some people read the newspaper, or a Kindle, others play games on the i-phone (probably the most common) some sleep and others just sit there. Over several months, observing people during their trips on public transportation, behavioral patterns start to emerge allowing for conclusions that can help designers create culturally catered products, services and experiences.
Instead of dreading the trip to work every morning I view it as an opportunity to observe; an exercise in consumer research. I might discover a key insight into a specific culture, and working in design I never know when a culture might be the exact audience for a project. Public transportation provides an opportunity for me to bring added value to my job by providing real-time consumer insights.
