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Atlanta marta map sketch7/13/2023 In order to better understand our city’s commuters, I embarked on numerous bus rides to observe and interview fellow riders. However, I’m by no means a frequent rider, nor do I represent the city’s entire community of bus-riders. Having lived in Atlanta for over three years, I’ve been on my fair share of MARTA bus rides. Lucky for me, my team’s ethnographic study forced me to do just that. Many ink-filled notebooks and swipes of my MARTA card later, here’s what I learned.Īs a hands-on learner, I’ve found that I learn the most when I hurl myself into unfamiliar territory. That meant MARTA bus rides - and lots of ‘em. Since ethnography is rooted in on-the-scene learning, we had to enter the typical environment of Atlanta’s commuters. Ultimately, we were aiming to redesign bus stops throughout the city of Atlanta. That’s why I joined a VIP team that focused on ethnographic research.Įthnography, a qualitative research method that’s composed of observing and interacting with people in their typical environment, was the driving force behind our team’s final deliverable. Whether I was designing bicycle equipment for adults with multiple sclerosis, or creating a mobile app experience for volunteers at a food pantry, I loved getting to ask questions and learn about the lives of others. As an industrial design student, I had always loved conducting the research that propelled each of my projects. At Georgia Tech, Vertically Integrated Projects, or VIPs for short, are faculty-led, multi-disciplinary teams that work on long-term, large-scale issues. I was in my third year of undergraduate study at Georgia Tech when I joined my first VIP team. MARTA, the city of Atlanta’s bus and train system, had become my second home that semester as I worked to conduct an ethnographic study on Atlanta’s bus-ridership. I had four identical notebooks at home, but they were full of field notes from previous MARTA trips. I used my phone to track the delay on route 12 as I tucked my favorite pen into my pocket and a beat-up, paperback notebook under my left arm. On a Sunday evening in mid-November, I found myself eagerly awaiting the next bus at my local MARTA station.
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