Need Finding — Public Transportation

Team

Isabella Dyc-O’Neal, Joseph Hayes, Prakhar Chandna, and Rebecca Chuang

Introduction

Many people take public transportation and it can be a helpful way to get from one place to another. Our team wanted to learn more about the public transportation experience and what people like and dislike about it. We chose 3 target groups for our domain: frequent public transportation users, infrequent public transportation users, and tourists. We interviewed 4 people all fitting into one of these target groups.

Interviews

Karla

Joseph interviewed Karla on 10/22/19 over the phone. She is a resident of San Francisco, CA who commutes via Muni and BART to work in downtown Oakland, CA four days per week.

Interview Summary

Karla is a frequent user of and supporter of public transit using it four days a week on her 45 minute commute. She likes the convenience that comes with public transit allowing her to relax instead of fighting traffic and finding parking around her office. She dislikes the current state of disrepair with BART and to a lesser extent Muni. Both are dirty and not very well maintained from her point of view and emergency incidents seem to go unnoticed by BART staff in her experience.

Karla’s Empathy Map

Says: She likes public transit and wants it to be better. She would like a better payment system and for it to feel safer.

Thinks: Doesn’t know how she plans her route, it’s reflexive at this point. The trains are loud and the system could use improvement overall.

Feels: BART feels unsafe outside of peak commuting hours and experiences delays regularly that impact her commute.

Does: She rides BART 4 days a week, sometimes outside of peak commuting hours , and commutes about 45 minutes.

Karla’s Needs and Goals:

• Needs to feel safer on public transit.
• Needs public transit to be cleaner.
• Needs an unlimited ride plan that works for both BART and Muni.
• Needs a more dependable/easier to access transit schedule.

Karla’s detailed interview notes can be found here

Azin

Prakhar interviewed Azin, a 57 year old man who runs a coffee shop, on 10/21/19 at a cafe. Azin rarely uses public transit.

Prakhar with Azin

Interview Summary

The user rarely commutes through public transport. It is only in circumstances when there is no other option, does the user commute through public transport. There are several factors which influence his choice of driving around than using public transport. The user has a total commute of 70 miles everyday and has to make multiple stops on the way to pick up stuff for the shop. Therefore, he finds driving around more convenient, cost effective, comfortable and feasible. Furthermore, he finds commuting through public transport as unsafe.

Akin’s Empathy Map

Says: The users says that he does not enjoy commuting via public transport and uses it only when there is no other option.

Thinks: He thinks traveling via BART is expensive, time consuming and inconvenient.

Feels: He feels unsafe and uncomfortable while traveling in BART

Does: He travels over long distances on a daily basis and uses his car to do so.

Azin’s Needs and Goals

• Needs a faster, convenient, and comfortable way to travel over long distances on a daily basis.
• Needs a way to make multiple stops and pick up stuff from multiple locations on the way.
• Needs to be able to travel safely when using public transportation.

Azin’s detailed interview notes can be found here

Dennis

Isabella interviewed Dennis on the SF Bay Ferry on 10/19/19. Dennis is a father with 3 kids. He used to work at PG&E for 13 years and would commute from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. He would take BART daily.

Isabella with interviewee Dennis

Interview Summary

Dennis has a lot of experience taking BART. Up until 3 years ago, he worked at PG&E and would drive from Santa Cruz to Daly City and then take BART into San Francisco. On occasion he would take the ferry from Vallejo to San Francisco. He likes the reliability and time efficiency of BART. However, he doesn’t feel that relaxed while taking BART due to the noise, crowds, and everyone either tired or in a hurry. He enjoyed taking BART when he could socialize with people we knew. He would prefer to take the Ferry to work if he could instead of BART.

Dennis’s Empathy Map

Says: He says he likes the reliability and time efficiency of BART, but does not like the noise, crowds, or worry of missing his stop.

Thinks: He likes that taking BART into SF saves him time, frustration, and is easier to use than the bus, however, he likes riding the Ferry better.

