Abstract—This paper outlines one of the significant design
processes in my practice based design project. It involved
creating a new design of the public transport map (BRT Khon
Kaen) for Khon Kaen city. Collaborative and participatory
design concepts are presented in this paper. Both concepts can
be used to present the voice of stakeholders within the
community who played a central role in my design process. It
can be noted that democracy design can be used with the
heuristic concept of graphic designers to reach a design solution.
The human factors that formed the knowledge base of the
community were critical to providing the challenging ideas that
created the identity sets of map symbols on my design prototype
(map). The graphic details on the map features display the
design materials which related to the local ways of life, folk
wisdom, and culture. This design contribution expressed the
cultural values and created a consistency between map readers
and their background knowledge. The results of my usability
test found that graphical materials, which relate to user’s
backgrounds, can be used to enhance communication and
recognition.
Index Terms—Co-design, graphic design, community
participation, transit map.
Ratanachote Thienmongkol is with the New Media Department, Faculty
of Informatics Mahasarakham University, 44000, Thailand (e-mail:
ratanachote.t@gmail.com).
[PDF]
Cite: Ratanachote Thienmongkol, " Using Co-Design to Express Cultural Values and Create a
Graphical Identity: A Case Study of Khon Kaen, Thailand," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 832-843, 2015.