MyBus - Solving Seven Lines
Project Overview
Summary:
For this student project, we were presented with the following problem:
A new bus stop has just opened at Washington & State. It includes seven new bus lines. The city is concerned that with so many buses at the same stop, users will have difficulty determining when their bus is arriving.
Responsibilities:
I was responsible for creating a clickable MVP prototype to address provided user pain points. Tools used included Figma, Notion, and Google Forms.
Audience:
The audience for this project is bus riders utilizing the new bus stop at Washington & State.
Solution:
After conducting user research and surveys, I created a user flow to address account creation, location awareness, and display of the relevant bus arrival information at the stop. Based on my research, I also created an additional flow for users to be able to purchase their bus ticket from within the app. A clickable prototype can be found by clicking the image on the right.
Discovery and Research
Due to the predetermined nature of this project, my user research focused on features that users were most and least interested in. It was fascinating to discover that they were overwhelmingly NOT interested in destination suggestions based on their route. They also did not have much interest in sharing their estimated arrival time. They WERE interested in keeping their travel private, and nearly two thirds wanted to purchase their bus tickets from the app. This was also reinforced by my user interviews. This information determined that the feature I would add to the app beyond the dictated MVP brief was buying tickets.
Competitive Analysis:
I looked at Google Maps and CityMapper. While they are both far more feature-rich than was required for this project, I was influenced by CityMapper's simpler interface and green color palette. To me, the green supported the environmentally friendly aspect of mass transit, which I incorporated into my design.
User Persona:
Gender - Female / Age - 35 / Occupation - Freelancer / Residence - Midtown
Her Story - She rides the bus regularly because it's the closest option to her apartment. She's a freelance creative with many destinations around the city. She likes the bus because she prefers to be above ground which allows her to easily hop off if there are traffic issues that will delay her trip. She uses the city's transit website for schedule information, but is open to using newer transit apps as long as they have addressed shortcomings that were common in previous versions.
Goals - To save money by using transit and getting to her destination in a timely fashion.
Issues - Lack of accurate schedule information. Doesn't like that there aren't live updates regarding issues that may affect her trip. Wants easier payment options.
Wireframes
Initial hand-drawn wireframes
Digital wireframes, created in Figma