Feels: He does not feel fully relaxed on BART due to everyone around him being in a hurry, feeling anxious about missing his stop, and not seeing familiar people.

Does: He commutes a 20 minute BART ride from Daly city to SF on a daily bases and listens to podcasts, watches videos, or reads the news while on BART

Dennis’s Needs and Goals

• Needs a way to feel more relaxed while on BART
• Needs a time efficient and reliable way to commute
• Needs to be around pleasant people who are not in a hurry
• Needs BART to be cleaner and less noisy
• Needs to feel more comfortable on BART
• Needs to know when his stop is coming up

Dennis’s detailed interview notes can be found here

Jeff

Rebecca interviewed Jeff, a 24 year old male software engineer currently working in the Bay Area who previously worked in Seattle on 10/22/19. Recently traveled to Tokyo.

Rebecca’s interviewee Jeff.

Interview Summary

He recently traveled to Tokyo and used the metro daily. He doesn’t experience any problems with Tokyo public transit because people there are very respectful and quiet. Furthermore, as a foreigner, he feels comfortable navigating public transportation because they have English translations for everything. He occasionally witnesses foreigners having a little difficulty navigating the stations, but everyone has google translate which is always effective.

In Seattle, he used public transit to commute to work. Seattle had a lot of apps for each transit agency so it was easy for him to know when buses would arrive and this made it easy for him to schedule his time. One time he accidentally boarded the wrong bus because the bus numbers were labeled 200A and 200E which is not easy to differentiate. He appreciates the convenience and reliability of public transit, since it isn’t subject to traffic conditions in downtown areas.

When he’s back in the Bay Area, he avoids taking the BART because it is dirty and unsafe. He dislikes the BART so much that he recently got a car to drive because he doesn’t like to ride the BART.

Jeff’s Empathy Map

Says: He likes when public transportation is effective at getting him from place to place

Thinks: He wishes public transportation in the Bay Area could be as clean and efficient as in other places like Tokyo.

Does: He uses a variety of apps on his phone to navigate public transit systems when he’s in foreign places like Tokyo.

Feels: He feels unsafe on the BART so he avoids it.

Jeff’s Needs and Goals

• He needs to be able to feel safe using his phone on public transportation.
• He needs to have a convenient way to get real-time updates about his ETA to his destination so that he could better schedule his time.
• He needs the different transit lines to be clearly differentiable and easily visible so he doesn’t accidentally board the wrong one.
• As a foreigner, he needs to be able to understand public transit signs so he can figure out a route when he’s lost.

Jeff’s detailed interview notes can be found here

Problem Statements

1. How might we make public transit feel more enjoyable?
2. How might we allow people to feel more relaxed using public transit?
3. How might we allow people to feel safer using public transit?

Solution Prototypes

After an intense session of analyzing our user’s needs and ideating on them, we came up with ten different possible solutions of which we created prototypes for four.

Prototype 1: Joseph’s Silent Disco App for Bay Area Rapid Transit

Joseph created a companion app for public transit using Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) as a model. The app allows transit riders to listen to one of four stations creating a user connection similar to a silent disco. The app allows riders to report disturbances in real time that will pause the music and notify other riders, reminding them to be alert. The music will also pause when the rider’s stop is approaching and an audible message will play.

This prototype is our most likely to delight and is intended to solve two problem we encountered during our need finding phase:

1. Users reported that they needed to feel safer while riding public transit.
2. Users said they needed to be reminded of when they are approaching their stop.

The prototype is intended to test if a user would feel safer on public transit knowing that they can listen to music or other media and also receive clear alerts about important information like emergencies and when they are arriving at their stop.

BART Silent Disco Low-fi Prototype

This prototype allows users to enjoy music with their headphones in, which is a very common practice on public transit. The entry station is automatically identified when the rider boards a train, and they are then required to enter a destination station. Once their travel details have been entered, they will be able to listen to one of four different stations. The limited number of stations is intended to create a common point between riders since they are listening to the same music. If there is an alert or the rider’s stop is approaching, the music will be paused and they will receive an audible message and a popup window about the alert. The user will have to acknowledge the popup window before the media will continue to play. The user can also report emergencies through the app in order to inform other riders of potential dangers.

