School - IED Barcelona
		A Taxi that talks
n. 142 - 2003		by Marta Cinti
		A design school that lives in close contact with one of today's most dynamic cities, Barcelona, takes on a theme deeply rooted in the urban reality of the Catalan capital. The project produced for the Master's degree in Interface Design at the IED in Barcelona, was presented on September 22, to an audience of faculty and students. The young designers had examined ways of reorganising the city's current taxi service, which is inflexible, costly and ill-adjusted to the actual needs of taxi users. Their response: the BCN Taxi. The general idea was to create interface systems, which would back up the taxi service with a whole array of information, mobility and service facilities. This involved creating a special vehicle featuring a driver's cockpit area and an adaptable passenger area, in which occupants can socialise and forge a closer relationship with the city. Their interface systems were applied to both the outside and the inside of the vehicle and were designed to simplify the way people interact with their taxi. The driver's area features a windscreen equipped to display practical information, a dashboard and two touch-control panels for the primary and secondary controls. Meanwhile, in the passenger area, there is seating for 3 people and facing the seats a multifunctional touch control screen that can be split into three sections, which the passengers can use individually to surf the Internet, play games or obtain information. This issue of Auto & Design illustrates the various stages of a project, which as the students explain, could offer a valid alternative to private transport in the near future.   (Full article in Auto & Design no. 142, p. 85)