Creating a Guidebook about Jakarta's Public Transportation

Growing up, I always liked transportation, especially trains. I often ride public transportation throughout my life, especially in my hometown Jakarta either for fun or to getaround. As a capital, Jakarta has an extensive public transport network, ranging from trains to buses. Every year, more and more people come to Jakarta, whether tourists or newcomers visit or to live. These tourists and newcomers have little knowledge about the city or even how to get around the city.

With that, my personal project goal is to research and consult with experts regarding public transportation in Jakarta and create an informative and interactive guidebook directed towards tourists and newcomers. I chose this project as it is about my interest in public transit, which I think I would enjoy doing. Initially, my goal was wordier; hence, I had to revise it. I also changed from compact to informative because I decided to make a digital guidebook instead, and creating it informatively is more doable for me. This goal that I chose is essential in guiding me to create my product as my product will guide tourists and newcomers to public transportation in Jakarta. My goal demands me to research primary sources such as interviews with experts, to get necessary information regarding public transportation in Jakarta.

This goal is challenging for me as I have to do extensive research with various sources, especially interviews with experts regarding my topic. I also have to create a guidebook; this is challenging for me as I have to make it interactive for the audience. Furthermore, I have to create an informative guidebook, which means I need to put a lot of useful and exciting information for the audience. Besides making it informative, I also need to make it interactive for the readers, which is hard for me as I have no experience creating interactive documents.

Global Context

The global context of my personal project is Personal and Cultural expression. This global context focuses on expressing personal ideas, beliefs, and culture creatively and aesthetically, such as Jakarta’s local cultures and ideas, which became part of my topic. This is why I chose it for my project, as it is relevant. Through my project, I express my love of public transportation as a personal interest. Furthermore, I will express my ideas while representing them creatively and aesthetically by creating my guidebook. These ideas of personal interest and cultural beliefs will be represented through my guidebook’s content and images.

In response to the global context I chose, my product has met it well. Through my guidebook, I can showcase my personal interest and understanding of Jakarta’s public transportation system. I was also able to showcase the local culture in my hometown. For example, I show my hometown’s local cultures through the tips and trick part where I mentioned local sayings that people say when riding public transportation. Furthermore, I was able to present it creatively and aesthetically through the book’s design and layout.

Product

The final product is an interactive digital guidebook about Jakarta’s public transportation system. The guidebook uses the size of a4 paper, and it has 23 pages in it, including the back and front cover. Moreover, the guidebook features interactive buttons with which the reader can interact. The buttons themselves will pop a map or additional information for the audience to read, and there are over seven interactive buttons in the guidebook. The guidebook is using the language of English, and it uses a variety of fonts that are appealing to the audience’s eye. Furthermore, the guidebook is in the form of a digital book uploaded to a website provided by Adobe. The guidebook includes an overview of 7 public transportation in Jakarta, which are Transjakarta, KRL Commuter Line, MRT Jakarta, Ojek Online, Taxi, Angkot, and LRT Jakarta. To be more specific, the guidebook features informative information including general information, ticket types, places to go with the public transportation, and tips and tricks for the particular public transportation.

In correspondence with my goal, the guidebook has responded to it thoroughly. My goal demands me to create an informative and interactive guidebook intended for tourists or newcomers to Jakarta. The guidebook has met my goals as it exhibits interactive content with informative information. The language used is also appropriate for tourists and newcomers as they are easy to understand, shown by the common words used to describe the information in the book. Not only that, but the book is also in the form of digital through a website which made it accessible by everyone, hence it is appropriate for tourists and newcomers.

See my book below!

Reflection

Before doing the project, my knowledge of the global context that I chose Personal and Cultural expression was still vague. In completing the project, I started to learn more about my global context and how to implement it in my product. I was able to further research my own cultures, such as my hometown’s cultures, and more on my understanding of public transportation. In the end, I got to implement my research on my guidebook, which is how I expressed my own personal and cultural identity and understandings. After completing my product, I can now fully recognize and identify my own personal and cultural beliefs and knowledge and express them in a certain way. I was able to embrace my hometown’s culture during the research part. I became aware and recognized the struggles of Indonesians to create a fully modern public transportation system in Jakarta and develop the various tourist places.

This personal project also allows me to gain and develop new skills, especially during the product making process. I developed skills in graphic design as this project required me to graphic design my book. I watched tutorials on creating interactive buttons and graphic design throughout the process, which led me to new skills. I developed and implemented interactive buttons on my book, which has been a new skill. I also learned how to do graphic design on adobe Indesign, such as organizing text layout, adding aesthetics, and configuring pictures, which I have no experience with beforehand. This new set of skills can come in handy when I am doing graphic design again, reflecting on my personal development.

IB Learner Reflection

Doing this project, develops further my IB learner profiles. This project has required me to use various IB learner profiles. The utilization of the IB learner profiles is used to solve challenges, organize information, and contribute to my project’s completion. Two IB learner profiles that are most notable during my project are thinker and inquirer.

The profile thinker was demonstrated through the usage of critical and creative thinking skills. As mentioned in criterion c, I use critical and creative thinking skills to ease the process of making my guidebook and overcome challenges. For example, I did brainstorming and created an outline for my book to demonstrate my thinker profile. The brainstorming was used to organize my research and sources and plan the book’s layout. This has helped me develop my IB thinker profile, as I demonstrated more creative and critical thinking skills. The brainstorming and outline have added more experience to show various ways of thinking skills to complete the project.

I demonstrated the profile inquirer through inquiring questions and conducting research. I regularly research to nurture my curiosity for the information I have not understand yet. I also asked my supervisor and peers questions to satisfy my need for clarification or extra insight on a particular topic (suggestions and recommendations). This has helped me develop my inquirer IB profile as this adds up my skills to inquire about a question or issue appropriately. The development of the inquirer profile is handy for me in the future, as I might need to use the skills associated with the inquirer profile again to complete something.

In short, the product’s evaluation has made me aware of reaching my goal and how successful my project is. Working on this project has made me develop new skills and understand more about the essential global context. Not only that, but this project is also a gateway to develop my IB learner profile as the utilization of various skills was applied in this project. Overall, it has improved me as an IB learner in being aware of my personal and cultural ideas and the importance of the IB learner profile.