Project Scope
Foothill Transit provides community-oriented, environmentally friendly bus service with 39 local routes throughout Southern California's San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, including express bus routes to Pasadena and Downtown Los Angeles.
Assignment
Based on the SOW, I was to reimagine UX, user interactions, and structures by:
- Re-envisioning the current
- Trip Planner accessible and easier to use
- Integrate realtime bus schedule system
- Realtime Alerts and user alert sign up and management
- Provide users with bus real time bus schedules
- Revisiting site architecture
- Implement UX that aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2)
Contributions & Deliverables
- Competitive Analysis (direct and indirect)
- Stakeholder Interviews
- User Journeys
- Sitemapping
- Wireframes
- Collaborate with the senior art director
- Worked together with overseas development team
Project Scope
Foothill Transit provides community-oriented, environmentally friendly bus service with 39 local routes throughout Southern California's San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys, including express bus routes to Pasadena and Downtown Los Angeles.
Tasks
Based on the SOW, I was to reimagine UX, user interactions, and structures by:
- Trip Planner accessible and easier to use
- Integrate realtime bus schedule system
- Realtime Alerts and user alert sign up and management
- Revisiting site architecture
- Provide users with bus real time bus schedules
- Implement UX that aligns with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2)
- Re-envisioning the current:
Contributions & Deliverables
- Competitive Analysis (direct and indirect)
- Stakeholder Interviews
- User Journeys
- Sitemapping
- Wireframes
- Collaborate with the senior art director
- Worked together with overseas development team
Stakeholder Insights
Stakeholder Insights
Stakeholder Interviews
Eleven one-on-one interviews were conducted where I sought out to step into the shoes of stakeholders, see their role through their eyes, and see how the redesign impacts them in their day-to-day responsibilities.
Feedback
Stakeholders had candid and detailed feedback about the site’s shortcomings:
- It was complicated to use and users had to dig through content.
- Riders would get frustrated with the site and resorted to calling customer service.
- The site did not champion for differently-abled riders providing the best rider experience.
- Site navigation and vernacular were hard to understand.
- Encourage the commuters to ride Foothill.
User Journeys
I envisioned simple paths for users to take based on what I had heard from stakeholders. All user groups had differing goals, but I was able to identify these commonalities:
- The need to use public transport or explore it as an option.
- Anxieties first time riders may have about what to do before getting to the bus stop, paying for fare, and while riding a bus.
- For users to be able to access real-time tools anywhere on the site.
Sitemap
Sitemap
Sitemap
Based on all the research I've discussed so far, I was able to create a structure that gave users a place to learn what is available through Foothill Transit. As well as how to use it and take pride in it and reinforce rider's choice to ride by providing:
- Content such as Bus Basics to allow new riders to have the confidence to ride the bus.
- Pages with interactive content to help all users get to their destination.
- A utility navigation allowing users to access realtime transportation information.
- A section to highlight Foothill Transit’s forward thinking in technology and sustainability.
- Foothill Transit’s commitment to the cities and people within the San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys.
Rider Tools
Rider Tools
Rider Tools
The most important elements I wanted to document well were the rider tools. Prototyping is a great way to convery ideas and interactions, but It is also important to have storyboards of behaviors and flows to explain specific functionality to avoid dependencies and functionality getting lost.
Location Access Permission
There was a need to make the tools on this site as easy to use as possible.
- On a user’s first visit, they are asked to give their location access to prepopulate starting points while using rider tools as primary option.
- Here and throughout the onboarding process, pagination was implemented to set expectations on the length of the process.
Onboarding
Site redesigns, especially drastic ones like this one, have a higher learning curve than most.
- I took into account that users were going to be coming and expecting to get what they needed quickly.
- It was important that users were taken through a simple onboarding process to maximize their use of the site.
Trip Planner
The trip planner may be accessed through the sticky footer. It will consist of two steps which include:
- Choosing a starting point and a destination.
- Second, the user can set a departure or arrival time.
- Because of business requirements, the site has to display the Metro Planner (MTA). Users will also be able to choose Google Maps.
Real-time Bus Information
Whether users are coming into the site through the homepage or “sideways” through any other page or a search engine, users should be able to access real-time information.
- Selecting your current location without entering a bus line, will show all busses nearest to the user based on their location.
- Autocomplete is also available when entering a bus line out of the 39 available.
Alerts
Users will have the option to sign up for alerts to plan ahead and know if there will be any delays. Users will be able to view any alerts and sort them by bus line, location, or proximity.
Takeaways
This is a project that best defines a task based product. Knowing that, I was able to define user journeys based on user types, then state how these users could overlap in what they are looking for. This defined how tools and content would be displayed.
I wanted users to access rider tools at any time on the site, but also not disrupt a user who is on a page for that information. It was a design challenge I completed well and the client was onboard with it.
I had to ask the client how their GTFS third party component currently functioned, what they knew was possible, and what they knew about it before I added interactions of my own.
