MTA Hop Assist

Project Type
Research + Speculative Design + Installation

MTA Hop Assist was a speculative design exploration of the ways the NYC subway is a broken experience for many commuters. It included a series of playful artifacts to intervene in the system, which make the user-experience pain-points of the MTA visible.


Role
MFA Candidate
Parsons, The New School

PARTNERS
Natalie Tillen
Eriko Hantani
Graham McClanahan
Hannah Fox

Project Timeline
Aug 26-30, 2019

One of the MTA Hop Assists - A trampoline option for bypassing the turn-style.

Research Question

In what ways might we make uncover and make visible pain points in the user-experience of the MTA?

 

Approach

This research leveraged:

  1. Desk research, Site surveys, ethnographic fieldwork and observation, digital ethnography, interviews, and performance research.

My role included co-design of the research plan, research execution, system diagramming and data visualization—technical and poetic—co-facilitation of ideation sessions, rapid prototyping, and co-curation of final exhibition.

 

Outcomes

The result of this intensive project was:

  1. A series of three equitable MTA Hop Assistants;

  2. A system map of the MTA Turnstiles, including the different actors involved, their mutual links and the flows of materials, energy, information and money through the system; and

  3. A designed installation presentation of all relative artifacts from the process for engagement with attendees of a final exhibition.