Boost CityBus ridership across varying user segments.
Create a more pleasant, efficient bus service for students without negatively impacting the local rider experience.
Provide information and resources as to how Key Lime Interactive can expand their services into transportation.
Given the extensive size of the CityBus user group, sub-groups were organized to provide a more clear hierarchy of who our final solution would be targeted towards.
Student Bus Riders
Students were chosen as our primary user group due to easy access.
This includes all Purdue students that are 1) new/unfamiliar, 2) moderately familiar, or 3) expert/frequent riders.
Greater Lafayette Locals
Since locals from the Lafayette region have different bus experiences than students, we decided to keep them as a secondary user group.
The CityBus service consists of the physical busses, stops, shelters, etc. and the mobile app called MyCityBus, in which users can view different routes and receive live tracking of all busses on a map.
I guided my research towards filling in any gaps in my understanding of the student experience (below).
I first conducted a contextual observation of three different routes to learn how students use the service.
For the observation, I followed 4 different students around their typical day at both on and off campus routes, asking questions along the way. I then came to a general step by step outline of their experience, finding key areas of concern to focus on.
13 Silver Loop
4B to Walmart
1B to CityBus Center
Issues with a lack of clear communication for bus stops, arrival times, and routes was made obvious when observing students ride the bus in person.
The intial observations laid the ground for the student experience map, in which I discovered the main steps and painpoints involved at each phase of the bus ride journey.
Many issues brought up by riders during observation were caused by the mobile MyCityBus app itself. To investigate further, I evaluated the app's features through task based usability testing.
Above: Poor visual hierarchy, delayed bus times, and overwhelming amounts of information plague the current version of the MyCityBus app.
Participants were given three scenarios to complete tasks on certain screens.
Using data found from initial desk research, usability testing, and contextual observation, I mapped the CityBus student experience with my team.
This helped me identify the most pressing concerns within the student journey.
An overview of my experience map (above) for CityBus student riders. I expanded the scope to include both physical and digital pain points to gain a broad perspective of the riding experience.
I found the greatest areas of concern in the bus trip planning phase, in which users had difficulty navigating the app and physical signage to find their correct lines and stops.
To find which interactions provided the most opportunity and were most feasible for the business, I performed a contextual inquiry with CityBus riders in real time.
9 students were accompanied on a bus ride on 5 different bus routes.
Issues with inaccurate display of bus times on the app was commonly experienced across each participant. Visual and auditory indicators like the stop requested sign above were the most helpful.
Many riders brought up complaints with the bus PA system being too quiet, along with a general lack of physical indicators (visual + auditory) to communicate where their next stop is.
Some users also didn't know that the app existed, and had a hard time using the service as most communication of stops occurs through the mobile MyCityBus app. This prompted me to keep my designs open to including additional physical signage at bus stops (above).
From interviews with the CityBus CEO and software developers, financial restraints led us to focus on the mobile app. Due to budget concerns, focusing on the app would have the greatest impact and be more feasible for CityBus to implement compared to physical improvements.
Following our shift towards the mobile app, I sketched for opportunities to improve communication of bus times and routes across campus (below).
After sketching lo-fidelity screens, I constructed over 20+ high fidelity versions in Figma, then gained feedback from users using Wizard of Oz testing.
From Wizard of Oz testing (observing users use our prototypes in context of the bus ride), most students wanted more accurate communication of bus times.
I met this need by adding live GPS directions and push notifications in my final prototypes.
Thank you to my sponsors, Brein Gross, Lauren Jablonski, and Stephanie Orme at Key Lime Interactive. Their continuous guidance and insightful feedback throughout the semester helped me grow in countless ways as a design student.
There's more UX research methods than interviews.
Don't be afraid to experiment.
Learning and experimenting new methods of user testing, such as Guerrilla and Wizard of Oz testing, from my sponsors helped me extend the boundaries of my design toolkit.
Channels & touchpoints are essential to service design - utilize them!
Taking the time to fully understand all channels and touch-points that users were interacting with helped me significantly with framing the design of my mobile prototypes.
By understanding where, when, and how riders were interacting with the bus service, I was able to develop more effective features in my final solution.
