Iter App
How can people better navigate public transit in unfamiliar places?
Traveling in new cities can be a challenge. Iter proposes an alternative to traditional mobile transit options, educating users about public transit and supporting resilient urban infrastructure systems in the process.
Timeline: 2 weeks
Role: Solo Brand & UI Designer
Not everyone struggles with public transportation—seasoned users are so familiar with systems that they often provide others assistance rather than receive it themselves—but looking beyond traveler comfort zones, there is much opportunity to create resilient public transportation systems that alleviate congestion and climate issues caused by vehicular transit.
User Research
Inspired by real transit systems.
This project was partly inspired by an app universities for shuttle services, TransLoc. The app provides services for a variety of universities in the northeast and beyond, and thus is not entirely tailored to individual schools, but according to the app’s website, its mission is “to provide new levels of accessibility, allowing people who currently aren’t able to drive to move freely and safely.” Many friends that attended my university took issue with its confusing interface.
Competitive Audit & User Interviews
I interviewed users & non-users about their use of transit on Brown’s campus and about the TransLoc app. Interviewees were intentionally selected to vary by their class year, familiarity with transit, and home location.
Key Insights
“Consistent speed and good scheduling is helpful…transportation with accurate timing is a must.”
“[The shuttle] is free, very convenient, and runs often.”
“TransLoc’s interface could be more user friendly, and more integrated with GPS services that Brown already uses.”
Personas
Drawing from interview insights, I constructed two personas to further understand the potential audience of this project.
Cautious Claire is a sophomore and a transfer international student from Canada. She often feels unsafe walking home late at night and relies on the shuttle system to get her home from her best friend’s dorm room across campus.
Metropolitan Matt is a senior from Washington D.C. He occasionally appreciates taking the shuttle because he lives off-campus. He doesn’t necessarily rely on it, however, and sometimes finds himself biking or walking the distance for pleasure.
Upon completing the TransLoc case study, I began thinking bigger than college campus transportation, and inching toward prototyping, also started asking bigger questions:
Who stands to benefit from accessible, understandable transportation?
How can digital technology aid in the process of learning about, actively riding, and paying for public transit?
Utilizing user research to justify design decisions, I came up with the idea for Iter (Latin for journey, path, or route), an app designed to make public transit more accessible, understandable, and convenient as an alternative to car-based transportation.
Feature Ideation
Branding
Considering guidelines for accessibility and referencing industry standards, I then developed the app’s visual identity.
Prototyping
I made design extrapolations to consider other populations using public transportation.
Upon completion of my hi-fi prototype, I proceeded to user testing at UserTesting.com. Briefing test users of the interactive details of the prototype, my goal was to gauge their ability to complete tasks as well as understand their perceptions of various features of the design. Having ideated based on users similar to myself, I was eager to understand the perspective of users geographically and demographically different than my immediate circle.
Key Insights
“[The explore page is] a little overwhelming.”
“I found the 'Explore' 'Transit options page very wordy at a glance and would have loved for there to be more options for payment. I also think it would be handy to have options to ‘easy-save’ routes traveled often.”
“The user profile should always be available.”
While my prototype testers brought up a variety minor issues to address, one issue stood above the rest. The Explore page was almost universally overwhelming—if not outright confusing—to users.
Research-Informed Interventions
Redesign the Explore page to avoid overwhelming the user that does not desire its functionalities
Make the user profile feature available on and accessible from every page of the app
Integrate additional features into the Pay page, and consider when the user might desire to access passes and payment features, whether that is before, during, or immediately after a ride
Iteration
The design evolved based on feedback from transit users everywhere.
‘Explore’ Redesign: Rebranded as ‘Tour’
Returning to the problem Iter aims to address, and the goal of the app to educate users about transit systems unfamiliar to them, I did not want to remove the feature from the app entirely. Instead, I decided to reapproach my early low-fidelity prototype of the feature and iterate. By stripping down the information presented on the screen, I was able to imagine a new, less visually overwhelming way to present it, and also unify the app around a singular and consistent brand.
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In short, this project has absolutely taught me how messy, non-linear, and cyclical the interface design process is. App development is a complex process, and very difficult—but not impossible—to do alone. Input is key!