A backend overhaul of an automatic fare collection system created an opportunity to redesign two operator-facing interfaces — a back-office terminal and a passenger-facing kiosk. The brief arrived with consensus from both engineers and operators: the system worked and didn't need changing.

However, our field observation told a different story. Operators had built deep workarounds into their daily routines — memorised menu paths, manual verbal explanations to passengers, avoidance of functions that cost too many steps to reach. The adaptations and workarounds had become invisible to the people doing it. Research access was eventually earned by surfacing questions about operator behaviour under pressure that the engineering side couldn't answer from existing operational documentation.

The redesign introduced a shared design system across all station screens, applied with different priorities at each touchpoint — efficiency at the back-office terminal, preservation of operator fluency at the kiosk, and reassurance at the passenger display. Four rounds of co-design workshops brought operators and engineers into the same room to shape the solution together.

The system for Jurong Region Line is currently in development. The engagement produced research access that wasn't originally planned, findings that overturned a unanimous status quo, and a co-design process the delivery partner described as unprecedented.

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