BART Silent Disco Hi-Fi Prototype

Prototype 2: Isabella’s BART X — A Comfortable BARTing Experience

The problem this prototype is intended to solve is the fact that many people don’t always feel comfortable riding BART due to the environment and people around them. Specific needs this prototype addresses are needing to feel relaxed on BART, needing to feel comfortable on BART, and needing to be around pleasant people. For example, there are many BART riders who want quiet time to relax and others who feel more social. Ideally this prototype would allow for people to be around others in a similar mood to them and therefore, they would feel more relaxed and comfortable. If someone is really tired and just wants to be in silence, they could go to a car where they can be around others who want the same thing. If someone is feeling more social and would want to talk to people or just have more energy, they can be around others wanting and feeling the a similar way. This would also encourage people to talk with others because they can relate to each other by being in a similar situation. Ideally, in the social cars, they could play more upbeat music to create a more lively environment. This prototype would allow people to feel more comfortable on BART by being able to be around more relatable people and people in similar moods.

How might we allow for How might we allow people to feel more comfortable using BART?

BART X Lo-fi Prototype

This is a fairly simple prototype with few features that makes it very easy to use. This prototype is a kiosk interface. There will be several kiosks inside the BART train waiting area. While a person is waiting for their train, they can go up to one of these kiosks and see the ‘Home’ page where they can choose from the 3 options : Social, Quiet, or Lucky. Once a user clicks on one of the options, it will display what specific car train number to go to and show a train layout identifying the specified car relative to the whole train. If the user is finished, they can click the “Done” option in the top right corner , which brings the user to a thank you page. If the user wants to see a full layout of the train showing what cars are for “Quiet” and which are for “Social”, they can click on the option “see the other train car categories”. If the user chooses the “Lucky” option on the home page, it will randomly generate a car for the person to go to. This option is for people who don’t know if they feel either “Social” or “Quiet” and don’t want to choose for themselves.

Try Isabella’s app here.

Prototype 3: Prakhar’s BART Companion App

Prakhar created a companion app for BART commuters to find other commuters traveling on the same route.

The prototype is our most likely to work and the problem it is trying to solve is that of safety and comfort. It is based on the premise that people would prefer traveling with a companion than traveling alone. The question the prototype is answering is that — How can BART commuters find other people traveling on similar routes to make their experience safer and more comfortable?

Prakhar’s Lo-fi Prototype

The app works in the following way:

1. Users set up their profile on the application.
2. Users enter their starting and end stations of a journey in BART
3. Once they click on ‘Find Companion’ button, they are matched with other people who are traveling on similar routes and looking for companions.
4. The users can scan through the profiles of matching companions and subsequently contact them on the app to travel together.

Prakhar’s Hi-fi Prototype

Try Prakhar’s app here.

Prototype 4: Rebecca’s Mood Lighting for BART Cars

The problem this prototype intended to solve was how we could make the BART more comfortable by allowing riders to express their mood without violating societal norms. In our need finding interviews, some interviewees expressed the desire to relax on the BART but couldn’t because other people were too talkative and they didn’t feel like they could tell other people to quiet down.

The initial idea was a survey kiosk inside of a BART car that would have options for different moods: happy, sad, quiet, angry. Each rider who enters the car could select what mood they’re feeling and the ambient lighting in the car would change according to the rider’s mood. Our hypothesis was that if a person was in a bad mood and the lighting in the car reflected that negative mood, they might actively try to change their mood to a good mood.

We decided to change the idea to be more reflective of the survey so the lighting color would reflect the general mood in that car.

