Improving the Public Transit System
Infographic
Narrative Design Data Visualization Graphic Design
How might we show a need for more provincial run public transportation to help reduce the number of commuters driving to work instead of taking public transit
TEAM
MY ROLE
Researcher
Data analyst
TOOLS USED
Illustrator
Tableau
Google sheets
Solution
Our solution highlights a large problem commuters face when taking public transit and why they often chose to drive instead. For commuters outside Toronto, public transit is extremely inconvenient or non-existent. We created an infographic showing the commute from Hamilton to Waterloo on public transit vs driving. It also has supporting data to backup why this is important, to every individual, because of health concerns and loss of productivity
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Research
Pick a topic, Find and graph data sets
Understand the Narrative
Analyze data, Find problem, cause and solution
UX Design
Persona, Key story points
Visual Design
Data visualization, Style guide, Final layout
Research
Pick a topic
Find and graph data sets
Understanding the Narrative
Analyze data
Find problem, cause and solution
UX Design
Persona
Key story points
Visual Design
Data visualization
Style guide
Final layout
Picking Our Topic
Living outside Toronto, all three of us were familiar with trying to use public transit to get around. We decided to take a look into some possible reasons transit isn't being used by commuters and why they're choosing to drive to work instead, contribution to grid lock and environmental degradation.
Data Analysis
We compiled preliminary data on commuting outside of Toronto to get a better understanding of our user and their current experience.
Based on this we defined our narrative into three steps;
Problem: People who live and work over 5km outside of the Toronto city centre are less likely to use public transit to commute to work
Cause: Public transit is inaccessible and inconvenient outside the Toronto core
Solution: Building infrastructure provincially instead of by municipality in order for cities to be connected to one and other.
Visualizing Our Data
Our main graph is a visual representation of the lack of public transit between cities outside of Toronto. It show the commute route for Hamilton to Waterloo, using a car vs using public transit. This drives our main point by showing the ridiculous route people using public transit would have to take.
We chose to show this in a map rather than a graph because there is a lack of data showing that public transportation doesn't exist. A visual map is able to show the absence of something, unlike a traditional graph.
Final Layout
Key Takeaways
This project helped me improve my data analysis skills as well as my narrative design skills. The process of finding data, defining a comprehensive narrative and then going back to find data to further drive the narrative has been an invaluable experience.
