Overview
bee indicator
Over the course of ten weeks, our research team worked to define and research the challenges facing the current commuting experience for SCAD students and others in similar distributed university campus settings.
Through secondary research methodologies, several primary research techniques with an expansive group of users and experts, our team discovered the key challenges and identified near and far-term opportunities to improve the commute experience for students across a variety of transit modes.
UX research
Iterative Conceptualization
Rapid Prototyping
Design Framework
User Testing
10
Weeks
Team Project
Fall 2021
Figma
Photoshop
Illustrator
Miro Board
Student public transport.
PROBLEM
Identifying a research problem related to different modes of transit used by a very high number of people every day asks for the identification of smaller problems in each area which contributes to the big picture.
Knowing who we are solving for, what problem we are solving, why we are solving this problem, and how we intend to do so are the building blocks for research and design of a problem solved well. Identification of such broad problems can be done in many ways out of which we have explored the following methods to try and gather points of data to reflect back on while framing questions to evaluate the quality of solutions each problem needs.
Currently, university students in small-mid-sized American cities experience a disconnected, inaccurate, and at times unreliable public transit system when attempting to commute to and from class across a fragmented urban campus. This experience also varies drastically between students that live on and off-campus
Audience
University students, faculty, and staff in American towns of a similar size to Savannah, GA who must commute to class across a disjointed urban academic campus.
Failures
The current transit system is lacking in efficiency, safety, transparency, reliability and as a result students find the mobility offerings inadequate when it comes to meeting their needs.
New Value
The idea that university students can have a better mobility experience that promises dependability and sustainability and allows them to move around a disjointed urban campus efficiently by leveraging both university-exclusive mobility offerings and public mobility services together.
Opportunity
Integrate access to the disparate transit systems and mobility services available in small cities via a concise navigation hub that allows students to check scheduling and plan their trips in advance using a variety of transit options.
Risk
The creation of a mobility solution that works worse than the current system and does not provide students with the transit information they need.
How might we use the design thinking process to improve the experience of commuting for students in fragmented educational institutes embedded in small cityscapes?
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Researching a broad problem like the one at hand of improving commute experiences poses the need for framing the right questions. Identifying what parts of such problems lead to a whole system of faults is important to devise solutions and design methods that aim to solve the shortcomings of the current system.
When we talk about commuting, we talk not only about moving from a place to another but also about the whole experience of being surrounded by people, objects, and sounds while commuting towards a destination. In an indirect nature, fixing what may go wrong due to such external factors using simple solutions in some case make the same commute more enjoyable for a person.
As a method of identification of such smaller problems which contribute to a larger problem, we used multiple ways to collect and process data from the stakeholders in our case and frame universal questions later in the process which help us navigate towards our end solutions
Hierarchy of Commuting Needs
Specifics of Commuting Needs
Secondary Research Findings
Research Matrix.
Research methods used
Cultural Probe
Fly on the Wall
Observations
Survey
Interviews
Data Affinitization & Insight Sorting
DEFINE
After concluding our primary and secondary research, we set out on the task of digesting the data and finding organic
connections between those data points to form insights. We implemented the standard methodology of assigning one data point per sticky note. These data notes were taken from our primary interviews with commuters and were presented in their purest form as to not warp or bias the data. From there we began to associate individual data points into clusters of related data.
Clusters emerged around the areas of better parking infrastructure for bicycles, better route planning features for bus commuters, increased desires for a safer commute and ideas for how to make the commute more informational, enjoyable, and social.
DATA POINTS
CLUSTERING
FINAL INSIGHT
Ideation & Sketches
STRATEGY
After affinitizing our data points and subsequent insights, the research team sketched blue-sky thinking solution concepts derived from the research insights. We then came together and shared our sketches, finding common solution ideas and complimentary ideas and refining solution concepts based on the design principles presented.
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Some common areas of ideation for the team circled around discrete and broad and updates to the existing transit app, concepts for bus infrastructure improvements, alternative forms of sharing information with students and tactical integrations of existing commuting resources to better serve student commuters.
Individual Concept Sketches : Shivani
Individual Concept Sketches : Shivani
Individual Concept Sketches : Shivani
Individual Concept Sketches : Shivani
GALLERY : Personal ideation Sketches
Hand sketches to ideate a personal take on Research Insights
Data Analysis & Development of Concepts
DEVELOP
After clustering our concept sketches we then began to organize our solidifying solutions by high and low effort versions. We wanted to diagram versions of solutions that would be easy to enact and more resource intense to institute.
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With solutions it's important to keep in mind what is executable in the short term, the long term, and the long term under the most ideal circumstances.
Framing Solutions
DELIVER
Once our research team's concept sketches were grouped and our final concept areas were decided we began to build the first iterations of commuting solution prototypes. These prototypes had to be high enough fidelity to convey the solution for external testing. To create these prototypes we relied on several design techniques from rendering, 3D modelling, graphic design and more.
Final Solution
SOLUTION
After collecting user feedback on the prototyped solutions, we incorporated these insights into the final iterations of our solution concepts. The research team worked on polishing the deliverables.
CONCEPTS: Final Design Solutions
BEE INDICATOR
SAFERIDE PANEL
BIKE SAFETY KIT & BROCHURE
INFORMATION "REAL ESTATE" UTILIZATION & PROPOSED ADDITIONAL STOPS
MY LEARNING
The Impact
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This project was very relatable to me as a SCAD student. The most important learning during this research was how to eliminate biases from personal experiences while interpreting the research data points.​
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The process of affinitizing the concepts rather than insights and taking important aspects from each concept and arriving at concepts. The effort v/s impact grid to analyze and identify the solutions with the potential to highly impact even though the effort is low.
What could be improved?
Given the timeline of 10 weeks, the focus for this project was on solutions that take low effort and have a higher impact. Moving further, other solutions could be implemented for a complete user experience.