International travelers struggled with Bangkok’s fragmented transit systems because existing infrastructure lacked integrated wayfinding and multilingual support, costing travelers 8.5 minutes per journey and causing 85% to experience navigation stress and confusion.
Cognitive overload: Thai-dominant signage
78% encounter problems during system transfers
Exit anxiety: Confusing in complex stations
Unspoken rules: Social anxiety navigating unwritten behaviors
Redesigned the transit wayfinding experience using integrated service design, validated through a 103-participant research study with innovative lenticular signage technology reducing visual clutter and improving multilingual accessibility.
Navigation Time: 8.5 → 2.8 mins (67% faster)
User Satisfaction: 2.1/5 → 4.3/5 (105% improvement)
System Integration: 4 → 1 unified experience
Monthly Impact: $3.7M in time savings
System fragmentation causes inefficiency, degrading tourist experience
$3.7M/month in lost productivity
High navigation times, low tourist satisfaction, fragmented user experience
Why International Travelers ?
Fastest-growing tourism segment (35,000+ daily users) with high economic impact, strong need for accessible navigation systems, significant influence on Bangkok’s tourism competitiveness.
Phase 1: Quantitative
Desk research on 18 global transit systems and market data
Behavioral analysis of international traveler navigation
Phase 2: Qualitative
20+ user interviews at major transit stations
Contextual inquiry with journey mapping and cultural probes
Thai-only signage causes cognitive overload and social anxiety.
Travelers lack confidence due to unpredictable transfer processes.
Unspoken social navigation rules create cultural barriers leading to exclusion.
There is a strong desire for unified multilingual wayfinding supporting system integration.
Mapped entire transit ecosystem; navigation and transfers have highest friction.
Wayfindng
WhatsApp groups, Splitwise caWayfinding in Bangkok’s transit is influenced by a broader ecosystem extending beyond the individual traveler, including system design, signage, and operational infrastructurelculations create barriers
Nav
Central navigation challenges stem from fragmented systems, inconsistent multimodal transfers, and the lack of unified guidance affecting both locals and international travelers.
Language
External factors like language support, cultural norms, digital app availability, and staff intervention further compound navigation complexity for foreign visitors.
The Gap
Opportunity exists to unify wayfinding experiences across modes, stations, and digital/physical touchpoints for seamless, confidence-building journey.
85%
Navigation stress
78%
problems during transfers
72%
Anxious at interchange stations
Primary Insight:
International travelers need confidence, efficiency, and cultural accessibility in a unified transit experience.
International travelers need a confident, efficient way to navigate Bangkok’s fragmented transit systems to avoid time loss and stress.
How might we enable confident navigation with real-time multilingual info to overcome barriers for International Transit users.
Real-time Multilingual Information
Unified System Integration
Confidence-Building Design
Cultural Navigation Support
Design
Integrated wayfinding with lenticular signage.
Business
$3.7M monthly savings potential.
User
Confident transit experience.
Chosen Concept
Integrated service design with innovative lenticular signage technology.
Why Chosen
Directly addresses the core user pain points of language barriers, visual clutter, and navigation anxiety by providing real-time, multilingual, and context-aware wayfinding.
Trade-offs Considered
Chose lenticular signage for its rapid deployment and minimal system disruption over more complex digital solutions that would require backend integration and longer rollout timelines.
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