Duration

4 months (2021)

Tools

Google Workspace apps, Typeform

Role

Lead Researcher

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Under A Non-disclosure Agreement

Some of the details in this case study may be vague to protect the client's intellectual property.

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During the pandemic, commuting changed— it got quieter, more uncertain, less automatic. We partnered with LTA to revisit The Thoughtful Bunch, Singapore’s commuter etiquette characters, and asked a surprisingly tender question for public transport design: were these familiar faces still speaking to people in the right way, in a world that had changed so much?

Challenge

The original commuting personas had done their job — polite, helpful, visually consistent. But as public life got more complicated, we needed to evolve them from polite signage into something that could hold empathy, complexity, and cultural memory.

Approach

To understand how people were feeling about public commuting, we had to go beyond functional research:

• Diary studies We asked commuters to document their daily journeys — not just what they did, but how they felt, what stood out, and how they responded to existing characters.
• Quantitative survey (n=1000) We mapped behavioural patterns and tested resonance. Which characters were remembered? Which ones felt dated? Who did people relate to?
• Narrative + semiotic deep-dive We unpacked how visual elements like posture, expression, and gesture subtly guided civic behavior — and where they fell short.

Results + Impact

The most effective etiquette isn’t taught, it’s felt*.* The characters that made people smile, pause, or reflect weren’t the ones shouting rules. They were the ones holding space.