Role: Lead UX Designer, Interactions, Visuals, Research Date: 2024
Vision
Families with school aged children often need to procure school bus services to transport their children to and from school. How do we find a way to simplify the process of doing so while making it easy for them to track their children’s journey?
Project Challenge
Come up with a user experience solution that addresses the problem of booking and tracking school transportation.
Starting point
Why explore a solution to this problem? How could the user see their needs met by this product?
We study users and context to answer these questions. We divided the design in two separate but complimentary user flows: Booking and tracking.
We study users and context to answer these questions. We divided the design in two separate but complimentary user flows: Booking and tracking.
Methods
Qualitative research was the main driver of data for this project. We conducted user interviews, third party research reviews, competitive audits, constructed user personas and evaluated all of it holistically from the context of stakeholder requirements.
Secondary Research
Including peer-reviewed secondary research into our project gives us a greater understanding of our user context as a whole while allowing us to focus our own research on our specific user group.
Source: University of the State of New York - New York State Education Department. - 2022
User Personas
We used the tried and true method of developing personas based off of insights gathered from user research. We employed these personas throughout the design process to make sure our user needs were always front and center.
Primary Persona
Narrative:
Sarah cooks breakfast and dinner for the family on most days, sometimes leaving her with little time to prepare for meetings and plan work events. She has to drive into the city early for work, and so does her husband. This means she uses the school bus service almost every day of the week.
Goals:
-Having enough free time to spend with family
-Prepare for work and day activities without having to rush
-Make sure children get to and from school safely every day
Frustrations:
Difficulty managing daily chores and work
Anxious about her children’s trip to school when not driving them there herself
Secondary Persona
Narrative:
Vijay works at an up and coming company that expects a lot of dedication from its workforce. Even though he works from home, he has little time to take care of house affairs during the day. This includes taking his daughter to school, so he relies on help from friends and his district’s school bus service.
Goals:
-Managing house chores while still having enough time to working from home
-Making sure daughter doesn’t stand outside for too long while waiting for bus
Frustrations:
-Long hours at tech startup leave him with little time for home life
-Frustrated with bus schedules and delays, unable to predict when bus will arrive
Supplementary Persona
Narrative:
As a stay at home parent she has to manage all house affairs while making sure everyone is fed and ready for their day of work/school. Since she relies on school transportation to send the kids to school, she wants to make sure she has access to an accurate bus schedule, so she can plan her day around it.
Goals:
-Making sure everyone is set for the day by preparing meals and managing schedules
-Having enough time to deal with house chores and engage in her hobbies
Frustrations:
-Staying on top of house work and managing everyone’s plans for the day
-Since she doesn’t drive, she relies on the bus to take her children to school.
Competitive Audit
1 - NYC School Bus App
Developed with State funds, greatest reach in the NYC metropolitan area
2 - Here Comes The Bus
Largest provider countrywide. Operates in 36 states. Available in 3 different languages
Largest provider countrywide. Operates in 36 states. Available in 3 different languages
2 - Where’s The Bus
Small operator, focused on School and transport provider side of development
Small operator, focused on School and transport provider side of development
What's our value proposition?
Ensuring Peace of Mind for Parents and Safety for Students by Providing:
-Real-time tracking of your child's school bus on its route
-Customizable notifications for bus arrivals and delays
-Verified and vetted providers
-Enhanced security measures to protect users' private information
Ideation
We used rapid sketching at various points along the Design process.
We combined it with semantic analysis to find ways to solve specific Design problems
Journey
We implemented a hub-style menu that guides the user towards specific actions
Wireframing
It was key to make sure from the start that our two main user flows (booking a bus spot and tracking its travel) are properly defined and considered as part of a whole.
Booking trips wireframes
Tracking wireframes
Low and high fidelity prototypes
What insights did we gather from testing the prototypes?
How we addressed the issues
Secure
A new verification screen prompts users to input a school-managed access security code
Streamlined
Live tracking is visible in a single screen.
All trip information can be accessed in a clear and concise way.
All trip information can be accessed in a clear and concise way.
Intuitive
A horizontal menu groups actions by type and gives the user quick access to most commonly used functionalities.
Verified
All transport providers show a check mark after being vetted, and their up to date DOT number is visible at all times.
YellowBus style guide
A style guide ensures consistency and usability across the user interface, enabling efficient design iterations and user flow mapping.
Takeaways
The time spent researching our users and context, was key to properly define our design problem and come up with a viable solution within our stakeholder and business constraints.
