Mission statement
Capturing the nostalgia of the monorail, but offering a silver lining to those sad it’s gone.
Goodbye monorail
There’s been a lot written about the Sydney Monorail since it was decided it would be dismantled.
There’s a sense of dismay among the transport nerds of Sydney that adored the monorail’s awkward, ill-fitting space-age charm. Totally at odds with the sandstone heritage of the Sydney CBD around it.
For others it’s a case of good riddance. The monorail was not profitable – in fact, it was costing the State government money.
Monorail here, monorail there
The monorail is being dismantled and passed around to anyone who wants some
Each part has been reported on by the brilliant transport journalists at the Herald.
Two carriages are being donated to the Powerhouse Museum in Ultimo.
One carriage will go to Google Australia, to be used as a meeting room inside their office in Sydney.
The steel beams are going into various civil and mining projects
The $70,000 in ticket receipts from the monorail’s last weekend will be given to five charities: Camp Quality, CanTeen, Make-A-Wish Australia, The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Youth Off The Street.
There are other recycling proposals that are unlikely but still possible. One proposal was converting the old track into a sky walk so pedestrians could see the city from the air.
Bringing it all together (as the monorail is taken apart)
What no one has done yet is pull all this information together in a way that makes it tell a story.
To me, this reusing has a great message of new life and rejuvenation.
Often criticised for being useless and a waste, the monorail is proving its enduring usefulness even in death!
This is the core idea that led to my very first concept design. This is the very first rough mock-up of how I saw this project coming together.
Original interface
Each part of the monorail — the carriages, the beams, the track, the dollar coins (representing the final weekend sales) — can be clicked on to find out where that part is going.
That will take you to a screen dedicated to that part, with interviews with the people using it and a breakdown of its new purpose.
The user gets to look at the monorail and rip it apart themselves. As they click through the parts they will develop a curiosity about the next one — “what could THAT be reused for?”
The front page is very simple and metaphorical. The background will be a soft off-white of grey to draw attention to the basic shapes of the monorail. They will give some visual indication that they can be clicked on and explored when they are moused over.
I like the name “Raiding the Monorail” too. It feels dramatic, and connotes the way what was once a whole structure is being taken apart into its individual parts.
First feedback – IMPROVEMENTS
Reaction to this basic idea was positive, but Suheil Dahdal my tutor had some good suggestions for improvement.
Story and emotion
Suheil identified a lack of emotional storytelling in the work, with the fairly factual presentation of the parts and their uses.
There’s definitely a lot of potential emotion attached to the monorail. The “transport nerds” I mentioned at the start are very vocal and very public, and would definitely be achievable interview subjects.
Here’s one monorail lover who wrote a piece in the Herald – http://www.smh.com.au/comment/railing-against-the-death-of-the-monorail-20130625-2ov2d.html
Whether it’s him or not doesn’t matter. I like the idea of leading to my home page with a video interview of someone like him who loved the monorail.
It would have to be very short. I see it as a full screen, autoplaying introduction that goes for less than a minute, establishing the speaker’s nostalgia for the monorail.
Then text will appear on the screen.
But lovers of the monorail, don’t despair
It has not died in vain.
And then you would land on the home screen, as depicted above (or in a more evolved form below).
You would be able to go back and hear more from that interviewee later, but at the start we need to get him out of the way so people can get into the interactive fun of the main screen.
Humour
There’s something kind of inherently funny about the monorail, and certainly the people that love it (like me I suppose).
Suheil recommended exploring that humour some more, running with the dramatic “raiding” language.
That melodrama could be a little comedic element throughout, like with the “died in vain” line above.
There could be overblown snapping sounds when the user clicks on different parts of the monorail and their information is displayed.
Revision and pitch
With those changes in mind I prepared my pitch to class.
Wanting to make a strong visual statement to attract people to the project, I created a computerised and coloured version of my main interface. It’s still very rough, but gives a clearer idea of how I want it to look.
Presented as a quick Prezi presentation, my pitch was well received. My classmates liked the concept and the basic design.
Some said the rough hand drawn look was quite visually strong. I might consider retaining some of that in the final design, but I think for the most part the look would be better with some clean typefaces and a clear colour palette.
There was a lot of feedback that I will take on board.
Sociability
Some people suggested expanding the social media of the project to allow people to tell their own stories about the monorail.
Previously my design had just featured basic options to share the site on Facebook and Twitter, but there is definitely potential for user generated content here.
I am adamant about not cluttering the home page, so this would have to be a separate section of the site that is linked to on the home page. If the comments sections on mainstream media articles about the monorail are anything to go by, people have a lot of stories they want to share. It could give a real life and vibrancy to the project.
Photographs
I was asked whether the drawing of the monorail on the front would appear in the real thing as a photo that could be clicked on. I said no, because I think it is visually clearer and better to look at as a drawing like this, where the parts are represented by simple visual metaphors. I stand by that design.
But I had completely overlooked the importance of showing some real photos of the monorail. The purpose of the documentary is to capture nostalgia about the monorail, and I can’t really do that without some photos. I’m not sure exactly which pages they will appear on – perhaps as a separate “Gallery” page. But certainly I will be looking to integrate high quality photos of the monorail throughout the site.
