Conceptual projectGLS Institute of DesignSignage

Metro Wayfinding System

A signage system for Ahmedabad Metro, tested with metro officials and commuters. It reached a 6:1 contrast ratio, above the WCAG AA minimum of 4.5:1.

A black hanging directional sign in a bright concourse: trilingual Towards APMC on the left and Towards Motera on the right, each with a red arrow, split by a red divider.
Role
Signage designer, systems researcher, iconographer, service designer, information architect
Timeline
4 weeks
Guides
Dr. Anil Sinha · Prof. Saurabh Vyas · Prof. Hardik Shiroya
Tools
IllustratorAutoCAD
Status
Conceptual project · GLS Institute of Design
6:1Contrast ratio (WCAG AA minimum 4.5:1)
88%H value
3Colour-blindness conditions validated
3Languages on every sign

Overview

A system that speaks before you need to ask.

Brief

Ahmedabad Metro's wayfinding and ticketing left riders anxious. This project focused on wayfinding: visual design, signage placement and orientation.

My part

Signage designer, systems researcher, iconographer, service designer and information architect.

Result

A signage system tested with metro officials and commuters, validated for three colour-blindness conditions.

Context

How can you navigate a metro without ever feeling lost?

Ahmedabad Metro by GMRC Limited aims to revolutionize urban transportation. Following extensive studies and site visits, challenges were pinpointed in the wayfinding and ticketing systems. The focus of this project was on enhancing the wayfinding experience through improved visual design, strategic signage placement, and orientation, aiming to minimize user anxiety and streamline navigation.

Signage is graphic communications in the built world, which conveys information from one entity (the external environment) to another (people) in a visual mode. It tells a story as they walk through that space.

Eight field photographs of Ahmedabad's existing metro signage under a Site Visit heading: green exit signs, an orange LED destination board and a blue trilingual interchange panel.

Site visit: the existing wayfinding audit.

Research

Three languages drove every typographic and layout decision.

Research began with site visits, footfall mapping, shadowing, and participatory action research. A comparative case study covered metro stations around the world and across India. User journey mapping broke the experience into three scopes: Access Scope, Transfer Scope, and Egress Scope.

Surveys indicated the language riders use most. This multilingual reality drove every typographic and layout decision that followed.

53%EnglishThe language most riders use.
34%Gujarati
13%Hindi
PersonaChaitanya Singh, student, 20s, Delhi.Frustrations: less information available online, no designated app, doesn't like standing in queues, doesn't want to carry two different metro cards.
"I always keep getting lost and get anxious while using the metro! It needs a redesign!" Anonymous user

Legibility

Visual ergonomics decided the type.

The typeface chosen was Anek Sans, selected for its native support of Devanagari and Gujarati scripts alongside Latin. Contrast values followed Arthur and Passini's research, targeting 70% contrast for legibility. Letter body width-to-height ratio was maintained between 0.6 and 1.0 across all signage.

The Typography slide: survey findings on English, Gujarati and Hindi, and the Anek and Baloo Bhai 2 type families shown in Latin, Devanagari and Gujarati.

Typography: Anek, tested against Baloo Bhai 2.

Sabarmati Railway Station set in Latin, Devanagari and Gujarati across six rows of increasing blur, simulating low vision.

Legibility under visual impairment: the same line at increasing blur.

The system

Three sign types, sized and colour coded by place.

A color coding system was developed to distinguish sign types. Signage was classified into three categories: Guidance Signs (directional), Normative Signs (regulatory), and Indication Signs (informational).

Physical sign dimensions were specified for each placement context, from A1 (2x10 ft) and A2 (2x12 ft) overhead signs to B1 (1x4 ft) and B3 (0.5x1 ft) counter signs, C1 (2x6 ft) and C2 (2x2 ft) plates, and D2 (12x8 ft) station pylons. Each size was mapped to a specific location within the station architecture.

A Signage Typology diagram in which a grey human silhouette stands beside every sign format, each drawn to relative size and hung at its real height.

Signage typology: every format drawn to relative size beside a person.

Four directional sign variants on black: Towards Platform in red and in blue, Towards Gate 1 with a green EXIT cap, and Towards Motera in coral, each in Gujarati, Hindi and English.

Colour-coded directional signs, trilingual.

An existing green exit sign beside the new black exit sign with a green EXIT cap and arrow, with notes on a new set of signs in the interchange and a new platform numbering system.

Before and after, with two further changes: a new set of signs in the interchange that uses the metro track colour to show the direction of travel, and a new platform numbering system that numbers Uptown as Platform 1 and Downtown as Platform 2. Both reduce the number of signs and ease the flow of crowds.

Anatomy of a C1 plate: 10% secondary information, 60% primary trilingual text, 30% wayfinding arrow.

The finished C1 plate.

Outcome

A system that speaks before you need to ask.

The redesigned signage system was tested with metro officials and commuters. Accessibility was validated for Tritanopia, Protanopia, and Deuteranopia color blindness conditions. The system achieved an 88% H Value and reached a 6:1 contrast ratio, above the WCAG AA minimum of 4.5:1.

"This new signage works a lot better than the current ones at the stations." Metro official
The black pylon with its red cap on a kerb outside Motera Stadium in daylight, its Gujarati and English station panel and neighbourhood map rising above the pavement.

The pylon in situ outside Motera Stadium.

Three views of the black station pylon with a red cap, a Motera Stadium panel in Gujarati and English with a map, and a red metro emblem at the base.

The station pylon, three views.

A black hanging sign in a dark concourse: Towards Motera on the left and Towards APMC on the right, each with a red arrow, split by a red line.

A hanging directional sign in a dark concourse.

Takeaways

What this project built.

  1. Wayfinding psychology and environmental design as lived disciplines, not textbook ones. Understanding how anxiety compounds when a sign is placed two meters too late.
  2. Systems thinking applied to physical space. Every sign exists in a network. Moving one changes the load on every other.
  3. Universal design as a constraint that improves the outcome for everyone, not just edge cases. The color blindness testing changed the palette for all users, not a subset.
  4. Material know-how, iconography, spatial awareness and UX design working together across a single deliverable.
  5. Deepened comprehension through reading Signage & Wayfinding Design by Chris Calori.