Gender- and Diversity-Oriented Design of Social Media for Participation in Public Transport

摘要

The aim of the paper is to define design recommendations for gender- and diversity-sensitive social media appearances to strengthen participation in the context of local public transport and mobility planning. Social media are an effective instrument for actively and sustainably involving citizens and other interest groups in planning and evaluation processes [1]. A major advantage is its reach across gender, cultural, language and national boundaries, which means that a high diversity of users can be covered. For this very reason, social media have become one of the most important tools when it comes to implementing and promoting participation culture effectively and efficiently. Social media can not only be used to inform interested parties, but also to actively and above all interactively involve them. In order for this to happen, the needs and requirements of users must be taken into account when designing social media appearances. In addition to flexible user interface design and content design, this includes enabling and providing elements for an interactive exchange of information, opinions and experiences between providers and users as well as among users. Although this type of participation is already widespread (e.g. as marketing for companies and products, but also for political opinion-forming), it has not yet fully entered all areas. Especially in the transport sector, the social media appearances provide information, but often these are not designed to be gender- and diversity-transcending and therefore not understandable and usable for all target groups. Every day, countless and diverse people are moved and connected with each other over long distances via public transport, but this user diversity is not addressed and reflected on the social media appearances of public transport companies.