Travel Information, Design And Wayfinding

He is a public transport professional with over 25 years of experience in different phases, fields, and modes.

Currently, working for uitp as senior advisor to academy and head of Eurasia, responsible for peer review and assessment services as well as content management for training programs.

He completed the Ph.D. program in Business Administrations, with a thesis “Effects of Formalization of Informal Transport System on Stakeholder Satisfaction”.

He started his public transport journey in METRO ISTANBUL in 1999 and worked for six years in different positions such as signaling engineer, maintenance planning, software development engineer, risk management, etc.

He was head engineer for Kayseri rail system construction project in which later became managing director of the operator company, Kayseri Transportation. Under his management the company took over the operation of bus system including rural transport, bike sharing system, electronic fare collection, city car parking system, fiber communication backbone of the city, R&D center that developed smart traffic management and enforcement systems. Under his mandate, with his innovative approach the company received several national and international awards.

During his public transportation carrier, he worked in different fields and took different management roles like fixed installation (communication, power, track, signaling, overhead catenary) manager, RAMS&EMC manager, R&D manager, corporate development manager, construction manager, vehicles, and maintenance manager.

He was a member of the policy and executive board, and chairman of light rail division of UITP between 2015-2019. He was chairman of UITP informal Transport working group and member of presidential committee between 2019-2021. He was the president of Rail System Operators Association TÜRSİD, in Turkey. Vice president of Anatolian Rail Transportation Systems Cluster, ARUS. He was the Member of higher advisory board of Kayseri Industrial Chamber, Vice president board of Turkish quality association of Kayseri, and Member of the Advisory Board of İstanbul Technical University, Railway Safety and Security Application & Research Center.

Graduating university as a civil engineer, Yo joined RATP in 1980. He began in the marketing team and was duly put in charge of Passenger Information. Over the ensuing years, Yo worked to build up RATP’s Design Management function – progressively integrating all the creative disciplines related to transport environment design – product design, information design, architecture, arts and culture management – becoming Head of Design Projects Management in 2011. Yo retired from RATP in December 2023 after 35 years with the company.

Yo’s department steered many of RATP’s infrastructure investment projects, coordinates policies and ensures the inclusion of Design Quality in RATP Group’s corporate strategy.

He serves on the boards of several organizations focussed on design promotion and design education in France and is a former Chair of the UITP Design & Culture Committee.

Büşra Buran received the M.Sc. degree in Industrial Engineering from Galatasaray University, in 2012 and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Management Engineering at Istanbul Technical University (ITU). She is working for ten years. She worked in different departments of IETT such as planning, BRT (Bus Rapid Transit), and service improvement. She currently works as a strategy development manager at the IETT that is the bus transportation authority for Istanbul. She is responsible for the strategic plan, key performance indicators, project management, quality management, energy management, innovation, benchmarking.

Jug is an architect and mapmaker with 12 years experience in transit mapping. He has designed official public transport maps and traveler information systems for numerous cities around the world including Barcelona, Geneva, Luxembourg, Utrecht, Riyadh, Dubai. He is the founder of the mapping and wayfinding studio inat in Paris and a consultant for digital mapping platforms Apple Maps and Google Maps.

Since 2017, Jug has been a partner at the Dubai-based wayfinding consultancy DezignTechnic. The company builds wayfinding solutions for shopping malls, hospitals and entire cities. Jug posits that wayfinding is “the art of influencing flows” and he is on a permanent quest to reveal the hidden structure and beauty of transport networks.

He has been working in the urban rail systems sector since 1998, specialising in passenger information, wayfinding systems and passenger circulation management in public transport. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with different operational and technical departments and contributed to the development and implementation of numerous passenger service projects.

Between 2008 and 2013, he lived in Vienna, Austria. After returning to Istanbul in 2013, he began leading wayfinding standardisation projects. Since 2015, his responsibilities have expanded to include digital passenger information, corporate websites, digital information screens, corporate communications and brand management.

Since 2022, he has served as Team Leader for Passenger Communication Design and Digital Information. In this role, he is responsible for trademark and patent processes, corporate identity compliance, the updating and implementation of wayfinding standards, passenger information design, journey rules and guidelines, digital screen content, website and portal interfaces, and the front-end and content development of corporate applications.

In 2006, he designed Istanbul’s first rail systems network map, which he continues to update in line with the expansion of the city’s transport network. He also developed the line numbering, colour methodology and pictograms for Istanbul’s existing, under-construction and planned rail lines. Building on this work, he contributed to the creation of Metro Istanbul’s Wayfinding Standards and prepared the content and design of the related guidelines.

He has extensive experience in developing passenger information and wayfinding solutions in accordance with EN 13816 service quality standards, preparing compliant designs and supervising their implementation across the rail network.

Andrew Mead is an Architect specializing in Transit Design. He has 30 years of experience in North America, Europe and Asia and has worked as the Chief Architect for the Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong Metros. He has been the client for multiple award-winning designs, including World Architecture Festival Transportation Building of the Year 2009 for Brash Basah Station. Responsible for the design management of over 100 stations in Singapore from 1996 to 2013, Andrew has been the most influential transit architect in the nation. He is also the creator of the ‘Art in Transit’ programme that is now Singapore’s largest public art programme.

In 2013, Andrew moved to Hong Kong to lead MTR’s multi-disciplinary design team working across a range of scales and contexts, from master planning of new stations and precincts, integration of stations with TOD developments, to detailed design of new rolling stock, ticketing facilities, and even uniform design. Andrew understands the essence of place making and the qualities that are needed to create some of the world’s finest Transit Orientated Developments. Combined with his technical and people management skills, he has a proven track record of delivering projects of the highest quality.

Andrew is a graduate of the University of Sheffield and began working in transit design in 1985 with the legendary Design Research Unit (the original architects of the Hong Kong metro). West India Quay on the Docklands Light Railway was the first station designed by Andrew in the U.K. In 1992 Andrew moved to Toronto, Canada where he worked on the design of 5 stations on the Sheppard Subway and managed the public art programme, commissioning artists to create site specific artworks at each station.

From 2006-2008 Andrew was the Chief Architect of the Dubai Metro Red & Green Lines. Andrew’s design leadership transformed the look of the stations into the required ‘Dubai Class’ standard and he was instrumental in improving the metro stations integration with the surrounding urban environments.

He has collaborated with professional organizations globally such as AIA, RIBA and the UITP where he chaired the Design & Culture Committee for four years and now sits as Honorary Chair. Andrew has lectured widely on both architecture and art at international conferences and universities. The artworks he has commissioned have been published in four books with a fifth currently in production.

Zak Zakaria is a Dubai-based wayfinding and signage specialist with a professional background spanning environmental graphic design, signage strategy and passenger navigation. He is currently associated with Substance Studio and has previously been identified as Managing Director of DezignTechnic. His career also includes graphic design and art direction experience with international agencies including JWT and Saatchi & Saatchi.

His expertise is particularly relevant to the design of intuitive wayfinding systems for complex public environments and transport infrastructure, combining signage, visual communication, spatial understanding and user experience.

From a public transport perspective, Zak has worked on the Belgrade Metro project, where he contributed as a Waymaker alongside architect and transport map designer Jug Cerović. The work included metro wayfinding analysis and the integration of wayfinding with station architecture.

He has also participated in the international Transit Mapping Symposium, including a presentation focused on “Signage and wayfinding in the desert,” demonstrating his involvement in the international professional discussion around transport mapping and passenger navigation.