Sydsafe
Keeping Sydneysiders safe and oriented.
Summary
Brief
Encouraging Sydneysiders to ride public transport during off peak hours
Transport for NSW wants to lessen the number of cars on the road by encouraging people to use public transport during off peak hours.
This goal fulfills Sydney 2030’s masterplan target, and it benefits all stakeholders involved- residents, visitors, businesses, the government, private bus and ferry operators and the Sydney region.
How should we tackle the brief?
Our holistic design approach aims to address the immediate and long term needs for the business and users.
Hence, it was imperative for us to analyse business and user needs, as well as the offerings of the current market.
Hence, it was imperative for us to analyse business and user needs, as well as the offerings of the current market.
Understanding the Business goals
Investigating Sustainable Sydney 2030
Based on our analysis, we could potentially address the Sustainability, Arts & Culture, Connectivity and Community causes of Sustainable Sydney 2030. We could align these causes with our immediate goal of encouraging public transport use during off peak hours.
Understanding what Users care about
Doing the leg work
We ran surveys and interviews to understand user sentiments towards public transport and their vision for a better Sydney.
Insights we discovered
From affinity mapping, we uncovered these trends amongst all the responses we received, however these trends are tricky to address without extra investment from Transport for NSW and other third parties.
Identifying the gap in the market
Narrowing down our focus
The data revealed some trends that required no buy in from other parties. Therefore, we thought it would be realistic to focus on these trends which are high impact and low effort for all parties involved.
But first, does the Business address these concerns?
The Transport for NSW website offers public transport station and facility information, while the Opal application offers journey planning, Opal card management and travel notifications.
Both services offer some form of orientation by employing maps. The Transport for NSW website offers station maps, whereas Opal displays the Google map location of your selected train. Both services do not address safety concerns.
Both services offer some form of orientation by employing maps. The Transport for NSW website offers station maps, whereas Opal displays the Google map location of your selected train. Both services do not address safety concerns.
Do other applications address these concerns?
Both services do not address safety concerns. However, both services offer some form of orientation by employing maps and journey planning.
Tripview has Google Maps showing the general location of the station on some routes. As for Google Maps, its maps shows station maps, all stops, shops & facilities.
Tripview has Google Maps showing the general location of the station on some routes. As for Google Maps, its maps shows station maps, all stops, shops & facilities.
Its clear that safety & orientation concerns are an untapped market, therefore...
We thought its best to design a unique mobile application which addresses safety and orientation concerns, with the overarching goal of creating a sustainable and inclusive Sydney.
Who are we designing for?
What can we do to reassure Sam & Deni?
Journey mapping to understand Users' experiences
We created journey maps based on Sam’s and Deni’s situations, we then brainstormed ideas to address their pain points and create opportunities to improve their experiences.
To help Sam feel more secure using public transport, we came up with features to notify contacts, staff and authorities and general safety tips. As for Deni’s situation, we proposed map features for space orientation.
In addition, we were considering other features to create an inclusive Sydney community. These features include features to report issues, features to show the state of facilities and gamification.
Safety Sam's Journey Map
Disoriented Deni's Journey Map
What features should the MVP incorporate?
Feature prioritization
We placed our ideas onto a prioritization matrix to determine which features would give us the most bang for buck. Our MVP largely incorporates features placed in the low effort and high impact section as these features would suffice to test out our design.
Features placed in the high effort and high impact section will be considered for future versions of the MVP.
Features placed in the high effort and high impact section will be considered for future versions of the MVP.
Feature prioritization matrix
The design process...
We put our heads together to sketch the App’s interface. From our Design Studio session, we came up with these insights as below:
Home screen should incorporate station maps, public transport alerts and emergency button.
Customizable emergency button should include a grace period before contacting emergency contact.
The app’s feedback interface should allow for the report of station safety and facilities.
Sketches
Presenting the final prototype...
Prototype
What are the next immediate actions?
Migrating the content from Transport for NSW website
Content such as station maps, alerts, facilities and platforms can be migrated immediately from the Transport for NSW website to create this MVP.
In addition, the MVP could also replicate the existing feedback procedure on the Opal app.
In addition, the MVP could also replicate the existing feedback procedure on the Opal app.
Conduct usability testing
Due to project time constraints, we did not manage to conduct usability testing.
We would recommend conducting tests to understand Users’ experience using the app. From there we can identify areas for improvement, to guide future iterations of the design.
We would recommend conducting tests to understand Users’ experience using the app. From there we can identify areas for improvement, to guide future iterations of the design.
What about possible future actions?
Make security and facility ratings publicly accessible
Station security and facility conditions are projected to improve with Transport for NSW’s investment.
Hence, the app could incorporate publicly accessible security and facility ratings. The positive ratings would encourage more users to use public transport for their travels.
Hence, the app could incorporate publicly accessible security and facility ratings. The positive ratings would encourage more users to use public transport for their travels.
Support more types of public transport
If the app is proven successful with train station users, it could be expanded to include buses, ferries and light rail.
Incorporation of community oriented features
With the continued success of the app with public transport users, the app could consider community oriented features such as local community events or chat carriages to promote an inclusive Sydney.
What did I learn from this project?
Don’t worry about choosing the “right” method to synthesise data, think about the insights that you are trying to gain and the quality of the answers that you will gain from the chosen method/ methods.
Don’t get married to your designs, as the choice of data synthesis methods and designs change based on research outcomes.
Creating a MVP app means that we get to test out our design hypothesis inexpensively and efficiently. We can then determine whether to build on or change our design direction based on user feedback.