User friendly map designed by IIT-Bombay students

Traveling or commuting in the financial capital of India (Mumbai) is always a problem, not only for the first time traveler but also to the regular commuters. Two first year students of Masters in Visual Communication programme of Industrial Design Center (IDC), IIT-Bombay, Jaikishan Patel and Snehal Patil, have designed an easy to understand and commuter friendly colour coded railway map for the travelers.

This newly designed map by the IIT Bombay's students includes connecting routes that link western, central, harbour and trans-harbour train stations. It also attempts to incorporate the route map of the metro line under construction and Nerul-Uran railway link. Both the students elaborated on the special features of the railway map "our map introduces a quick navigation system, which lets the user locate his stations within seconds using box grid. We have introduced grid system in a different way. The newly designed map also includes the shuttle expressway which runs from Vasai to Roha."

This is not only visually appealing, but it will also cater the colour-blind population. "According to the statistics, approximately 13,956 people from different regions in India, suffer from colour-blindness. We have tested the map for the same and made changes accordingly," says Patel.

Professor Mandar Rane, associate professor, visual communication, who was also the guide for students in this project, says "Designing this map had its own share of bottlenecks. Developing the navigation system was a challenge in itself and the other one was to keep it small and portable. If the maps are not installed on the stations and people are not using them then it's not worth the effort. This map is useful, and the students have designed it very well. The day we launched it through Facebook, it generated a great response."

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