Overview
Transit wayfinding is essential for providing clear and concise guidance to passengers navigating public transportation systems. Clear wayfinding is crucial for reducing rider frustration and improving the overall experience of using public transit. When the Toronto Transit Commission introduced screens into their buses, I saw an opportunity for improvement.
My Roles and Responsibilities
With this being a personal passion project of mine, I was the sole designer on this project. I conducted the user research and did the interaction design.
Above is a picture of the existing (circa 2019) implementation of the new LCD screens. The excessive remaining screen real estate inspired me to craft my own approach of how digital wayfinding on transit could be executed.
My goals for this project were to:
PACT Analysis
Before diving into any user research, I wanted to conduct a PACT analysis to define the scope of this project. The analysis helped me identify the demographics I would reach out to for user interviews and inform the kind of questions I would ask.
PACT Analysis Key Takeaways
User Interviews
After understanding who my users would be, I conducted interviews to understand riders’ current experience from before they get on the bus to after they get off. I tried to target a variety of demographics for my interviews to ensure I got varied responses and open my eyes to struggles that might not be common for me.
User Interviews Key Takeaways
Persona
Connecting with my users helped map out a target persona to design for. I outlined the Goals, Needs, Wants, and Fears for this target user.
Persona Key Takeaways
With this project, I wanted to ask: How might we design a more comfortable wayfinding experience for passengers, and better utilize the given space.
Before heading to my notepad to sketch up some ideas, I mapped out the Passenger Journey to outline all the steps they would take.
Passenger Journey Map
With the journey mapped out, I sketched out some rough ideas for potential layouts. In this stage I wanted to be as exploratory as possible, while also trying out styles that would fit within the current display being used.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Once I got it out into incomprehensible scribbles, I took to Figma to develop these concepts into mid fidelity wireframes to do some testing through focus groups.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes
For the first mid fidelity wireframe, I leaned heavily on the existing design on buses today. I modified the current stop experience, and informed the user on interruptions on their path. I also separated the stop request from the next stop section
The second mid fidelity wireframe, I wanted to explore a similar concept but free from the existing design used on busses today. During my interviews, my participants mentioned they rely heavily on visual indicators to progress on their journey and I wanted to make that the most significant aspect of this iteration and dominate the available space.
With my wireframes set, I conducted a focus group to hear feedback from my prospective users.
Mid Fidelity Wireframes Focus Group
Mid Fidelity Wireframes Focus Group Key Takeaways
Mid Fidelity Refined Wireframes
The biggest issue that was raised in my focus group was that the Service Delays section was taking up too much space on the screen and was using a font that was too small to be read from varying distances on the bus. To eliminate that issue, I decided to incorporate the service delays into the same section as the Welcome Message. If there were service delays on the route, they would cycle between the logo and the messages, otherwise only the TTC logo would appear.