Rebecca’s Lo-fi Prototype

How it works:

The survey kiosk has buttons for “Happy” which is yellow, “Calm” which is blue, and “Stressed” which is red. The color of the lights would change when the people who board the car and select their mood have a different mood from the original mood of the car. If everyone in a car selects “Happy,” the lighting will be yellow. Then when someone enters that car and selects “Calm,” the ambient lighting will add blue to the gradient and the light will turn slightly green. The lighting color will only ever be the combination of the top two moods in the car with the color leaning more towards the dominant mood. This way the lighting in the car would show people the general vibe of the car so they could adjust their conduct to be respectful of other people’s moods. More specifically, the average BART ride lasts 15 minutes so the survey will retain mood data for passengers who’ve entered their moods within the previous 15 minutes and adjust the lighting to reflect the general mood for that period of time. Since the ambient lighting within the cars would be visible from the platform as well, riders can select which car to board and find one that fits their mood.

Rebecca’s Wizard of Oz Prototype Demo

Usability Testing

We performed three usability tests on three different users to answer some questions we had about our prototypes. Users were recruited from our need finding interviewees and others in our network who were frequent riders of BART.

1. What makes people feel less anxious on BART?

Prototypes Tested:

1. Silent Disco App
2. Mood Lighting
3. Mood Cars
4. Companion App

2. Which prototype would make riding BART more enjoyable?

Prototypes Tested:

1. Mood Lighting
2. Mood Cars

3. Which of the 4 prototypes would you actually use on BART?

Prototypes Tested:

1. Silent Disco App
2. Mood Lighting
3. Mood Cars
4. Companion APP

Usability Tests

Usability Test 1

Question: Which prototype would make people feel less anxious on BART?

Participant: Karla, rides BART 4 days per week to work.

Setting: In the user’s living room.

Summary of Silent Disco App

Observations

1. Playing music and reporting an incident was easy.
2. The user did not have any problems finding the features they were asked to select.
3. The user asked what qualifies as “suspicious activity” and noted that she feared this could be abused.
4. The user asked if photos of the problem would be shared with other passengers or if it would just be an alert.
5. The user was delighted by being able to listen to music and get stop alerts even though she never misses her stop.

Positive Findings

1. The user liked that she could listen to music without missing alerts or worrying about missing her stop.
2. She liked the idea of self reporting issues on BART in real time but worried about how that would be managed.

Recommendations

1. Integrating music with alerts is a great idea but would prefer her own music choices.
2. Provide more information on reporting incidents and possibly more options. The user did not know if it would be immediately reported or if someone had to review it first.

Overall: On a scale from 1–10 how much do you think this would help you feel less anxious when riding BART?

I would give it a 7. I think the stop notifications could really help me relax more on my commute.

Summary of Mood Lighting

Observations

1. The user did not have any issues navigating the buttons.
2. The user was confused about the color options.
3. The user asked what mood the middle face was supposed to be.
4. The user was confused by the red face. Is that angry or surprised?

Recommendations

1. The user was confused by the color combinations and what they meant, suggested labeling with words.
2. The user thought that changing the lighting would increase anxiety especially if someone wanted to be rude which seems common on BART already.
3. The red lighting would make her think there was an emergency and she would be hesitant to get onto the train.

Overall: On a scale from 1–10 how much do you think this would help you feel less anxious when riding BART?

I would give it a 0. The blue lighting might be nice but the yellow and red combined with the possibility of abuse would increase my anxiety. Currently I don’t get much of a vibe from other riders on BART, they are usually quietly on their phones.

Summary of Mood Cars

Observations

1. The user asked what social meant.
2. The user asked what the middle cars are for. Why only the front and the back of the train?
3. The user said she usually enters the middle of the train because it is usually the closest exit of her destination station.

Positive Findings

The user liked the basic idea of this prototype. She would like it if the BART cars were more interesting but that she is also fine with quietly listening to her music or reading a book.

Recommendations

1. Having more and clearer mood options may be good.
2. The user mentioned it may be nice to have a reading car or a loud car where people can feel free to talk or sing.
3. Sometimes people come on the train to perform music or dance which is fun but can also be disruptive to some passengers. She doesn’t mind and thinks it might be fun to have a designated car or cars to performances.

