UX Case Study: City Mobility & Sustainability

6 min readAug 17, 2020

Implemented by Ironhack Miami.

This case study will showcase the user centered design approach to a prompted wicked problem, and a possible solution on a mobile application.

Project contributors: Robert Zamora & Andrea Marquez

Intro

A huge variety of alternatives is emerging in the transportation field. At the same time, the streets have become a playground for exercise. How Might We organize the variety of people navigating the streets to provide a more efficient and cleaner city?

Brief

In this project, my group will be addressing wicked problems as a design challenge. The goal is to focus on isolating, researching and understanding a more precise, granular and specific problem from the prompt given.

Deliverables:

Lean Canvas
10 question Survey
15 question Interview (5 participants)
Survey & Interview results
Affinity & Empathy Map
User Persona
Storyboard + User Journey (current)
How Might We
Problem Statement
Hypothesis Statement (3)
Ideations & Sketches
Lo-Fi wireframes + Prototype
Usability Testing + Results
Next Steps

Research & Data Analysis

For our initial research we established a few goals that we wanted meet. Since we don’t know who our user is at this stage; these goals gave an objective in our survey.

We developed these goals via our lean survey canvas

Takeaways:

Discover in what ways the average person is using public transportation?
Does the current system apply an effective user experience?
How can we incorporate sustainability into public transit?
Assess any possible pain points users share using public transportation
Determine what users enjoy and hate about public transportation

Based on the brainstorming session we conducted on our lean canvas, we constructed and implemented survey . Were able to capture 119 responses, as well as an additional 6 individuals from interviews.

Taking the quantitive data from the survey’s, and qualitative date from the interviews, we constructed an affinity map. We can see that the two main points user faced were elements of sustainability and convince; with the over arching super heading being convenience itself.

We established 7 pain points to focus on:

Sanitation concerns
Limited number of destinations
Lack of sustainable initiatives
Unreliable time tables and route schedules
Inconsistent connectivity across different modes of public transportation
Overcrowding
Navigation tracking

Using an Empathy map, we put ourselves in the perspective of our user. Trying to grasp what they would experience on a typical commute and in vision how our product could help them.

Persona & User Journey

With all that in mind we created our primary user persona in order to give a clear direction when applying scenarios and solutions in the ideation process.

To tell Sam’s tale, we crafted a storyboard and user journey map to provide perspective on who Sam is. Documenting and illustrating a scenario helped to visually capture pain points during certain stages of his day, and where Sam could interact with our product to better serve is needs.

Ideation & Sketches

We proposed a mobile application that would provide Sam multiple modes of transportation; incorporating other outlets outside of common public transportation. We would incorporate:

Uber/ Lyft Services; used as time saving alternatives for any possible delays.
Community Bikes and Scooters; used as “green” choices to be incorporated in the user routes.
Real-time GPS tracking; let’s the user see the current location of the mode of transportation and of any possible delays
Estimated travel times and crowd feed; routes are listed based on convenience level established by the user.
Reward Incentives; Use designated “green” routes of travel will give a certain amount of points towards to ticket costs.
Reporting features to address sanitation concerns. The user will be able to take photos of any issues or situations that they deem as unsanitary. This would then be reported to the appropriate outlet.
Cross platform connectivity; uses ride shares, and community bikes/ scooters, as additional connection options to reach a destination.

Lo- Fidelity Wireframes

We took our ideations and sketches and proceeded with the low- fidelity wireframes. Here we wanted to establish the flow that Sam would experience based on the user journey scenario.

Mid-Fidelity Wireframes

We then took the process a step further and took the low-fidelity wireframes, and brought the in to mid-fidelity. From here we created a prototype in InVision for the usability testing.

We were both relative novices when it came to constructing the prototype in InVision. This proved more meticulous than anticipated since we had to anticipate what hot spots our testers would select, and what screen that hotspot would lead to.

Usability Testing

For our testing, interviewed 5 participants for qualitative data and implemented a maze prototype for quantitative data.

Thanks to the interviews and maze trials, we found issues on a couple of screens.

Participants were confused at the two time boxes when selecting their time. They weren’t sure for the purpose of the second time selection box.
For the delay notifications we wanted to test which option was more notable, and found most participants did not notice the notification on the bottom of the screen
We neglected to add a close/ return option to two screens
“Green Choices” were not explained nor recognized. Though when explained users like the concept.
The route selection list was vague, and didn’t display the information very well.

Modifications

Based on the insights found from the interviews and maze prototype, we reworked the mid-fidelities.

In order to notify users of the “green choices” we added a push notification that notify users of the feature.
We simplified the time selection to just one drop down that allow you to pick the option that you prefer
Added necessary return and close buttons
We removed the bottom alert notification since the notification toward the top of the page had more “hot-zones”
We simplified the alternate route screen so the user could see all their options at the same time

Next Steps

For next steps we want to incorporate a “claims” feature to report cleanliness issues. Integrate a Rewards system to track your points and complete goals to obtain further incentives to make sustainable choices. Expand to different languages and input a translation function since Miami is a very diverse city.

We also want to introduce a physical product to incorporate recycle options, and that would be integrated with the rewards system.