We often talk about the best ways for transit agencies to make their data more available and usable for passengers, but equally important is the way information is displayed in stations and on buses and subways. Mexico City serves as a great example of one way to do information in an exciting way. The city goes visual with station icons, rather than simply using text.
The same designer who brought D.C. the Metrorail map’s now iconic thick lines and large circles also designed the map for Mexico City’s Metro. And while the final version of D.C.’s map didn’t include one particularly stylish element, Mexico City’s did.
“ communicated better than language for the obvious reason of not having to be translated, but it also gave you a really quick visual reference to something, and the icons were designed well,” designer Lance Wyman told CityLab in a 2015 interview.
For example, the icon for the airport terminal station is an airplane with a control tower – signalling to riders that this is where they alight to catch a flight. Elsewhere, Wyman used symbols of Mexico City’s history and culture, like an aqueduct or the opera house, for nearby stations.
“Where the system really works is when you’re inside a train,” Wyman told CityLab. “They have a line map, and this came from designing the first line for our system, over the car doors. When you come into the station the line map is sequential with the icons. And then in the station on the walls they have the icon for that station.”