myTransit Ontario
Transit Accessibility
A dedicated app for Ontario citizens with disabilities that provides instant accessibility information for a smoother and more inclusive transportation experience
Skills
User Personas Competitive Analysis Prototyping
Team
2 UX Designers
Date
Dec 2023
Overview
Project Summary
Ontarians with disabilities want more detailed information about the accessibility of various vehicles, stops, and stations. To solve this problem, we designed an app that provides reliable crowdsourced information about accessibility
My Role
I played two roles: product designer and a product manager
As a product designer, I went through the design thinking process (Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, and Implement). As a product manager, I led my teammates to develop a prototype for an app that solves a real-world problem
I worked on this project during December for 1 week
The Problem
People with disabilities face challenges with navigating public transportation due to a lack of comprehensive information on the accessibility features of vehicles, stops, and stations
Goals
When users are planning trips, they want to see the most accessible routes. These routes include public transportation, stops, and stations
Design Process
Empathize
To gain a high-level understanding of the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities in navigating public transportation, we conducted initial research using secondary resources (online forums such as Reddit)
To empathize deeply with the user, we conducted guerrilla testing near St. Patrick station in downtown Toronto to observe firsthand the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities
From these insights, we drafted a persona encapsulating the most important frustrations these users felt
We conducted competitive analysis by exploring existing solutions in the market to identify gaps and problems they did not solve. Doing so was important to us, as we didn't want to create a product that solves an already solved problem!
We first looked at Google Maps since this is the most prevalent app for all users
We found out that while it provided information about accessibility, it was not reliable because it depended on the business owners' updates. Furthermore, the information was focused mostly only on wheelchair users
Citymapper is another widely used app
Like Google Maps, it didn't have enough information about accessibility. One thing that worked well for this app was how it labelled stops, stations, and vehicles
Finally, we looked at Ontario 511
We wanted to get an idea of how this app was built by MTO, how they utilized the Ontario Design System (ODS), and what didn't work well. It was clear there was too much visual clutter
Define
To synthesize research findings and distill key insights into a focused problem statement, I led workshops to conduct affinity mapping sessions
At this point, we were struggling to define the problem. There were so many problems we could look at
We decided on a problem with a reasonable scope, establishing a clear and concise problem statement
Ideate
We explored various solutions, considering options like a personal assistance request system and paratransit booking. However, our scope was too large and we tried solving too many problems
Prototype
We started by creating an Information Architecture (IA) to get a high level idea of the app
Having decided on one vision of what we wanted to make, we started prototyping. We utilized the Ontario Design System (ODS) for the sake of brand identity and familiarity
Prototype Files
Results
The judges were impressed with our group. Going through the design thinking process differentiated us from other groups because we understood the problem we wanted to solve. Consequently, we won the first ever Labour Transportation Cluster (LTC) hackathon!
Here's an excerpt from the article written about our win: “Team 3 stood out with their app design and user experience, earning a high score for easy navigation, overall visual appeal and consideration for accessibility and inclusivity. The judges were impressed by their dedication to user research, bringing in real personas and user needs, on top of the end-to-end functionality of the application”
While this app hasn't been launched, there is a possibility of it seriously getting developed in the near future!
Insights
Foundational user research is imperative to ensure a problem exists in the first place. Understandably, we didn't have much time to conduct user research. However, from the limited research we did, we found evidence to validate some of our assumptions while invalidating others. This research is ultimately what separated us from other teams who based their products around hypothetical problems rather than proven ones
Sunk Cost Fallacy. Having attachments to certain ideas, ideas in which you have spent considerable effort in, is normal. But any good designer should let go in favor of better ideas, even if they spent a lot of time with them
An iterative process means going back and forth between different stages. That is okay
Solving one problem well > solving many problems. Many other teams fixated too much on adding several functionalities. While we were tempted to do that as well, we understood that solving one well-scoped problem is better than haphazardly solving multiple
Reaching out to mentors is paramount. Their experience will uncover your team's blind spots
Overall, I went through the design thinking process over a week to create a promising app that was well received and has a possibility of being developed in the near future
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