business goals

Transport for NSW's objective

In line with the city's overall strategy of Sustainable Sydney 2030, TfNSW were looking to increase public transport use among Sydney residents. They wanted to increase usage at off-peak hours in particular as not many people were using public transport despite roads still being heavily congested.

user research

Why do Sydney residents avoid public transport?

We conducted 8 user interviews and collected 40+ survey responses to help us understand resident's pain points with public transport. After affinity mapping the results, here are the key themes we found.

🕘

The service isn't reliable enough

One of the biggest complaints we heard was that trains and buses weren't reliable enough or came too infrequently, especially during off-peak hours. This made taking public transport feel like a gamble.

8 out of 8 interviewees wanted more reliable, punctual, and frequent services.

✍

Journey planning is too difficult

Some residents reported that journey planning was difficult on some apps. Tripview offered automatic routing for trains, but planning a bus journey was incredibly tedious and required you to memorize routes.

8 out of 8 interviewees wanted more helpful and accurate real-time information.

😰

People don't feel safe at night

We heard that people didn't always feel safe on public transport, or had felt worried about their loved ones while they were taking public transport. Residents have had negative experiences in their public transport journeys, especially at night.

7 out of 8 interviewees were highly concerned about safety.

😵

Stations can be difficult to navigate

Residents found that some stations were hard to navigate and that it wasn't always easy to find your platform or a specific amenity. They found their journey much more pleasant when the station was easy to navigate and had good wayfinding.

6 out of 8 interviewees wanted to be able to easily navigate around train stations.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Finding the gap in the market

Unfortunately, the quality and reliability of the actual transport services wasn't something we had any control over. To help define our scope, we looked at the existing competitive landscape to see what features TfNSW and other companies already offered.

synthesis

Developing archetypes around safety and orientation

A solid base of user research allowed us to develop two primary archetypes. Throughout
the project, the archetypes and their scenarios / user journeys served as a clear point of reference for our design process.

The Cautious Traveller 😰

During off-peak hours, the Cautious Traveller enjoys going for nights out with their friends.
They're looking for a way to get home without driving as they've had a few drinks.
Getting home safely is their main priority.

Journey map

The Disoriented Traveller 😵

During off-peak hours, the Disoriented Traveller likes to attend new events and concerts.
The venues aren't places they visit regularly, which means they often finds themselves confused at unfamiliar stations.
Being able to navigate through stations to locate amenities and platforms is their main priority.

Journey map

ideation

Designing an app to address both archetypes

We realized that both archetypes needed easily accessible, efficient tools that could address their respective concerns. As a result, we decided to design a mobile app centered around safety and orientation that could be used alongside their regular journey planning app.

The high-level approach

In order to improve their experience from beginning to end, our high-level approach was composed of four major components:

🛡️

Precautionary safety

Steps that residents can take to protect themselves as soon as they enter an unfamiliar or unsafe station. Helps to provide some peace of mind to residents and their loved ones.

🚨

Active safety

Steps residents can take when they feel directly under threat in order to receive assistance. Even when the features aren't necessary, residents are reassured knowing that they're there if they need them.

🗺️

Interactive navigation

Helps residents easily find the amenities and platforms that they're after to save time and reduce friction. Relieves stress, anxiety, and makes it more likely for residents to decide to take public transport as they have the tools to navigate through stations.

🚩

Issue reporting

Allows residents to quickly report any safety or quality issues at stations. This gives them a greater sense of control if stations aren't up to par (broken amenities, dim lighting) while also providing TfNSW with valuable data.

Iterations & Key Changes

To quickly ideate on specific solutions for each of the four components, we ran a design studio and collected all of our potential features. We then prioritized the features by considering their impact-to-cost ratio.

Here's how we iterated on the features that were ultimately chosen, from lo-fi to hi-fi.

Homepage

We reduced the size of the emergency button to reduce accidental activations and increased the size of the preview map for ease of viewing.
‍
You can also easily check if your nearest station is currently staffed by staff and security.

Station map

The station map was our attempt at implementing TfNSW's web map into a more intuitive mobile form.

In response to user feedback, we changed the two column layout to just one column. This allowed for more readable buttons that required less precision to select.

Reporting

We moved the report function from the navigation bar to the station map as it was a secondary, less important function.

Final Design

SydSafe prototype

Here's the latest iteration of the prototype.

CONCLUSION

Will this increase off-peak public transport usage?

Yes, but with some caveats:

We believe our app would reduce friction from safety and orientation concerns and thus increase off-peak usage. But at the end of the day, if the fundamental service that TfNSW offers isn't up to expectations, off-peak usage may not see the biggest increase that's possible.

We strongly recommend TfNSW to continue improving the quality of their stations and transport services so that the app isn't just a bandaid solution to a larger issue.

Next steps

Although we're confident in the current direction, we still need to conduct usability testing to see if it's actually working for users: Is it learnable and efficient? Is it actually meeting user's needs?

Key Takeaways

What I learnt from designing SydSafe

0

1

Assume first, validate later

At the beginning of the project, the scope wasn't clear enough for us to conduct specific, targeted research. It was necessary to declare some educated assumptions to provide us with some direction and get us started. We adjusted and validated our assumptions based on the new data we gained.

Lean UX Cycle: Think, Make, Check

2

Design for your medium

Before the current revision of the interface, I received feedback that the UI elements were too small for a mobile interface. This was one of the first times I designed for mobile and I hadn't put enough thought into the accessibility of the text as well as how easy it was to interact with buttons.

Fitt's Law: the time it takes to click a target is inversely related to its size

3

Communication is key

When communicating within the team, ideas often got lost in translation. Practicing reflective listening and clarifying what people meant helped a lot to get everyone on the same page and work together more productively.

Psychological Safety: being able to express your ideas without fear of consequence

Joshua Zhang

SydSafe

Designing a safer and more oriented experience for Sydney's public transport

SUMMARY

CONTRIBUTION