Overall: On a scale from 1–10 how much do you think this would help you feel less anxious when riding BART?

I would give this a 4. I think the idea is right, that grouping people on their preferences for riding could be good. I’m not sure this quite does it though; it needs more work.

Summary of Companion App

Observations

1. The user was confused by the app flow; she had trouble knowing what to do.
2. I instructed her to message a companion but there was no keyboard or ability to type.
3. She wanted to pick another woman to ride with (if anyone) and said she would like more details about the person, maybe a Facebook profile.

Positive Findings

1. The user liked the idea of being able to find people on BART to ride with. She does see some of the same people on her weekly commute but is hesitant to talk to a random stranger.

Recommendations

1. Provide more detail on the passengers using the app. A name and age isn’t sufficient to get her to speak to other passengers.
2. If this worked, she may be open to people not traveling on the same route but are on the same train.

Overall: On a scale from 1–10 how much do you think this would help you feel less anxious when riding BART?

I would give this a 2. I think showing my name and picture to fellow riders would be stressful, I would feel like I was being looked at all the time which I’m already wary of being a woman riding alone. I like the idea and think it would possibly make riding BART easier but I don’t know how I would trust other people based on the app.

Results & Recommendations

• The user thinks the Silent Disco app is the most likely to reduce anxiety while riding BART. Having alerts pause her music sounds delightful as long as there aren’t too many and someone besides the user is controlling them. She would still prefer not to have headphones in during her ride when it is outside of peak commuting hours as that’s when she feels most anxious. She would like to be able to use her own music or apps for sound instead of pre-selected ones.
• The user did like the idea of socializing the BART commute but isn’t sure she would use it, she wants to remain anonymous on her ride and wouldn’t feel safe giving her information out to random people on the train.

Usability Test 2

Question: Do users find the BART ride more enjoyable with “Mood Lighting” or with “Mood Car”?

Participant: Jay, recent graduate who rides BART a couple times a week.

Setting: in a conference room

Summary of Mood Lighting

Observations

1. Screen was easy to interact with and he quickly understood how the lighting color could change and that the colors mix based on survey results.
2. Confused by the blue mood since it also looks like a happy face.
3. Pushed every button multiple times to make it a rave — he got really excited from changing the lighting.
4. He felt annoyed if someone changed the lighting color after he selected it. He would want to ride a car where other people feel the same way as him

Positive Findings

1. Lighting color makes him feel safer, like he’s in his own space — he’s comfortable
2. 3 mood options is a good number so riders wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

Recommendations

1. Middle face is confusing since it’s too happy to be “calm”. He wishes that the “calm” face was a “neutral” face for a neutral car with the neutral face (-_-).
2. Would like a sound to go with each emotion, i.e. Happy generates “Whee!” sound.

Overall: On a scale from 1–10, he rates this a 7 in effectiveness for helping him feel less anxious when riding BART.

Summary of Mood Cars

Observations

1. Screens are intuitive to interact with. Did not need any instruction to understand how it works.

Positive Findings

1. Likes the purpose of the prototype in letting people select what type of environment to be in — social or quiet.

Recommendations

1. Wishes one option was for a Sleeping train
2. Wishes “Unsure” option was a neutral color like gray and said “choose for me” instead since a person could be feeling unsure in life and expect a car for that.
3. Would like images for each mood.

Overall: On a scale from 1–10, he rates this a 6 in effectiveness for making him feel less anxious riding BART.

Results & Recommendations

• He more likely to feel less anxious using “Mood Lighting” because it’s fun to change lighting colors and the ability to personalize the space makes him feel more comfortable like the public space is his own. He pointed out that most of the kiosk interactions would come from first time users and people would become jaded by the fifth time. There needs to be an incentive for people to continue to interact with the kiosk even after the novelty wears off.

Usability Test 3

Question: Which of the 4 prototypes would you actually use on BART?

