Project Proposal Blacksburg Transit App Submitted by, Nayaab Azim, Ritwik Sood, Shail shah, Shankar Srinidhi Srinivas, Swetha Rajeev, Vineela, Yuva Sri Vemulapalli INTRODUCTION Efficiency and reliability are key for transit apps in enhancing daily commutes. Our proposal for the Blacksburg Transit App (BT) seeks to transform how people use public transportation in Blacksburg. Designed to serve a wide range of users, including students, residents, commuters, and tourists, the BT app draws on detailed user feedback to target enhancements in the current system. These improvements aim to create a more user-friendly, accurate, and tailored experience. The BT app will incorporate features like real-time bus tracking, simplified trip planning, proactive service alerts, and an interactive map, all through an accessible interface. It aims to respond to users' calls for better real-time information. Furthermore, it promotes community engagement, encouraging users to share insights and participate in a communal effort to refine public transit. This introduction previews our focus on user needs, system design, and the goal of making the BT app not just a tool, but a part of a vibrant, well-connected Blacksburg. Through innovative design, the BT app intends to enhance the role of public transit as an integral component of community life. SYSTEM CONCEPT STATEMENT The proposed system concept for the ‘My Route Planner’ feature aims to build on the existing Blacksburg Transit App by providing a personalized and proactive trip planning experience. It will be designed to support existing/new BT App users who plan out their day using Calendar integrations, and users that felt like they needed more accessible information relevant to their trips to provide for a seamless transit experience. Users can schedule trips for events in different locations of Blacksburg in advance using the calendar service including recurring and one-off events. The users will also receive personalized alerts based on the proximity of the buses to their source and destination bus stops, get real-time updates on bus status and weather conditions during their planned trips. This system will reduce the need for users to open the app and manually look for information about the buses during their commutes, saving time and effort. The users can plan their days as they normally would on calendar integrations and forget about the commute information since they will be receiving custom alerts and notifications on their devices when required, resulting in a smooth and stressfree transit. ANALYSIS PHASE Diary Study During the analysis phase of developing the Blacksburg Transit app, our team conducted a collaborative diary study involving group members to analyze the challenges encountered by transit users in Blacksburg. This study aimed to gather comprehensive insights into user experiences and identify areas for improvement in the transit system. Diary Study Methodology: Each group member documented their transit experiences during their daily journeys in Blacksburg, recording observations, challenges, pain points and frustrations encountered. Entries were made 3-4 times per week by every member of the team, covering a range of scenarios and transit conditions. Detailed notes were taken on factors such as wait times, bus reliability, crowdedness, availability of transit information, and overall satisfaction with the transit experience. Data Collection and Analysis: Diary entries from group members were collected and compiled to identify common themes and patterns in transit experiences. Entries were analyzed collectively to identify recurring challenges and pain points faced by transit users in Blacksburg. Key Findings: 1. Frequent Checking for Bus Arrival: • Participants reported the need to repeatedly check for bus arrivals, leading to frustration and distraction during their daily routines. • Many individuals expressed concerns about missing buses, as they often forgot to check or misjudged the timing of bus arrivals. 2. Missed Bus Situations: • Several users recounted instances of missing buses, either due to overlooking the bus's arrival or misjudging the time needed to reach the stop. • The inability to accurately gauge the proximity of the bus to their location resulted in missed opportunities for timely transit. 3. Desire for Personalized Reminders: • Participants expressed a desire for a system that would remind them when the bus is approaching their stop, allowing them to customize the timing of notifications according to their preferences. • Users emphasized the importance of receiving timely alerts to avoid missing buses and improve overall transit punctuality. 4. Need for Flexible Notification Settings: • Users highlighted the importance of having flexible notification settings, such as the ability to set reminders for bus arrivals based on individual preferences and transit habits. • Customizable options for notification timing would enable users to adjust reminders according to their specific needs and daily schedules. 5. Enhanced Awareness of Bus Proximity: • Participants expressed the desire for increased awareness of bus proximity to their location, particularly during busy or distracted moments. • Improved visibility and real-time updates on bus locations would help users better plan and prepare for their transit journeys, reducing stress and uncertainty. These key findings underscore the importance of addressing the need for personalized reminders and flexible notification settings in the Blacksburg Transit app. By implementing a system that provides timely alerts for bus arrivals based on individual preferences, users can enhance their transit experience, reduce missed bus situations, and improve overall punctuality in their daily journeys. DESIGN PHASE Ideation Our team began with the ideation phase for the BT Transit app's design. This was when we all started brainstorming, leading to many innovative ideas during our poster session. Some of us even made simple sketches and models to better share these ideas with the rest of the team, which greatly helped in communicating our thoughts effectively. After our presentation and a conversation with Professor Dr. McCrickard, we were motivated to deepen our thinking. Returning to our brainstorming space, we focused on specific needs like what the BT Transit app users require, what we could realistically achieve, understanding these users better, and assessing the research we had done. This discussion helped us narrow down our focus to developing the 'My Route Planner' feature for the app. Inspired by the collaborative atmosphere of Virginia Tech's Ideation Studio, we set up a similar brainstorming space in the library. The decision to start with ideation was driven by the desire to thoroughly explore various possibilities for the BT Transit app without prematurely limiting our creative scope. Sketching Next, we plan to move into sketching. This approach will allow us to visually map out the brainstormed ideas for 'My Route Planner.' It's a direct method for us to examine various design possibilities and user flow options. The goal is to draft a webpage interface that encompasses features like user notifications and customizable alerts, tailored to the BT Transit app users. The team recognized that sketching could serve as a visual