Transit Pal
Mobile
Mobile
UX Designer
3 Weeks
Figma
Google Forms
Notion
A midsize metropolitan city in the Midwest has recently added numerous routes to the bus stop, Washington & State. The transportation agency of this city currently informs riders by posting a bus schedule of expected arrivals on their website and at each bus stop. Riders don’t know when and which bus is arriving at that stop. However, the city knows how far away each bus is from a stop but does not know how to efficiently inform riders with that information.
Numerous bus routes have been recently added and many of those routes stop at the same bus stop. Riders want to know when the next bus will arrive at each stop and how much time they have to get to the bus stop.
The target audience of Transit Pal are people who have used the public transportation within the midsize metropolitan city in the Midwest. They are between the ages of 18 - 24.
Transit Pal is a mobile app that provides route planning features, updates transit schedules, shows real-time tracking for buses, and allows riders to reload their transit cards all in one place.
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In order to collect quantitative data on users, I conducted a user survey. My goal was to understand what users' experiences with public transportation were like and understand their biggest pain points.
of respondents reported having experienced inaccurate bus times while taking public transportation.
of respondents reported having experienced some level of difficulty in deciphering buses at a stop shared by multiple lines.
The top three popular transit apps among users were Google Maps, Transit, and Ventra.
Users are most interested in real-time tracking, alternate route options, number of riders, and the ability to pay fares in a transit app.
I created a user persona to represent the users that would interact with Transit Pal.
Esther works as a Financial Representative and commutes to work by using her city's public transportation. Being punctual is very important to her. She does not memorize all of the bus lines and their schedules so she relies heavily on following a route to get to her destination.
"I really like the option of combining multiple public transit types in one route."
In order to understand a user's expectations with a public transportation app, I conducted a SWOT analysis on the popular transit app among users. I was interested in learning about what these apps did well and things they did not do well.
Google Maps can be used for planning routes by inputting a starting point and a destination. They integrate bus and train schedules into your route when you select public transportation for the method of commuting.
Google Maps can be used for planning routes by inputting a starting point and a destination. They integrate bus and train schedules into your route when you select public transportation for the method of commuting.
I wrote out user stories in order to explore different use cases for the app. After writing out the user stories, I organized them in order by importance level.
The high priority user stories (at the top) are needed to meet the business requirements for the project. The medium priority stories reflect the transit app features that were popular among users. The low priority story (at the bottom) reflects features that have been requested by some users.
One major user flow I created for this app was the select transit line and stop flow.
On the app, the user can either enter their location or turn on location sharing. From there, the user can select a line from a list of transit lines nearest to their location. Once a transit line is selected, the user will see a list of stops and their next arrival times. The user can select an arrival time and view real-time tracking on where the bus’ current location is on the map.
After creating the user flows for the site, I began laying out the app map. My goal was to keep the navigation as simple as possible. I decided to break up the major features into their own separate sections on the app.
After drafting the app map and user flows, I began sketching and creating wireframes for potential layouts for every screen. I wanted prioritize the most important information and display that to the user first. I made sure to display transit line names, map views, nearest bus stops, and upcoming arrival times.
Once I finalized my high-fidelity wireframes, I began to plan out the design for my final mockups.
I chose a color palette that I felt would appeal to many people. I opted for an accent color with high contrast that would bring the user's attention to elements of high importance.
I picked a playful typeface for the logo and went for a simpler typeface for the rest of the app. This typeface also has various weights to help with hierarchy throughout the app.
Finally, I wanted the logo of Transit Pal to be inviting and fun. Transit Pal should be seen as your friend who will help you get to your destination.
In order to test my prototype's usability, I conducted usability tests with different users.
I tested three participants remotely via Zoom. These participants were between the ages of 18 - 34 and lived in both urban and suburban areas. They also had used public transportation on varying frequency levels in the past. Participants were given a scenario and 14 tasks to complete.
Average % of successful tasks
Average time spent on tasks
After conducting usability tests, there were some issues that came up with multiple testers. I prioritized my findings and addressed the most critical feedback I received.
After participants selected a route to follow to get to their destination, they were brought to the Route Overview screen. Users needed to tap the back button four times to return to the homepage.
The same navigation bar that is seen throughout the app was added to the bottom of the Route Overview page. The navigation bar would disappear only when the user started the Guided Navigation. This allows users to quickly navigate back to the homepage by clicking on the map icon.
Older Iteration
Final Prototype
To summarize, one of the main lessons learned during the course of the project is finding the middle ground between business requirements and the expectations of the users.
If I were to complete this project again, some things I would do differently are:
Ultimately, we can deliver an app that simply lists out bus schedule screens for each stop but would users really use this app over existing transit apps? We need these key differentiators to stand out and increase user retention.
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