New flyovers and mass transit systems can only do so much to make a Smart City. At the end of the day, the definition of smart cities boils down to its smart citizens. How they use public spaces and define their relationships with these is at the crux of smart behaviour for smart cities. So how are Indian citizens going to become smarter?

Our worst behaviour is in navigating public spaces. This is not unique to India. This is perhaps hard-wired in all places where population pressure is high and there is a societal context of scarce resources — where getting ahead of others is simply a mode of survival. We compete for everything — from seats in a pre-nursery to getting off an aircraft. Our Indian mindset pushes us ahead.

In India, the act of getting out of a train or an elevator is like hand-to-hand combat. As one army alights, another horde blocks it. Toe-to-toe. Head-to-head. We do not side-step, we simply surge ahead. One of the smartest solutions to this is at Shanghai metro stations. (I am told the Mumbai metro uses this visual device as well).

The design is brilliant in its simplicity. Four arrows — denoting where you should stand to board the metro and where those who alight must go — carry a power of suggestion that becomes impossible to ignore. If a design is intuitively smart, it is adopted.

We need to make a distinction between the intended message and the message itself. Writing long verbose instructions does not result in a shift in behaviour. Visual symbols that immediately resonate in the limbic brain are the ones that get adopted quickly and with a lasting effect.

Alpana Parida is the President of DY Works, a brand strategy and design firm that creates culture-based solutions for businesses.

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