Pioneer of UX design utilizing familiar transit maps East Japan Railway Company (JR East)
Information Display in Service Disruptions

Please tell us about the Frontier Service Development Laboratory of East Japan Railway Company (JR East).

Fuminori Tsunoda (JR East):Frontier Service Development Laboratory is a part of the Research & Development Center of JR East Group. It focuses on the customer’s viewpoint and promotes research and development, mainly in the service-related areas of ICT, design, and marketing. When I was developing the Information Display in Service Disruptions, I was in charge of managing various projects as an IT engineer at Frontier Service Development Laboratory.

Around when did this project begin?

Tsunoda:It started in 2004, and I joined in 2005. A railway company is responsible for providing customers with railway operation status. In particular, there has long been a need within our company to provide real-time information on the operation status of the trains as easily understandable as possible. The first thing we did was to show texts on the display board at the station ticket gates. We had already begun to introduce this system in many stations, but it was difficult to convey the whole information because the amount of text information that could be displayed on the board was limited. In the course of our discussions, we came up with the hypothesis that we should present information in the form of a map, and we started a project to study this idea.

You mentioned the need to display information as clearly as possible. Is this because you received so many requests from users?

Tsunoda:Yes, we had a situation where the station staff received various inquiries besides railway status. If we could reduce this situation even a little and allow customers to move autonomously, we would be able to allocate the station’s limited human resources to more necessary services.

Shibata:JR did not ask us to develop something specific but rather to research a system that would bring the effect they need, as a commissioned research. I thought it sounded really interesting and wanted to do it, so I immediately wrote a proposal. At the time, digital signage was not very popular, and its usage was limited, so it was interesting as a design theme. Tamayama, who is good at programming, and I bounced ideas off each other and finished it all up in a few days.

Tsunoda:We approached several companies, but Hitachi’s proposal was the best. Especially the idea of using the existing transit maps.

Tamayama:Until then, JR had an internal system for sharing text information related to train operations and providing it to users in real-time. We proposed to receive text information from that system, convert it ｓinto graphics using a dedicated database, and display it on transit maps by Flash Player.

Shibata:The prototype of the current Information Display in Service Disruptionswas already in shape at the beginning of the project, but the challenge was how to update it from there to adjust to the actual situation.

Tamayama:When it comes to visualizing the text information as operation status on transit maps, there are many things JR had to define. We wouldn’t be able to make enough progress in the regular schedule of commissioned research, which is like submitting a report once every six months, so we asked for an agile process such as having weekly discussions, updating the prototype, and making decisions.

Tsunoda:It may seem easy to display operation status on a transit map, but it is actually difficult in terms of complex conditions, such as the geographical relationship between stations and line transfer options for each station. For example, if the Yamanote Line is delayed, the Saikyo Line will also delay, but from where to where? Even though it can be presented approximately to some extent, it must not be wrong information.

Shibata:Therefore, we conducted demonstration experiments at Ueno Station and Tokyo Station for two years straight. There were many things that we could only find after conducting the experiments.

Tsunoda:One that I remember well is the Narita Line. The display was confusing because the line was divided into four directions starting from Narita Station. I later found out that we were trying to do something impossible regarding the logic for displaying the information. As seen in this case, we had to find and solve problems one by one.

Initial study materials at the beginning of the project.(2004)

Fuminori Tsunoda
Manager
East Japan Railway Company
Railway Business Headquarters
Mobility Service Department
Operation Strategy Division (Digital Strategy)
(At the time of the development: Frontier Service Development Laboratory, Research & Development Center of JR East Group)

Shotaro Tamayama

Please tell us about the design.

Shibata:The point was how to make a person walking in the crowded station instantly grasp the whole picture by just looking at the display. In addition to the legibility of the letters, we repeatedly tested to determine which areas of the transit map should be zoomed in, and when showing a wide area, at which moment we should only display the main stations and hide others to keep the right amount of information according to the scale of the map.

Tsunoda:It’s truly a pioneer in UX design. We were designing a series of experiences where users approach a ticket gate, and within two seconds, they notice the display, understand what it is, and change their next action.

Shibata:At that time, the term “UX” was still rare, and the term “experience value” was just beginning to take root among designers at Hitachi. I feel a sense of accomplishment that we succeeded in the total design.

