Salmon is a Seattle Color
How history and design may interact to inform a redesign of the Seattle public transit system
What comes to mind when you think of Seattle? Maybe it’s the Space Needle, perhaps it’s rain, or it might be the fish that supports the Puget Sound region: Salmon.
Though when you think of Seattle teams and brands, there is rarely a glimpse of the Salmon color; instead, hues of blue and green dominate the Seattle visual landscape.
This is the saga of me not only rebranding the Seattle Public Transportation visual system but also recognizing the deeper meaning of colors and their significance to branding.
Public transportation has been and continues to be one of the most common ways people maneuver cities worldwide. With public transportation systems popping up in many major cities, they must be navigable across all virtual and physical landscapes. Currently, the Seattle Public Transportation system does not support straightforward navigation across many of its environments.
Most importantly (and most confusingly), Seattle Public Transportation is made up of two separate agencies: Sound Transit and King County Metro. Though offering similar services, these different systems do not allow for seamless usability, often leaving riders lost or confused or a mixture of both.
The webpages of each agency support vastly separate visual systems, with Sound Transit sporting more modern colors and user experience
and King County Metro sticking to a more traditionally Seattle color scheme and a more complex user flow.
Though there are no glaring issues with each agency within themselves, their intersection in the user’s journey poses a significant problem to a successful public transportation experience.
Studying the Seattle Public Transportation system has prompted my interest in refining the entire brand and user experience. My redesign attempts to connect and meld the functionality of both Sound Transit and the King County Metro systems to craft a cohesive way for users to navigate and interact with the physical and virtual landscapes that Seattle public transportation upholds.
The refined Seattle Transit brand will be committed to safe and eco-friendly transit and will aim to empower Seattleites’ public transportation journey. With user empowerment at the forefront, Seattle Transit seeks to make the public transportation process more fun and enjoyable. This sentiment is achieved with a typeface choice and an approachable app interface.
Mobile and kiosk interfaces were designed as these two technological platforms are vital to the user’s journey. The mobile flow will be prevalent on the Seattle Transit mobile application, and the kiosk flow will be seen on the physical kiosk stands at Seattle transit stations. The mobile user flows include viewing past trips and leaving a review, viewing arrival times for saved routes, and adding funds to a payment card.
The kiosk flows include purchasing a ticket, viewing a route map, and adding funds to a payment card.
Using the defined user flows, I created low fidelity prototypes of the Seattle Transit Application.
From the low fidelity prototypes, I created wireframes for both the mobile and kiosk user flows.
With the functional elements laid out in both the mobile and kiosk virtual landscape, I had to determine how I would create the Seattle Transit brand. My goals for the Seattle Transit application were for it to feel like Seattle and provide a more enjoyable transit experience. Now, remember what I mentioned at the beginning of this story, the perceived colors of Seattle are blue and green. So it was my first instinct to support both of those colors in my designs, and I did, but they are not the focus of my color scheme.
Instead, I reintroduce Salmon.
Short history lesson ahead:
Not only is Salmon a more vibrant, enticing aspect of this color palette, but it also holds immense historical weight.
Seattle’s indigenous peoples had great respect for Salmon in this area and used it to sustain themselves and their population for many years. With colonization so prevalent, the industrialization of Seattle has prompted a dramatic decrease in Salmon in the Puget Sound. Some species of Chinook Salmon are threatened, endangered, or even extinct. The threatened lives of Salmon affect the remaining indigenous peoples, their food sources, and also the broader Puget Sound ecosystem. In short, what used to be a Seattle and Washington standard, is depleted.
So, I’m taking this opportunity to remember Salmon as a Seattle color.
History lesson over.
Using “approachability” as a mantra for the Seattle Transit brand, I chose a type system that encourages playfulness. Both Comfortaa and Montserrat typefaces promote legibility and engagement for the user.
In use with my significant color scheme, the mobile and kiosk interface will exude approachability and will allow users to have successful and engaging public transportation interactions.
Next on the brand design was the logo. I knew I had to keep with my friendly scheme and chose to incorporate Seattle tropes further. So, I classically went with the famous Space Needle on wheels. This logo strengthens Seattle sentiments and inspires an on-the-go public transportation rider.
Equipped with wireframes and a visual system for Seattle Transit, I integrated the two to produce my high fidelity Seattle Transit app mockups.
Employing my visual system into my application screens further inspired me to craft wayfinding materials to match the application to the physical environment at Seattle Transit stations. I put together three different directional signs that would allow the user to create a relationship between themselves and their surroundings.
First, the station flag would be displayed at each Link Light Rail station to allow transit riders to know their location.
Next, the Interactive Exits would be displayed at each Link Light Rail station exit to help the riders orient themselves. The left image is the first screen the user interacts with. If the user taps on a “Popular Nearby Destination,” they will be taken to the screen shown in the right image. This screen will show the user how to get to that location from their current location. These directions are shown on the map as well as written below the map.
The last directional sign is the in-transit stop identifier. This sign is displayed in each Link Light Rail car to show the riders which stop they previously visited, which stop is next, and which stop is after the next stop. This sign changes after the Link Light Rail car leaves each station.
With a full set of branding and wayfinding materials, the last challenge I undertook was creating extraneous branded materials that users would interact with regularly. These materials are the reloadable payment card, otherwise known as an ORCA card, and a bus wrap.
All in all, redesigning the Seattle Transit brand and the visual system was a significant undertaking for me and allowed me to explore history, design, and how they can interact. I learned more about the complex Seattle history while also reimagining how people can get around the city. Thinking about future projects, I hope to see the Seattle Public Transportation system be more accessible to Non-English speakers and people who need more accommodations while taking public transport. More visual cohesion could help with this solution, but there will always be more work to do in the name of inclusivity and accessibility. While public transportation remains a viable option for many people around Seattle, this brand would engage users more productively and thoughtfully.
And we can continue to recognize Salmon as a Seattle color.
