The "Smart City Challenge" project, carried out in collaboration with Busan Metropolitan City and Busan Transportation Corporation, successfully concluded in 2021." The challenge's goal was to establish a navigation service that enables everyone to use the Busan Metro conveniently.
Wait! What is the "Smart City Challenge"?
The "Smart City Challenge" is a competitive public project based on the American initiative called the "Challenge Program." In Korea, it was introduced to address various urban issues such as transportation, energy, environment, and safety. The objective of this program is to present creative ideas from private enterprises that reflect the demands of local governments and citizens while demonstrating and promoting new smart solutions.
'DOT' participated in the Busan Smart City Challenge as part of the barrier-free navigation field. In collaboration with other companies in the same field, we focused on establishing an accessible navigation service for the city's metro system, aiming to make it available to everyone.
Finally, through the efforts of numerous individuals, Busan City was awarded the main prize in the Smart City Challenge project in 2021. Consequently, 'DOT' opened the urban rail guidance service with a total of 48 barrier-free kiosks installed at 20 major stations of the Busan Metro in 2023.
During service development, we actively listened to the opinions of actual users and citizens through two living labs designed to gather feedback.
A 'living lab' refers to a space where residents, experts, and others participate in experiments to address social issues in everyday life. The living lab that 'DOT' participated in was structured to include various transportation users, such as individuals with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical), the elderly, and those accompanying young children, to cater to the needs of all service users.
During the first living lab, conducted for five days from December 12th to 22nd in 2022, participants provided feedback such as "It would be better if the menu names in the navigation were clearer" and "The guidance speed is too fast."
Based on this feedback, we changed the menu name to "Urban Metro 3D Navigation Service". We simplified the process of accessing the menu to make it easier to navigate in response to suggestions about finding it more conveniently.
Subsequently, during the second living lab held on April 17th, 2023, 90% of the respondents gave positive responses about the barrier-free kiosks, with comments such as "Thanks to the kiosks, I didn't get lost even when visiting for the first time" and "It would be great if they were installed in other subway stations too." The living lab provided an opportunity to evaluate the usability of the kiosks and receive suggestions for improvement, ultimately enhancing user experience.
The barrier-free navigation service for the urban metro will continue to operate and provide better mobile experiences through information provision and guidance services for both citizens and tourists. We hope that the "Smart City Challenge" will be realized in more regions, starting with Busan, and together, we will strive to develop our cities into more convenient and accessible places.