diary of our evolving ideas, making it simpler to exchange thoughts among us. Given that some team members have faced challenges in aligning on the concepts through discussion alone, sketching has been identified as a potential solution to bridge understanding gaps, regardless of our drawing skills. We see sketching as a timeefficient and cost-effective strategy to refine our concepts before proceeding further. Choosing sketching specifically for the BT Transit app stems from the need to quickly visualize and iterate on the 'My Route Planner' feature, providing a tangible form to abstract ideas without the constraints of technical development. Wireframes Following the sketching phase, our team intends to develop wireframes. This step is envisioned as creating a detailed blueprint for the 'My Route Planner' feature within the BT Transit app. Wireframes will offer a clearer view of where elements should be placed and how the app's interface will facilitate user interaction, all before the actual development begins. From past experiences, the team has learned the importance of having a structured layout early in the design process. Attempting to prototype without a clear layout led to significant rework and time loss. Therefore, we've decided to incorporate wireframing at this early stage, ensuring we have a solid, well-thought-out plan for the BT Transit app's prototype. The choice to focus on wireframing before prototyping is specifically due to our aim to minimize reiterations and streamline the development process for the BT Transit app, ensuring a smooth transition from concept to prototype. This revision emphasizes your team's specific decisions and rationale in choosing each method for the BT Transit app project, reflecting the strategic approach tailored to your project's needs. PROTOTPING PHASE For the prototyping stage, we propose leveraging high-fidelity prototyping with a focus on vertical prototyping, using the Figma design tool. High Fidelity Prototyping Following the wireframing stage, we aim to create a high-fidelity prototype that closely resembles the final route planner feature. This approach offers several advantages: Detailed Design: It allows us to make informed decisions regarding navigation, screen layouts, and pixel-perfect visual components, establishing a clear and consistent look and feel for the route planner. Design Refinement: Testing a high-fidelity prototype enables us to identify and address user experience (UX) issues effectively, leading to a more polished and user-friendly final product. Vertical Prototyping Instead of creating a broad prototype encompassing the entire app, vertical prototyping allows us to concentrate on refining a specific feature: the route planner's notification and alert system. This targeted approach allows for: Targeted Improvement: A deeper examination of the user experience for this specific feature. Isolated Workflow: A more granular understanding of user behavior within the route planning process. This facilitates targeted improvements that directly impact the user within that workflow. Prototyping using Figma: Figma excels at building interactive prototypes with high-fidelity elements, enabling us to interact with the route planner and obtain valuable insights into the behavior and potential pain points. This allows us to balance the need for detailed testing with development resource limitations. Our proposed prototyping approach utilizes high-fidelity elements within a vertically focused prototype built in Figma. This combination offers a cost-effective and efficient way to refine the route planner feature, and deliver a good user experience in the BT Transit app. EVALUATION PHASE To evaluate the prototype and design of the ‘My Route Planner’ feature we aim to implement to enhance the Blacksburg Transit app, we have opted to utilize Analytic Evaluation methods due to the nature of the feedback received by the users during the Diary Study. The feedback was more to do with qualitative aspects rather than quantitative aspects such as the time taken for a task or error rates. In terms of the dimensions of Rapid Vs Rigorous, we have chosen to go for the Rapid Evaluation methods due to the time constraints and scope of our project. We are purposefully making a tradeoff between the effectiveness to fit our project timelines and resources we have at our disposal. We have selected two methods that lie at the intersection of the Rapid and Analytic dimensions – Design Walkthrough, and Heuristic Evaluation. More detailed explanations are given below. Design Walkthrough We aim to utilize this method in a collaborative process where the team members review the user interface and the product feature of the high-fidelity prototype for the ‘My Route Planner’ feature. There will be a facilitator to guide the participants to uncover and receive feedback, raise concerns, and discuss various aspects of the design. The goal is to gain insights, identify potential issues, and improve the design before moving on to the next spoke of the wheel. Heuristic Evaluation For our next phase of evaluation, we want to perform UX Inspection on the implemented prototype of our proposed feature. We aim to have a set of inspection questions that would help us in ensuring the general heuristics of good UX are met. We also aim to tailor the inspection questions such that the emotional impact is also captured. We plan to select a group of 3-4 inspectors with relevant expertise to provide a detailed report of things that are working well in the prototype and match the heuristics, as well as the instances where heuristics were violated and propose solutions to meet the respective heuristic requirements. With the help of the Heuristic Evaluation Report, we will get a clear sense of whether the feature is a step in the right direction to improve the overall user satisfaction and experience while using the BT app or if we need to rethink our design. CONCLUSION Our proposal for the Blacksburg Transit App (BT) focuses on introducing the 'My Route Planner' feature and personalized notifications, directly addressing the specific requirements highlighted by the community of Blacksburg's transit users. These enhancements are designed with a clear objective: to significantly elevate the usability and efficiency of the BT app. The implementation of 'My Route Planner' is set to revolutionize how users schedule their trips, integrating seamlessly with their calendars to provide real-time updates and alerts, thus ensuring a smooth and stress-free travel experience. Personalized notifications stand out as a crucial addition, aimed at keeping users promptly informed about bus arrivals, schedule changes, and any disruptions. This feature is tailored to minimize wait times and optimize the daily commute, making public transit a more attractive option for everyone. By providing timely and relevant information directly to users' devices, we anticipate a marked improvement in overall satisfaction with the public transit experience in Blacksburg. The BT app, shaped by iterative development and responsive design, is set to transform Blacksburg's public transit into a more efficient, accessible system. This moves towards leveraging technology and innovation marks a significant step in enhancing the public transit experience for the community.
