Moving people

Design philosophy
We take insights from real needs to inform our work and inspire us to create exciting new concepts.
But this vision is worth little without execution and it is DCA’s technical know-how that drives our designs through to market without compromise.

Insights and strategy
We strive to understand what journeys are like and develop an in-depth knowledge of the people involved, their needs and aspirations.
This evidence-based approach focuses our efforts on resolving the problems that are most important to you and your stakeholders.

Communicating the vision
New ideas need to engage and captivate people on a subjective and functional level.
Our visualisation, virtual reality and multimedia team works side by side with our designers at all stages of the project to interactively demonstrate and review our ideas and visions with our clients.

Testing our ideas
Whether it’s with a functional rig, an ergonomic mock-up or an immersive virtual reality environment, we are constantly testing and improving our proposed solutions.
Physical and virtual prototyping allows us to engage with the widest range of stakeholders throughout the project, encouraging them to become part of the creative process.

Colour, Material and Finish (CMF)
We make CMF an integral part of all our transportation projects from the outset. Mobility products are typically long-lived, so our CMF solutions must be durable and future proofed.
A successful CMF solution takes inspiration from the world around us and combines visual and technology trends with the practical constraints imposed by manufacturing and maintenance.

Putting people centre stage
Nowhere are the ergonomic demands more challenging than when transporting diverse and differently able people in safety and comfort.
Combining theoretical techniques, cognitive tools and anthropometric data with practical experimentation, we place the human element at the heart of our design process.

Exploring ideas
Sketching and foam modelling have long been the way to explore ideas and bring them to life.
Visual creativity is a highly tactile, iterative activity that thrives when we work together to develop and refine visual forms. Perfection requires repetition.

Technical innovation
We use our knowledge and experience to push innovative technical solutions that go beyond the accepted industry norms, opening up new creative opportunities.
Design, engineering, hardware and software teams collaborate closely to develop unified solutions that push the boundaries but manage the technical risk.

Interaction design
In an increasingly connected world, user interfaces are key to everything we do, determining whether we enjoy a product or service.
Combining the simplicity of use and clarity of communication with beauty and refinement in complex transport infrastructures is becoming one of the most challenging and exciting parts of our design process.

Digital craft
Crafting new digital solutions by applying technology in new and surprising ways is one of the new design challenges.
We are shaping how the digital world impacts on our everyday experiences and determining how it influences our relationship with technology.

Innovation
Our cross-functional creativity helps us maintain a unique position as one of the world’s most innovative transport design consultancies.
Our innovations have resulted in over 3,900 patent applications and more than 1,700 granted patents for our clients worldwide since 2000.

Mobility systems
Increasingly the demand is for integrated mobility systems that deliver seamless, efficient and pleasurable end-to-end travel experiences.
Only a truly multi-disciplinary approach can deliver such integrated systems, including the environments passengers pass through and every touch point related to their journey.

Making it real
We integrate CNC machining and rapid prototyping technologies with the skill and experience of our workshop team to build, test and refine supporting models, rigs, prototypes and mock-ups in-house.
That means we can manage timescales and control quality while maintaining project confidentiality to protect your intellectual property investment in the new designs.
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Delivering results
Visionary design concepts can only be delivered through engineering excellence and they can only be realised if they meet the relevant regulations, standards and certification requirements.
We work closely with all project stakeholders, including suppliers and certification bodies, to ensure that our visions are delivered to market faithfully, but in a form that is cost-effective, functional and durable.