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Design Ideation for Public Transportation

Overview

It is a solo project that I worked on as a part of an online course. On this project, I created six storyboards that demonstrate design ideas for improving transportation problems. In order to get meaningful ideas that have a real impact on real people’s lives, I used observation and interviews of users.

Role

UX designer

Deliverables

User research

Storyboarding 

Tools

Paper

Marker

Date

November 2020

THE CHALLENGE

Storyboarding design ideas about solving public transportation problems.

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  • I participated in an online course called "Human-Centered Design: An Introduction" in which I learned need-finding methods and how to do rapid prototyping for solving them. One of the assignments of course was to developing design ideas for transportation and as a method of rapid prototyping, storyboarding the design ideas.

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  • The challenge was to observe and interview users about their transportation habits. Then brainstorming design ideas that meet a certain need or solve an existing problem. Finally, I was asked to choose 3 of the design ideas and create 2 storyboards for each showing alternative tasks or user personas. 

A Good Storyboard!

Storyboard presents a scenario that takes a hypothetical user from setting ( a problem, need, or desire embedded in a specific situation) to satisfaction( an outcome achieved through a design that addresses the problem/need/desire).

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Storyboard shows what a design idea enables the user to accomplish without specifying a particular user interface. 
 

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A Good Storyboard:

  • Begins with a user persona ( who are they and what are some of their pain points? include emotions on the process)

  • Set a scene and the environment the character is in.

  • Identify the goal ( what is the problem they are trying to solve and what do they get there?)

  • Narrative arch ( a storyboard is a story so make sure to include a beginning, middle, and end)

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USER RESEARCH

I started my research process by observing users using public transportation and also I conducted structured interviews with them. I interviewed with participants and I tried to understand their needs and their current problems with public transportation. here are the most important insights I learned from interviewing users: 

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  • Users frustrated of not having a seat while using a bus.

  • Users need to get wherever they want in the shortest time.

  • The tourists and newcomers to town have trouble getting around the city.

THE SOLUTIONS

Design Idea1: How to make a reservation to have a seat while taking a bus?
Solution: Being able to take a seat reservation for some bus routes.
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My design idea is to showing people the options of seat reservations for special buses. It can be a digital panel on the bus stop or a mobile application in which users can check which buses have free seats, the bus's arrival time, and making reservations. 

Second Storyboard of design idea 1:

Jame is a sales manager at a clothing shop, he works all day around the shop and he always stands up. He wants to have a seat while he takes a bus to return back home because he gets really tired during the day. 

First Storyboard of design idea 1:

Elina is a 60 years old woman, who wants to have a seat while she is taking the bus to go to her daughter's home. 

Design Idea2: How to know the fastest transportation options according to traffics?
Solution: Being able to check different transportation options according to traffics and arrival times.
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My design idea is to showing people the detailed options of transportations. There are different routes that can bring a user from point A to B, however, they may differ according to the traffics or the train's or the bus's arrival time at the station.

First Storyboard of design idea 2:

Lena is an architect who has two children. She is a hardworking mom, who wants to get home as soon as possible after work to be able to have dinner with her children on time. 

Second Storyboard of design idea 2:

Anna has a meeting with a new client at the client's office which she does not know how to get there. She woke up in the morning and try to find the fastest way to be on time for the meeting.

Design Idea3: How to know the transportation options as a tourist in a new city?
Solution: Being able to find the best transportation to get to wherever they want and saving the route for the returning. 
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My design idea is to showing users the most convenient transportation option and also saving the first and end location to get back easily and not being lost in a city that they don't know well. 

First Storyboard of design idea 3:

James is in a new city for a conference. He frustrated with getting lost. He wants to know how he can get to the conference and returning back to the hotel without getting lost in the city. 

Second Storyboard of design idea 3:

John is an adventurous man who loves traveling. He is now in a new city as a tourist and wants to be able to visit all the tourist places without getting lost and at the cheapest price. 

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