The global lockdown that was mandated by the Canadian government during the Covid-19 pandemic isolated millions of individuals. Fast forward to almost 2 years, Vancouver is back to its regular schedule. The public transportation is crucial to the daily operations of the city. The anxiety that the isolation brought upon people impacted the way they move around the city.
UX researcher
UX Designer
UI Designer
How did the current social climate change the behaviours and preferences of commuters in Vancouver?
I started assessing my own experience to examine the emotions of the user when embarking on a journey using Translink in a post-pandemic society.
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At this point, I have curated my own assumptions and defined possible challenges that the user faces while using the public transportation.
Moving forward, I want to verify if my assumptions are true by creating a survey and asking average commuters to participate.
One survey, 13 questions and 35 participants later, I found out how Vancouverite's new way of life affected their daily commute.
The survey explore the ways that the commuters use public transportation.
plan their trip before departing
concerned about the pandemic while using public transportation
affected their usage of public transportation due to the pandemic
uses Compass card to pay for their fare
To further explore my findings from the survey, I've conducted an interview with 3 commuters and 3 Translink operators.
Joseph Nguyen lives in Vancouver, Canada and work in Burnaby. His daily commute takes about 25-45 minutes depending on the time of day. He takes the public transportation to go to work, five days a week to save up money and get to his workplace as fast as possible.
Local Vancouverite, Logan Kroner is a Translink bus driver for four years. Working for Translink full time, he interacts with commuters five days a week on a 9 hour shifts per day. His biggest concern is the efficiency of the fare system so that commuters can have a swift and fast journey.
I divided the journey into four segments: planning, departing, embarking and arriving. The commuter start off with thinking of how to get to their destination. After planning a trip, the commuter then will start departing from their original location. The embarking is where the user comes in contact with a Translink vehicle and arriving is when the commuter finally reaches their final destination.
Commuters value convenience, practicality and efficiency when taking public transportation.
Although Covid-19 still raises concern about the usage of public transportation, most people are forced to commute as society tries to move on.
During the pandemic, the government and establishments encouraged people not to use cash to lessen any contact from one another which further spreads the virus. Most people electronically pays for their commute.
Most of the participants want to plan out their trip. However, the process is cumbersome and disorganized that most users do not bother planning their trip.
How might we better and efficiently assist commuters with their navigation during their trip?
How might we develop a simple and user-centric system of fare payments for Translink?
How might we ensure the safety and well being of commuters in public transportations during a pandemic?
How might we deliver a smooth and practical journey to commuters in Vancouver?
...help commuters in Vancouver have a more efficient way of travelling in a post-pandemic world?
Develop a navigation and trip planning system through OneStop app that also presents live update of Translink statistics and status.
Consider the concerns of physical distancing and point of contact to lessen the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Build a mobile native application that stores multiple compass cards to create efficiency on loading and paying Translink fares.
Commuters can add multiple compass card account on their app. This will help families and groups manage their accounts in a more practical and efficient way.
Commuters will be able to load monthly passes and value on their Compass card account through the OneStop app.
Users can interchange the Compass account that is added to their OneStop. This will allow commuters to use multiple Compass cards.
A streamlined user flow that shows when a commuter is adding an existing account.
The vehicle capacity will be displayed to help commuters plan a safe journey that encourages social distancing. Bike rack and wheelchair capacity will also be displayed to further assist these commuters to plan out their trip.
A navigation system will be available to help users get from point A to point B in a seamless and efficient journey that suggests the fastest and most practical route.
OneStop will also present a C-T-A button to alert the driver that the user would like to get off the bus at the next station to encourage contactless trip during a pandemic.
Commuters are able to plan their trip by having an up to date schedule of Translink.
A streamlined user flow that shows when a commuter is planning a trip.
A dashboard where users can manage their Compass card accounts.
A trip planning system to aid users with navigation and public transportation's live status.
A bell button system that the user can click to alert the driver to stop at the next station for a contactless trip during a pandemic.
Using adobe XD, I created medium fidelity wireframes. I wanted to build the first iteration of OneStop as fast as possible to start my usability testing right away.
I decided to start my user testing with a medium fidelity prototype to also explore the visual impact of my design to the audience. I wanted to ensure that I am creating a straight-forward design through visual and informational hierarchy.
Commuter's dashboard that allows the user to manage multiple Compass accounts.
Trip planning system that presents the best route and up-to-date status of public transportation to aid commuters through their trip.
Contactless feature that alerts the Translink operator to stop at the next station to lessen the spread of virus during a pandemic.
Looking back at my Key insights, commuters value convenience and practicality. I wanted to test these values on my design when the user is performing specific tasks.
Add an existing Compass account onto your OneStop mobile app.
Testing Tool: Useberry
Number of participants: 10
Success rate
1 minute and 41 seconds
Completion rate
9/10 participants
Found the task easy to complete
Testing Tool: Useberry
Number of participants: 10
Find out the vehicle capacity of 402 bus to Richmond Brighouse Station.
Success rate
1 minute and 42 seconds
Found the task very hard to complete
misclick rate
Regarding the first task, while observing the heat map, users were caught on clicking 'create an account' button instead of 'adding an existing account'. With that being said, I tackled this problem through simple UI decisions.
I adjusted the design of the C-T-A buttons on that page to create hierarchy - as most commuters already have an existing Compass account.
Onto the second task, most of the participants found this to be the hardest and complicated.
Looking back at my wireframes, I understand that there is no UI that could lead users where to click to open up the modal (hence the misclick rate).
I decided to create a button for the bus number to let users know that this is an interaction where they can find the additional information about the vehicle.
Create assumptions as much as you want. It's the first step of defining the problem. However, know that 90% of the time, research will most likely surprise you.
Planning a trip can get pretty complicated. There are a lot of things to consider such as weather, traffic, holidays etc. and how would you reflect on that while creating an accurate product?
There are million ways you can design a product but having your testing results and research to validate your design decisions would make it more credible.
Learn how to love and integrate well-made design system into your work. It will make your life so much easier when designing a prototype.
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