Transit By Julie Strupp (Former Managing Editor) April 9, 2018 38
Image by Adam Fagen licensed under Creative Commons. Escalator Comb Plate Maintenance
On Sunday, Metro rider/graphic designer Jen Scharl noticed that the handrails in the Fort Totten Metro station were color-coded:
You guys. This graphic designer is LOSING HER MIND. The @wmata escalators now have the colors of which line they take you too. Coolest use of colors to actually help people. pic.twitter.com/gKxTTemkrT
She's not the only one who snapped a photo.
It’s real- I took this picture this morning. pic.twitter.com/kkLSVWMu2L
A lot of people seemed to be fans of the idea:
This is one of those brilliant ideas that is so obvious in hindsight!
The Washington Metro with an example of applying @EdwardTufte principle, “Good design is clear thinking made visible” with the @wmata colored railings. That's helpful @thejennyjude
Other Twitter users pointed out that color-coding was used in systems elsewhere around the world:
Good idea. Japan does such things a lot btw. See this thread for many cool exampleshttps://t.co/JBs2rySqwO
This is how the London tube was originally designed - with coloured tiling to help those who couldn’t read. https://t.co/NItOsy6nKr
Some people worried that this wouldn't aid people who are colorblind. However, it's helpful to have a variety of wayfinding tools for different riders, and adding color-coded handrails doesn't mean Metro is doing away with other signage.
Not so useful for the colourblind…(~8% of all males I believe?) nice for the rest. They could have added additional cues, using colour alone is usually a bad design decision for use in public spaces. pic.twitter.com/nHbgcuisAC
What do you think of the colored handrails — good idea, or na?
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Julie Strupp was Greater Greater Washington's Managing Editor from 2017 to 2019. Previously, she had written for DCist, Washingtonian, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, and others. You can usually find her sparring with her judo club, pedaling around the city, or hanging out on her Columbia Heights stoop.
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Escalator step All text, and images marked as created by the article's author, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license.