This app allows people to take a nap, listen to music, and scroll through their phones on public transport without the worry of missing their destination. The app is designed for multiple public transport mediums like terrestrial: Bus, Tram, Ferry which use location-based alarms, but also subterranean mediums: Subways that use the accelerometer.
People need more mediums nowadays to be informed where to get off, and in Romania not all public transport has relevant image signs or audio feedback telling what station you are in or what station comes next.
Year2022CompanyPrivateWhereBucharest, RomaniaDeviceNative mobile app (IOS)CategoryNavigation & Traffic
This app allows people to take a nap, listen to music, and scroll through their phones on public transport without the worry of missing their destination. In 2019 METROREX transported 90.500M people with around 600K – 800K people taking the subway daily, and STB (terrestrial public transport) has 2.4M daily. Taking public transport is a mundane thing for a lot of people and engaging in other activities keeps them distracted from their daily routine trip. Those distractions are the cause of people missing the stop.
Market research | Competitive analysis | User survey | Personas | User journey map | Storyboarding | Flow diagram | Low-fidelity Wireframes | High-fidelity UI Design ( Usability study | UI Style Guide and Grid )
People need more mediums nowadays to be informed about where to get off. In Romania not all public transport has image signs or audio feedback telling what station people are in or what station comes next. People trying to distract themselves from their daily routine is another factor why people miss their stop.
People who listen to music will look for visual cues. People who look at their phones need audio cues. For people who take a short nap, it gets even more tricky. For long train trips with 3h+, some people may sleep and need some sort of information that they’re about to reach their destination.
11 IOS apps were downloaded and tested and also other methods like setting a custom reminder with an active location-based alarm were taken into consideration. They were reviewed independently and the most important features got noted. They were given a rating based on how they behaved, how easy was the UI to navigate, and how easily the need was satisfied.
Customizations and toggles are the main features of this kind of app. Freedom in choosing how to select a destination, whether is by placing a pin or entering an address is also an important feature to take into consideration. All apps use location based alarm, non of them are made for subterranean mediums of transportation.
With this survey, we like to figure out what are the most used types of public transport, and what made the passenger skip their stop. We also like to check the pros and cons of the existing methods that some people use so that they don’t miss their destination.
Subway passengers have missed their stop.
Most of the passengers miss their stop because they are distracted by their phones, listening to music, and taking a nap.
Passengers want to be reminded to get off their public transport by a (vibrating) notification on their phones.
“I’m afraid to fall asleep because I might skip the stop. There is no information and the only way to know where I am is to search on google maps or look for signs in stations.”
People think that public transport is not comfortable but it’s convenient.
They can’t fall asleep on public transport because they feel unsafe unless they have a friend with them.
From this survey, we concluded that people in Bucharest don’t have a reliable everyday way to tell them when to get off. They change their approach almost daily because either it’s very crowded and they can’t see the visual signs, or they listen to music and can’t hear audio announcements, or they’re sleepy and don’t pay attention to them. Almost all of them have a thing in common, they use their phone in some way or another.
Three personas were created based on a larger group of users found in the user survey and from the features found in the competitor’s app, to explain the major goals and frustrations of the user group. We chose to have a female and a male persona because we saw a difference in gender behavior in public transport in Bucharest.
As a student, Delia takes the subway to university every day. She doesn’t find comfort in public transport but it’s convenient because she has a student discount and can get fast from one point to another. She always listens to music whether she works, takes a shower, or while taking public transport. While taking the subway train you will always find her on her phone texting her friends, playing games, or rehearsing her courses. There were countless times that she found herself missing the stop because she checked the visual signs too late.
Dan is an engineer who works with a large team. His job is demanding and he needs to meet strict deadlines. His method of transportation is taking the subway and bus because it’s faster and feels too tired and sleepy to put up with the traffic by driving home. He usually finds himself dozing off on a seat in the subway and wakes up skipping the stop. He finds it frustrating when that happens because he misses the bus, has to return to his original subway stop, go to the bus station and wait for another bus to come.
Paul likes to travel the country. He prefers to take the train because he finds it cheap compared to other transportation methods. Some trips are longer and he falls asleep on his way. He always panics when he wakes up because he doesn’t know if he missed his stop. Without any information on the train, he checks what time it is, asks the person next to him for info. and then he checks his location maps. He tried to put alarms on his phone to wake him up before his stop, but Romanian trains have delays and he would have wanted to sleep more.
The user journey map identifies the pain points and feelings Delia might go through on a normal day. Two scenarios show what would it’d be if she missed or reached her stop. Here is presented the scenario where she reaches her destination. I also added the opportunities other apps didn’t have.
This is a simple flow diagram of the main task that the user can do. The full diagram can be found below including all the steps and decisions that the user needs to make to register a trip. There are two important flows, one for underground trips and other for terrestrial trips. Here is presented the underground flow.
We prototyped the Low-fidelity Wireframes to test on a couple of users different scenarios. We made a research plan where we outlined the research goals, enlisted questions to be asked, and info. about participants and a script with tasks to complete. Here are some of the users feedback.
After the user test feedback, we created the High-fidelity UI. This was tested on another group of people for prototype validation. Below you can find some of the tasks that were given with a prototype to try for yourself.
The app is designed for multiple public transport mediums like terrestrial: Bus, Tram, Ferry which use location-based alarms, but also subterranean mediums: Subways that use the accelerometer.
The user can create a Quick trip or swipe up for more advanced settings. Everyday mundane trips can be saved and whether they are tired or out of focus, the app will notify the user when to get off.
After starting the trip and depending on the type of transportation system the user chooses, a live widget will appear with the current distance or the number of stations left until the final stop.
To test the prototype effectively, access it using a desktop computer for the best user experience.
Once the Low-fidelity wireframes were tested, and the final flow was finished, a simple UI Style Guide was created to maintain consistency. We chose a dark theme to help the user navigate better in low-light environments (subway, or at night). An accessibility check was made, and the app has been evaluated for contrast to match at least AA standards. The color contrast was tested with the “Contrast Checker” by WebAIM.