Hear your way there. A new kind of tube experience for the blind community.
Canwha began with an open brief from Transport for London and a question worth asking: what does the tube experience feel like when you can't see it? Focusing on the blind community as one of transport's most underserved groups, we set out to explore how sound alone could guide, reassure and direct.
The result sits between the physical and digital world. A simple app paired with powerful in-station beacons builds a dedicated navigation experience from the ground up — rich soundscapes and intelligent narration guiding users through every step, from topping up an Oyster to tapping in, finding the platform and catching the right train. Fully voice-operable, with deep controls for cadence, frequency and detail, Canwha puts the whole journey in reach.
Year
2025
Scope
Product Design, Visuals
Client
Transport for London (TfL)
Platform
iOS
A new way to navigate the Underground with just sound.
Designed to help improve a continuous problem of navigation for the blind and low vision community on TfL services, Canwha brings together sound and visuals to enhance navigation for everyone – including fully-sighted individuals.
Ambient chimes for navigation, turn-by-turn guidance, immediate help, and voice feedback from A to B, all designed to make navigation on the Tube so much better.
A rich, expressive experience however you like it.
Beyond simple customisation, Canwha allows for deeply granular and personal control over almost every setting in the product, from icon size, to exact train arrival chime, voice input complexity, spatial range variance, name and speech cadence, sensitivity of dial and so much more.
It's a totally new view on individual product ownership, where there is no general experience – every Canwha version is totally unique to the user.
Built for harmony between sight and sound.
Co-created across sound and visuals, with chime and background sound development at the same time as visual UI development, the entire platform is designed to be fully accessible by voice and touch.
Granular "micro-chirps" for dial steps, coupled with haptic feedback, and callout chimes for successful voice activations, are created to go further and actually end to end build the whole product to work beautifully for blind users.
A system that moves with you, no matter where you go.
The Dot System was designed with an ambitious goal to co-ordinate a consistent grid of dots, to animate and reflect the liveliness of different input and interaction models.
Dots are used for actions icons, buttons, audio and voice input and output, and as decorative components – creating a lively, focused material for communication.
