RoutFinder

The Challenge

The challenge was to look into a possible solution for getting directions when using public transportation around the city of Johannesburg. The timeline of the project is 2 weeks. Now let’s dive deeper into the project.

Problem Statement

Commuters that use public transportation are often clueless on how to get to an unfamiliar location. Cab services are often too expensive for long distance trips, and asking strangers for directions can be an uncomfortable experience. Commuters want to be able to get accurate directions around the city when using public transportation.

The Process

I followed a user-centered design process that began with the Empathize phase. I conducted user research to understand the needs, behaviors, and pain points of the target audience, creating a detailed persona and empathy map to represent the ideal user and their experiences. In the Define phase, I outlined the user flow, conducted user surveys, and established user flow to effectively organize content. During the Ideate phase, I brainstormed and generated ideas through sketches and other creative methods. In the Prototype phase, we brought our ideas to life by developing wireframes and interactive prototypes. Finally, in the Test phase, I conducted usability tests to gather feedback and refine the designs, resulting in polished visual designs that ensured a seamless and engaging user experience.

01. Emphatise Phase

Qualitative Research

I intervied 8 potential users over phone calls to understand the challenges they face with communiting arounnd the city.

I Asked About:

• The apps and websites they use the most.

• How they go about commuting to a place they've never been to before, and is too expensive to go to using cab services.

• What the most frustrating part about commuting to a place they've never been to before is.

• How valuable a solution to the problem would be to them.

Quantitative Research

I did an online survey using Google Forms to further understand the potential users and to help define the problem more clearly. The survey had 22 respondents.

Derived Insights

Key insights were derived from the interviews and futher confirmed by the survey that was carried out.

02. Define Phase

Persona & Empathy Map

After the user research and analysis, user beahaviours and attitudes were assessed which are depicted in the user persona and empathy map.

Persona
Using the data collected from the user interviews and survey, I created a persona representing an ideal user of the product. The persona helped me arrive at a better solution as it gave an in-depth understanding of the user goals, frustrations and the overall personality.

Empathy Map

This was done to define the target user with more clarity, as well as to illustrate their needs and actions. Empathy mapping helped me gain perspective on their thoughts and feelings. The data in the empathy map are based on the insights from the user interviews.

03. Ideate Phase

User Flow

I created a flow using Miro to depict how the user will navigate through the application.

04. Prototype Phase

Wireframes

HI-Fi

I designed the high fidelity screens using Figma, following the iOS guidelines.

05. Test Phase

Usability Testing

After the visual design was completed, I tested the prototype with six users to see how user friendly they find the application. I conducted the testing remotely on Useberry. The participants were given the following tasks to do:

• Sign up into the application.

• Get directions to a location.

• Save and share a trip.

Positive Feedback

• Users were happy with the navigation.

• Some users liked that the information on the app were locally relatable.

• They were appreciative of the clean and easy to understand UI.

What I have learned

Challenges

Working on an individual project with a very short time constraint was a bit of a challenge. The intensity and depth of the research that was done was limited but the overall research done was adequate enough to help design a product that would impact people’s everyday lives.

Learnings

Having to work with a time contraint helped increase my self discipline with regards to keeping to set deadlines. I completed the project in a set amount of time. Users seem to want an app like RoutFindr and their feedback and making iterations based on that makes the concept impactful.

Future Roadmap

Integrating voice interactions, exploring use cases, collecting feedbacks, brainstorming ideas on features that get highlighted from feedbacks and doing research on the concept of crowdsourcing.