Designing Emotional Services for Underground Stations

Underground stations, while offering necessary access points to public transportation service facilities, offer great opportunities of urban dinamization. The paper presents the results of a design project aimed to improve the travel experience of passengers in the local transportation system. The design activities were based on ethnographic research on field, demonstrating that the quality of social interaction is a relevant component of the travel experience, also influencing emotions and psychological wellbeing of passengers; the design solutions were provided in terms of innovative collaborative services and produced a variety of suggestions about the potential role of non tangible solutions in the creative improvement of public spaces. The paper presents the results of the ethnographic investigation, outlines the design methodology employed, and reports some designed solutions.