Tsunoda:This system is like borrowing an image of the transit map that users have in their minds. I think that the system is easy to understand because it places information on top of the image that everyone is familiar with. On the other hand, foreigners and those not used to seeing transit maps may not understand it in a moment. It is actually a display for heavy users. But basically, railway users are mostly daily users, so we focus on their experience.

Shibata:This was exactly the reason for our initial intention to use the existing JR transit maps. However, since another company created the maps, we had to start by confirming that it was OK for us to modify them.

Screen image of the current JR East Information Display in Service Disruptions.

What were the difficulties on the system side?

Tamayama:The display device used at the time was a set-top box with limited processing power, so we were unsure if the animation would work properly. For this reason, we started making the animation after examining its operation with many sample movie clips from a very early stage. We also had to deal with various situations, such as highlighting the station where the display would be installed and considering which parts of the transit map should be focused on in areas where users were concerned. It was challenging.

Tsunoda:Ikebukuro station is shown on this scale, but can we abbreviate Takadanobaba station? I’ve never been asked that, so it troubled me (laughs). A fixed number of characters can be displayed in the transfer information, so I had to consider various things, like not upsetting other railway companies by shortening their names.

Shibata:We were able to get through those first-time decisions because it was an experiment.

The service began operation in 2007, initially at 19 stations, and now, 15 years later, it has been installed at more than 320 JR East stations.

Tsunoda:It has become indispensable surely for users and also JR employees as well. Station staff can grasp information in an instant and guide with it.

Shibata:I was delighted that the station staff on site found the service useful. Before it started, they used to listen to the station announcements and write them down in a memo. Now they appreciate it as they can point to the screen and guide passengers.

It received Good Design Long Life Design Award for 2021.

Shibata:We also received the regular Good Design Award when the service was launched, but the Long Life Design Award can only be applied after the product has been used for more than 10 years, so we were happy to receive the award. There was a scene in the movie “Weathering With You” in which this was depicted. I was deeply moved by the fact that the service, created by a project a few young people started in their 30s about 20 years ago, is now in use by railway companies all over Japan. I still wonder how we were able to do such a thing.

Tsunoda:It was something likely to exist but never had been invented yet. I guess that we were able to create it with a certain quality.

Shibata:From the beginning, Tsunoda said, “World Peace,” meaning he would expand it to other companies. In fact, after launching at JR East, we introduced the same design at JR West and Tokyo Metro. Thanks to the efforts of many people, the system has since spread to other railway companies throughout Japan. Some of them use the railway information for their web and smartphone.

Tsunoda:If the design differs from place to place, users get confused, don’t they? It is easy for users to understand because all railway companies have the same design. That is why we convinced our intellectual property manager to allow the system to share the designs as users are familiar with it.

Shibata:This allowed us to use each company’s transit map and arrange it in a way that made it look official when we expanded it to other companies.

Tsunoda:We worked as one and did it together.

Tamayama:In a way, we could maybe say that we have standardized the way to check the railway status. Digital content is usually replaced after a few years, and it is rare to be used for such a long period of time. This is because we were able to proceed with a thorough verification of UX at the beginning. I think once again that it was important to listen to the opinions of the people on-site and carefully perform experiments. At that time, there was momentum from the people involved.

Shibata:There was much momentum. But, well, a lot happened (laughs).

Tsunoda:Yes, a lot happened (laughs).

Yoshitaka Shibata

Demonstration experiment at Tokyo Station.（December 2005）

Screenshot of the program to check the transit map display during the demonstration experiment.

Shibata:The biggest crisis was when the bidding process for the display led to the decision to go with another company’s product. At that time, hardware was still the main focus, and “content was additional,” so we were in trouble that our program might not be included in the device.

Tsunoda:Someone from the company said, “We can do it in map format,” but there was no way they could do it right away because we had gone through so much hard work up to that point. We could not compromise on that. We felt a sense of mission that we absolutely had to include this content. We managed to preserve the “heart” part.

Shibata:Now we are here since we overcame the crisis. It was thrilling, and we were a really good team. The sales and system engineers were close as we were of similar ages.

Tsunoda:It was interesting that everyone had their own opinions about railways, and we discussed a lot, and most of all, everyone was highly motivated. We stayed at the station standing all day and discussed until midnight.

Shibata:I don’t know if I can do it now (laughs). It was that passionate.