Smart city of Tartu

User experience (UX) is often seen only in the context of software interfaces but designers know that the experience of any service starts far before we take out our phones or open the laptop.

In co-operation with the Tartu City Government and the Estonian Smart City Cluster we installed smart stickers to every one of the 294 bus stops in Tartu. The stickers have pre-programmed NFC chips and QR codes for citizens to load real time data of upcoming busses to their phone. The system is using GPS data from moving buses and helps daily commuters be aware of any delays in the schedule.

Innovation

The goal of the project wasn’t to invent new technologies. Instead the results of the user’s feedback showed us the following:

• There was an improvement of the customer experience (CX) of public transportation without changing anything physical —like the schedules or by upgrading the fleet.
• Change in the user’s behaviour in their daily commute and reduction of their wasted time in bus stops while waiting for the bus to arrive.
• Improved the citizens opinion of public transportation towards something modern and progressive.

None of those results are technology innovative but rather make people behave and perceive things differently while using the same service with the same quality.

Numbers

In the City of Tartu there are about 100 000 habitants with a high rate of students using public transportation instead of cars. The bus times mobile application is used by more than 15 000 users per month and there are about 4000 unique users every day. There has been a constant growth in the user base without active marketing and the smart stickers project is accelerating the growth.

But why?

Tartu is a small town in Estonia — it’s one of the most vibrant start-up scenes in a country which is among the world leaders of internet-based public services. It is also location for our HQ and home for many of our key employees. The project has given us the opportunity to give back to the local community and test smart city projects in a living lab environment.

Mobi Lab creates exceptional experiences for people on the go. Our passion is to support the design community and it’s been a blast! We host Design Fridays, meet ups, and workshops. If you want to check out what we are up to visit our Facebook page or http://lab.mobi.