PROJECT TITLE

TransLoc Redesign

PROJECT IDEA

A redesign project of the TransLoc application that is currently used by Rutgers University. The study is based on qualitative research to observe and understand the target audience more in detail.

TEAM

Izadora Marinelli, Facundo Saiegh, Sumi Shin

TIME

Jan 2023 - May 2023

PROJECT TYPE

School Project_Contextual Inquiry,

Redesign Project

PROJECT GOAL

Our goal for this project is to provide a better shuttle transit experience to the Rutgers community by revising TransLoc's existing features and also suggesting further possible solutions.

CURRENT PRODUCT USABILITY INTERVIEWS

Since our goal for this research is to understand users' routines, we approached it with a qualitative research method. The interview was conducted via Zoom and in-person with two main sessions, observation and interview. The facilitator monitored the participants' daily routine using the TransLoc application and after the observation, we conducted observation-based interviews. We interviewed 5 participants Rutgers Students who use the TransLoc application daily basis.

Interview Questions

Intro Questions

  1. How’re your day-to-day lives look like as a student who needs transportation assistance?

  2. How did you first hear about Rutgers's shuttle bus service and TransLoc application?

  3. When and how often do you normally use Rutgers’s shuttle buses and the TransLoc application?

Product Questions

  1. Tell me about the experience when TransLoc helped you.

  •  Does TransLoc help you often? How do you feel when TransLoc helps?

     2. Tell me about the experience when you had trouble using the TransLoc.

  • How often does this happen?

  • How do you get around this issue?

  • How do you feel when this happened?

     3. Do you trust this product? 

  • If so, how much do you trust this product? 

  • Would you recommend this product to other people?

    4. What do you think is the main reason people use TransLoc?

Wrap-Up Questions

  1. What would be the most like and dislike about TransLoc?

  2. What would be your personal suggestion to improve TransLoc?

  3. Is there anything you would like to add before we finish?

INTERPRETATION SESSIONS

Affinity Diagram/Experience Models

After conducting the 5 interviews with the current TransLoc users, we started organizing the data to find the common issues and themes across users. In our affinity diagram, we were able to find that most of the students were having difficulties with the app’s inaccuracy capacity and arrival time information.

Day-In-The-Life-Model

The Day in the Life diagram shows how the users use the application in very specific moments of their day. Through this session, we were able to understand when the users use the TransLoc application during the day as well as their struggles and expectations.

Personas

Personas are a way of communicating who your users are in a way that is familiar and easy to understand. Personas provide a quick introduction to your users that is easy to share outside the team. Our persona is Cara Pattison, a 21-year-old undergraduate student. She loves her life at Rutgers University and since she does not have a car, she uses the bus to walk around campus. She uses and likes TransLoc, however, she has a hard time taking the bus because sometimes it is full.

Identity Model

IDEATION

Product Concepts fro Visioning Session

In the visioning session, our team first brainstormed the product ideas and developed three visions each. The vision pictures were created via Miro with rough screen sketches and arrows that show users' journeys in each situation. Through the visions that each of the team members created, we were able to identify the product concepts more in detail. Overall, we created three product concepts, Time Manager, Stress Manager, and Plan Manager.

Izadora - Stress Manager

Facundo- Stress Manager

Sumi - Plan Manager

USER ENVIRONMENT DESIGN

To deeply understand the features of the application, we created a User Environment Design based on the three storyboards. The UED keeps the product or coordinator suit of products coherent, and helps teams see and design product structure.

 

WIREFRAME

PROTOTYPE

PROTOTYPE TESTING

With the prototype we made we conducted a usability test. Through this process, we wanted to observe how users interact with Task U's goalTo make sure that we have a good version of our prototype, we created a prototype. The goal of the test was to make sure that we have a better usability version of TransLoc, and that users approved it. We want to make sure that these are features that they enjoy and would want to use as well.

We used Optimal Workshop to collect user data.

  1. Do you feel like the application has a better design versus the current TransLoc?

  2. Are you satisfied with TransLoc already?

  3. Do you think it's useful to have notifications about when the bus is arriving?

  4. So you enjoy having notifications about the application?

  5. Do you like how there is a search bar at the top?

  6. Do you like how the search bar information is displayed when selecting a bus?

  7. Do you like when the bus says where the break is? 

  8. Do you like recommendations for the busing routes?

  9. Do you like the accessibilities listed on the application?

  10. Do you like the inclusion of favorite routes?

  11. Do you like there is a filter for the type of the bus (e.g. minibus)?

  12. Do you like there is a filter for the type of the bus (e.g. minibus)?

  13. Do you like the implementation of route duration?

PROTOTYPE TESTING RESULTS

Considering the prototype testing results, we could note that some improvements should be made to our TransLoc prototype.

  1. 57,2% of TransLoc users are already satisfied with the application, which means that our improvements have to be accurate so TransLoc doesn't lose users.

  2. All the respondents would like to have notifications about when the bus is arriving.

  3. 14.3% of the respondents would not like to recommend bus routes, and would not use the bus type filter.