Yellow Window
Yellow Window’s Integrated Product-Service-Systems Design (PSS) for Higher Passenger Satisfaction
This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine Issue 3 2023.
Celebrating two Red Dot awards for Brussels MIVB/STIB, design agency Yellow Window illustrates the case for more integrated design solutions in the public transport sector.
Integrated System Building for Customer Appreciation
Passenger satisfaction is vital in building successful public transport (PT) systems, few would disagree. However, it’s not just one factor to manage here, but a string of experiences throughout the journey. Each
step of the way counts. Optimising, for example, the on-board vehicle experience or the overall network changeovers are important, but a passenger would always value their journey in its entirety – as an experience, a system and a service. Beyond being painless, today’s journeys should be rewarding and seamless.
This ‘integrated experience’, however, does not seem to come naturally to the public transport sector. In PT ecosystems, manufacturers typically still focus on the products, operators manage the service and transport authorities are to oversee the whole system. Perhaps this is the root cause for the lack of integration and coherence (not ignoring large complexities in e.g. legacy, stakeholders or franchising). The fact remains that people have other mobility alternatives, some of which are easier, more service-oriented as well as more enjoyable, integrated and coherent to use.
Product-Service Systems in Public Shared Services
The socio-economic shift from ownership to usage – where consumers (in)voluntarily own less (of the) products and increasingly consume services – drives the increased attention towards the design of integrated product-service systems (PSS).
PSS design centres on the complete user experience. With entire industries shifting focus to service aspects and experience, it’s interesting to see how the public transport sector reacts – as PT inherently shares many of the PSS key principles: functionality over ownership, pay-per-ride (actual usage), sharing, collaboration and networking, fostering of long-term relationships and environmental and social sustainability.
