KTX Passenger Information Display

Screens – next station, arrival time, train position, car number

Summary

The KTX passenger information display adds no information. It reorders it by the moment each piece is needed: before boarding, on the move, after arrival.

Overview

The starting point was a semester abroad in Germany, riding Deutsche Bahn every day.

A KTX carriage has to deliver several things in a short time. The existing display was organised by function. Next station, arrival time, transfers, facilities and notices all carried the same weight, so finding the one that mattered took a search.

I chose not to add screens. More information costs more looking. The work was deciding what gets read first at each moment.

The work

Split by the journey – before boarding, on the move, after arrival. Each moment keeps only what it needs, and the rest is removed.
Next station · arrival · which door – the hierarchy is fixed to those three. Next station and arrival time are sized to read from down the carriage; everything else steps back. At the moment a door opens, only which side stays large.
A four-language station naming system – station names follow one rule across Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese (4 languages · output). Body text puts Korean and English in a single layout system, so the two never compete for position.
Components – top bar, station list, progress, notice banner and facilities, all under one set of rules (5 components · output).

Reflection

Ordering, not adding. The screen count did not grow. Most of the work was deciding what comes first.
The trade-off – making one thing large at a given moment pushes the others later. Transfers and facilities moved to the arrival phase.
Not validated – there is no evidence that usability improved. Viewing distance and lighting in a real carriage were never tested, and neither was the design with passengers. So no improvement figure is claimed.