Audience
Up until the pitch I hadn’t really thought about who the audience for Raid the Monorail was.
There are a few clear groups.
- People who have a general interest in public transport. The kind that regularly read transport news and frequent public transport forums (oh yes, they exist)
- People who have themselves caught the monorail. Over its 25 years of operation, I assume that’s quite a lot of people.
- I think the innovative way the information will be presented and the topical nature of the subject will give Raiding the Monorail a pretty broad appeal. As people see it being taken down over the next couple of months they will wonder what is going to happen to it all!
Platforms
I want this to be a rich, big media experience. It won’t be super intense, but the size and complexity of the main screen, along with the probably high data pretty well rules it out for mobile.
I think this will work best on tablets and desktops.
It would be built in Hype and run on HTML 5, and be optimised to load quickly and with sounds that work in multiple browsers. The intro video will be brief by high definition.
I think this piece only works as an online documentary, and I would not try to turn it into a linear video. The joy of this work is in the exploration, which requires the user taking control.
Design extension – flowing through to detail
I’ve had some time now to consider how the original design will flow through to the subsequent screens.
The design will be simple and clean, and use colour coding to stay consistent throughout.
Here is an example of what might happen when the user clicks on the carriages.
As there are several carriages going to different places, the first screen would be this:
The little coloured tags above each carriage would only appear when moused over.
The black arrow in from the right indicates that the 3 carriages would animate in from that direction then stop, like a train pulling in at a station. The animation would be quick so people don’t get frustrated waiting.
Once the user chooses a carriage to click on, this screen will appear:
The maroon colour bar at the top, on the carriage and underlining the name of this carriage’s destination “Google Australia” matches the colour of the tag from the previous screen. That visual consistency will make the work feel more cohesive.
To explain the elements on this busier screen:
- The “1 X carriage” in the top left will again animate in from the right.
- Then the rest of the screen will appear.
- The bottom left is a video interview with someone from Google Australia (or wherever that item is going.) They will talk about their plans for it and why they want it. It will have to be clicked on to play.
- The uses that company is making of the carriage will also appear in short text dot points on the right. This is to allow different paces of discovery, so individuals can cut their own path through the content. Say they are interested in the carriages so might watch the video here, but may only want to skim the bullet points for something like the steel beams.
- Below them are the coloured boxes. The coloured boxes will appear as small photo thumbnails of the real carriage, which can be clicked on to expand into a slideshow. This is how I would implement the inclusion of photographs recommended to me at the pitch stage.
- Again, these mock ups are very rough, and the real thing would not be hand drawn in this way.
Typeface
On that last point, I have given some thought to potential typefaces for Raiding the Monorail.
It probably only needs one font for the whole thing, given there isn’t much text.
Headings would be in caps, the dot points would not.
Trying to capture the retro, space-age feel of the monorail, I think a straight avant garde font would look nice.
I also have a fantastic number font I’d like to use for the number badges that will appear in the top left of each detailed screen. I found this font ages ago but haven’t had a chance to use it. I think it works with the fun spirit of the project and is retro in a different way to the avant garde. They should look nice together.
Here’re some examples.
You can see what the basic drawn design looks like with the font at the top of this page.
Interviewees, sources, content needed
Moving forward with this project, here is the content that needs to be gathered and the people we need to talk to as a priority.
Interviews
- Nick Giannikouris, the director of Metropolitan Demolitions — this is the company contracted to remove the monorail, and is the body that decides where everything goes.
- Google Australia — their media contact — Tel: 02 9374 4000
Email: press-australia-nz@google.com - The Powerhouse Museum — media contacts — Mandy Campbell Ph: +61 (2) 9217 0551 mob: 0422 9299 27 mandyca@phm.gov.au — Melanie Morris Ph : +61 (2)9217 0536 melaniem@phm.gov.au
- Camp Quality — media contact — Gary Nunn P: 02 9876 0537 gary.nunn@campquality.org.au
- Man passionate about the monorail, Pat Shiel of the SMH. Contact through Twitter.
Obviously more interviews would need to be done, but those are the priorities for the start of the project.
Shots
- It would be great to go out and take photos of the monorail while it is still there, and while it is in the process of being taken down
- The interviews need to be filmed
- For other photos, we would need to source pictures that we have rights to use.
Technical
The animated elements of Raiding the Monorail mean it has to be made in Hype using HTML 5. I have attended the workshops, so either myself or someone from my team who had also attended would create it in Hype.
Videos would be edited with ProTools, and photos with Photoshop.
The shooting can be done with the handheld cameras we are provided with as per the course.
Conception of team
There’s a lot of work in this project, but it’s manageable with good delegation.
- Someone to create it in Hype
- An interviewer (or two) to conduct those
- A designer who can bring the vague concepts above together into something visually fantastic
- Someone with knowledge of photography, and who can also do research into the various uses.
Conclusion
Raiding the Monorail would be a fascinating insight into how things are reused once they’re past their used by. I want to celebrate the monorail and acknowledge the sadness some feel about it going, but offer the happier prospect of it going to myriad good uses.
I think my approach to the topic — bringing many pieces together to form a story that people can cut through in their own way — is perfect for the online documentary form.
James Elton-Pym 