TfL have similar documents for London Underground which are a great read if you're interested in this sort of thing.<p>Signage: <a href="https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/lu-signs-manual.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.tfl.gov.uk/cdn/static/cms/documents/lu-signs-man...</a>
Station Design: <a href="http://www.persona.uk.com/nle/B-Core_docs/G/NLE-G1.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.persona.uk.com/nle/B-Core_docs/G/NLE-G1.pdf</a>
Is there a properly digitized PDF available anywhere? I appreciate what <a href="http://thestandardsmanual.com/" rel="nofollow">http://thestandardsmanual.com/</a> is doing here, but their hover-photo-to-zoom thing is hard to read.
FYI this is from 2014.<p>Since then, the OP created a Kickstarter for a reissue of the manual...I have it sitting (awkwardly) on my bookshelf. <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thestandardsmanual/full-size-reissue-of-the-nycta-graphics-standards" rel="nofollow">https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thestandardsmanual/full...</a>
It's unfortunate that such a lovely document seems to have produced a terrible subway system. Having regularly taken the subway in Beijing, London, Washington D.C., Tokyo. The New York subway seems almost deliberately difficult to navigate at times. Subway signs are often misleading. Lacking in places or just outright missing. Perhaps they focused too much on the appearance without considering usability.
> "If the manual had been designed today, documents like this wouldn't exist. They'd be nested within dense file trees, stored in data centers in anonymous buildings in rural parts of the world, and accessed through individual computers."<p>They do exist, and thanks to the internet, are more easily found than ever. Many companies post their design guidelines, even if no external parties will ever use them beyond looking at the final products:<p><a href="https://developer.nike.com/nikefuel/brand-guidelines.html" rel="nofollow">https://developer.nike.com/nikefuel/brand-guidelines.html</a>
<a href="http://hannahkimdesign.com/mcd_styleguide/" rel="nofollow">http://hannahkimdesign.com/mcd_styleguide/</a>
<a href="http://guidelines.usability.gov/" rel="nofollow">http://guidelines.usability.gov/</a><p>And some that <i>are</i> used by people outside of the organisation:<p><a href="http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introduction.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/design/spec/material-design/introducti...</a>
<a href="https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/" rel="nofollow">https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserEx...</a>
The designer of NYC's subway map, Massimo Vignelli, has published a meta style guide "THE VIGNELLI CANON".<p><pre><code> This little book reveals our guidelines -
those set by ourselves for ourselves.
</code></pre>
It's only 49 pages and available for free on his website:<p><a href="http://www.vignelli.com/canon.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.vignelli.com/canon.pdf</a>