Participant: Cher, rides BART everyday to commute to her work from Berkeley to San Francisco

Setting: In a reserved room in Haas library

Summary of Silent Disco App

Observations

1. Was able to intuitively find the “pop” music button and play it.
2. Easily found how to report and incident.
3. Intrigued by the feature of reporting an incident — BART apps don’t usually have this functionality.

Positive Finding

1. Liked the “alert for your stop” feature — it would help her feel less worried about missing the stop and put less pressure on herself to be aware of when your stop is.
2. Since most people like to listen to something while on BART, having an alert for your stop would be helpful and an easy integration.

Recommendations

1. Allow user to choose to listen to their own music.
2. Have this app be connected to your preferred music streaming app and there could be a “BART mode” or setting to turn on to allow for the functionalities of alerts for emergencies and stops.
3. Allow customization of alert settings — have the user be able to filter by which safety alerts they want to see. Too many alerts could be annoying to the user.

Overall: She would find this application useful and would use it on BART if she could have her own content integrated into the application.

Summary of Mood Lighting

Observations

1. At first was confused by the clicking and thought the prototype wasn’t working: “It is not letting me click it”.
2. Once given the context of the prototype’s simulation, she thought it was interesting.
3. Commented on how this prototype would be less functional and more for fun.
4. “If it inhibits my routine then may not use it.”

Positive Findings

1. Liked the idea of the lights because it would make BART seem more fun and encourage BART to be more interactive and social.

Recommendations

1. Because BART is functional and everyone has a direct purpose riding BART, people would need to be given a purpose to use it.

Overall: She thought this prototype idea was interesting and wouldn’t mind having this implemented, but she would need a convincing incentive to use it.

Summary of Mood Cars

Observations

1. Immediately after seeing the prototype exclaimed “Oh interesting!”
2. Was able to navigate back and forward seamlessly
3. Clearly understood the purpose of the prototype without us explaining it.
4. Found the full layout of the BART train easily.
5. “Used to happy, sad faces on BART KIOSKS but it is different here”.
6. Since most people are commuting and quiet on BART, she is not sure when the social cars would be used.

Positive Findings

1. Liked the idea of creating “social” and “quiet” environments on BART for the designated car to encourage the use of both areas.
2. Sometimes when she is feeling more social, she would like to know who else is in a more social mood so they could interact.

Recommendations

1. Have different BART car mood layout dependent on the day — “Would this be provided all the time or just on weekends?”
2. Would certainly like more mood options, but feel like it is difficult to classify emotions in a train.
3. Would like pictures substituted for the words, but only if the pictures clearly conveyed the corrected mood: aka Social or Quiet or Unsure.
4. Stressed the location of kiosks is important for people to use. “Maybe it could be as right before walking down the stairs”.
5. Have kiosks on both sides of the train for better accessibility.

Overall: She liked the idea and thought it would be useful, but only id the kiosk placement was strategic for best use and if there would be a way to make certain train cars “social”.

Summary of Companion App

Observations

1. Completed the allocated task of messaging a traveler on the same route without any problems
2. Identified the purpose of the app as to making new friends on BART. Was not sure if it would be more for finding a traveling buddy or using BART to make new friends.
3. “Won’t use every time unless I constantly look out for friends”

Positive Findings

1. Thought it would be fun to have friends on BART and commute together.
2. It would make BART more social.

Recommendations

1. App should have strict safety features to prevent the use of dangerous people or creeps abusing this application.

Overall: She thought this prototype idea could be useful, but her main worry would be the safety concerns about making sure dangerous people can not use it to target her.

Results & Recommendations

Which prototype would you actually use on BART?

• The user is most likely to use the Silent Disco prototype on BART because she finds it to be most useful. It is often a case that she is not familiar with all the routes and stops so the app can remind her when to get off.
• The user also stressed the need for customization in this prototype in terms of using their own content and the ability to customize the kind of interruptions for different alerts.

Our usability plan and guide

Our detailed usability results

Heuristic evaluation of the BART Silent Disco App