24/2/2026 - 8/3/2026 (Week 4 - Week 5)
Cher Pei Ying (0389055)
Intercultural Design
Task 2: Field Study
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Instructions
2. Field Study
2.1 Research
2.2 Observational Study
2.3 Survey
2.4 Submission
3. Feedback
4. Reflection
1. INSTRUCTIONS
This task is to conduct field study upon the selected ideas from Task 1. We
are required to go on site and observe, take photos or videos. Other methods
that are accepted for our study include interview, survey and internet
research.
2. FIELD STUDY
After receiving approval from our lecturer to proceed with either idea 1
or idea 3, we chose to continue our project focusing on idea 1. We
discussed and decided to conduct 3 data collection methods:
1. Observational study
2. Google form survey
3. Internet research
2.1 Research
I am in charge for observational study for this task, I searched online for
some locations beforehand to conduct our observational study and summarized
them into a PPT:
2.2 Observation study
According to the locations above, we traveled around Kuala Lumpur to take
photos.
Google drive link to our photos taken:
My observations:
1. LRT Pasar Seni → Central Market
- Cool Path: Almost fully shaded except for the zebra crossing, so pedestrians are exposed to heat for that part of the route. The zebra crossing also does not have a traffic light to indicate pedestrians when to cross the road, so the wait for the traffic light to turn green is unknown, making the wait under the sun longer, more unpredictable and dangerous.
- Heat Path: This route is shaded at first, but then exposed to sunlight. Even though pedestrians have to cross two zebra crossings for this route, it is easier to navigate as these two zebra crossings include traffic lights. This path takes less time than the cool path.
2. MRT Muzium Negara → Perdana Botanical Gardens
- Cool Path: This route is mostly shaded by trees, it also has a few parts where it is exposed to the sun. I think this location is not suitable as an example.
- Heat Path: The heat path actually has a few parts where trees provide shade, so it is not completely exposed. I think the bigger problem of this route is it is dangerous and noisy because it is right beside the road where many cars pass by, the pedestrian walk also ends at a turn where no proper walkway is provided.
3. KL Sentral → Kuen Cheng High School
- Cool Path: This route is very comfortable at first as we travel inside a shopping mall with air-conditioning, but as we reach the LRT platform, we see that trains only arrive every 10 minutes, so the wait for a train is long. This will cause the travel time to be unpredictable and mostly quite long.
- Heat Path: This is the most extreme path we experienced during our field study as it is 90% exposed to the sun, some parts also do not have zebra crossings, which is dangerous for pedestrians especially students that are travelling by foot.
4. LRT KLCC → KLCC Convention Centre
- Cool Path: This route is 80% in a air-conditioned area, and the only paths that are not also have shade as it travels through a linked walkway from LRT KLCC to Suria KLCC. The only unpredictable aspect is the travel time may differ according to the movement speed of the crowd as this location is often crowded with many people and tourists.
- Heat Path: Some parts of the heat path for this location is shaded by trees, and the travel time does not differ much from the cool path, so I think this location is not suitable to be an example for our reaserch.
5. LRT Ampang Park → Intermark Mall
- Cool Path: A linked bridge is built specially for pedestrians to travel on foot in this location, so it is fully shaded from the LRT station to the destination.
- Heat Path: Only a small part of this route is not shaded, the link bridge is also used at the end.
After conducting our observational study, we came to 3 conclusions:
1. Heat paths take less time than Cool paths:
This means the shortest and fastest routes are more exposed to heat, while
cooler routes with shade or indoor connections take longer to travel. This
shows a trade-off between speed and comfort when moving around Kuala Lumpur.
2. Not all Cool paths are completely shaded:
This shows that the cooling infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur is still
inconsistent or fragmented, where shaded areas are not fully connected. As a
result, pedestrians may still experience heat during parts of the journey even
when using a cool path.
3. Google Maps:
During our observational study, we observed that Google Maps indicate the
fastest route to pedestrians, therefore they are unable to choose a
better and more comfortable route. This is where our idea acts a major role in
helping pedestrians navigate the city and travel with their own preferences.
I included this conclusion and the photos taken into our PowerPoint:
Figure 2.2.1 Screenshot of slide 7 from PowerPoint
2.3 Survey
Conducting a survey on this topic helps us to collect users opinions and experiences about mobility routes. It also allows us to understand how people perceive factors such as travel time, heat exposure, comfort and convenience when moving around Kuala Lumpur. The survey provides real user feedback that cannot always be observed during field studies. By analyzing the responses, we can identify common problems, user preferences and mobility needs, which helps in developing more effective and user-centered design solutions for urban mobility and pedestrian routes.
Link to Google Form survey results:
2.4 Submission
Google drive link to PowerPoint:
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3. FEEDBACK
Week 5
Good presentation of issues and clear solutions are stated. However, think about how to present the solution. Other than that, include other locations that are not selected as further suggestions.
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4. REFLECTION
This task is very fun to me as we had to physically conduct a field study to collect data instead of just searching for information online. It gave me a very clear idea of what we were working on and I got to experience the difficulties of navigating Kuala Lumpur myself. One of the difficulties we faced while conducting the field study is that we had to navigate the routes first before we could start recording the time to get the most accurate timing. Luckily that did not happen too often as I am mostly familiar to the locations we visited. I would like our idea to be input in real life use as it can bring many benefits for pedestrians, they are able to choose between time and comfortability when travelling, which makes travelling experience differ a lot.
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