This September, the Digital Team returned to the London Design Festival. The focus this year was on cycling, and the role of digital tools in improving Londoners’ cycling experience.

The event was hosted by the Service Design program at the Royal College of Art, in one of the students’ studio spaces in Kensington, over the course of two days.

Cycling data and stories

Visitors entering the space were met by an interactive exhibit highlighting the many data points that impact the cycling experience in London through apps and websites. This was followed by a collection of objects and thoughts illustrating the variety of cycling experiences in London, from cautious beginner to cycling enthusiast.

Talks

The talks that ran every hour were led by TfL Digital experience designers Daniela and Damien. They first brought the audience up to speed with the process and principles behind TfL digital products. Then, they took a deep dive into the data and design work of integrating cycling into TfL Go, our flagship travel app for London.

Many visitors attended the event, ranging from curious students, design and technology professionals, public transport enthusiasts and avid cyclists.

“They showed a lot of ideation process from the team during the presentation (e.g. showing sketches/doodles from the team members of how they first visualised the idea of bike/cycle).
I find it quite refreshing for a big organisation like TFL to present their initial thought process and even unfinished project (cause I guess the whole focus on cycle is a ongoing project, not finalised) to public.”

Visitor feedback

Q&A

If you joined us, you’ll remember the great discussions and questions sparked by the talks:

Who is the target audience of the cycling directions in TfL Go?

TfL Go shows cycling routes as well as public transport routes, aiming to make cycling visible to Londoners who might not consider it as an option, or who are starting to integrate it as part of their daily life. This might encourage more tentative Londoners to give cycling a chance.

We are working on improvements to the cycling experience in the app that will focus on beginner cyclists.

How are routes selected for cycling journeys?

TfL owns different types of data about roads in London. We created a dataset that attributes a value to each road, considering how these factors contribute to make it more or less accessible to cycling. This will allow our journey planner to identify and prioritise routes that are likely to benefit cyclists.

What user research informs your work?

TfL Digital partners with experts, supporting us to bring the range of needs from diverse London communities to life. Accessibility and inclusion are at the core of all of this.

We also run more traditional user research studies like co-design sessions, user testing, focus groups, forums and quantitative studies to test specific concepts over time and evolve the designs.

“The first thing I can think of was learning the goal of the design work at the start of the presentation (’making 80% of all trips in London to be made on foot, by cycle or using public transport by 2041’).
This made me wonder what will be my teams’ future aim.
How can we explain ourselves with more detail (and even data?) to show our vision as a creative team?”

Visitor feedback

Visitor cycling insights

Our installation included a participative element within the London cycling data. Here’s what visitors had to say:

It looks like there’s quite an even mix between visitors who had used Santander Cycles and those who hadn’t.

The Cycleways seem to be most used by experienced cyclists, although it looks like a few new cyclists already make use of them.

When it comes to elevation, most cyclists seem to prefer flatter routes, only a couple are happy to take on some hills.

Finally, all types of road data seem to be somewhat useful, although air quality and road width drew the most interest.

 

Thank you to everyone who came and made the event such a success.
See you next year London Design Festival!

 

PS: here’s a peek behind the scenes at how it all came together!