Tracks.

Our team focused on creating an accessible product that could improve a user’s safety and breadth of communication while travelling on trains. But why was this an issue to begin with?

Duration

13 weeks

UI designer, UX researcher

Role

Jermaine Issa, Minh Duong,
& Anneliese Phillips

Team

High Distinction (85%+)

Grade

Research Phase

Up to 19 cases of sexual assault are reported monthly on NSW public transport explaining why 70% of women responded that they feel unsafe while using public transportation in NSW.

We conducted questionnaires, interviews and observations involving over 130 participants. We recognised a significant disproportion of concern for safety, where women specifically stated safety as a key factor that discourages them from using public transport. While both men and women are concerned for safety on transportation, women describe the fear of crime and assault when using train stations. Participants suggested specific changes concerning safety like increasing communication with safety officers and knowing safe spaces near the station for help.

As a young ethnic female who travels alone, the train can be very intimidating. I have often heard stories of physical and sexual assault from my friends. If the cost of parking and petrol weren’t so high, it wouldn’t be necessary for me to take such risks.

Response from interview.

“

”

Brainstorming

Based on our affinity diagram findings which synthesised our interviewees’ responses, we decided to focus on safety-based products to sketch. As a rapid ideation method, we undertook a traditional method of rapid sketching. This was due to the time constraints of the project.

We acquired feedback from peers about our ideas and found people preferred mobile phone concepts rather than the ones that involved carrying an extra item or physical usage. It was stated that people feel more comfortable with being discreet when reporting an issue and preferred a phone app as they typically will always have their phone with them when travelling.

Selection of the top choices from the sketches.

Wireframes of potential screens and user-flows.

Positive Feedback:

  • Option to view announcements chronologically or algorithmically tailored to the user

  • The access to different streams of announcements, i.e., Transport NSW, user announcements, participating café and restaurant announcements

  • Having a search bar to refine the feed

  • Ability to like/save announcements to a folder

  • Ability to easily share announcements in a link via other applications

Negative Feedback:

  • The inundation of announcements makes it hard to find relevant ones

  • A team needs to be created for monitoring, flagging and checking the posts made by users who are not organizations

Feature Test 4

Report function

Process

Pretend that there has just been a physical and/or verbal altercation on the train you are on. Navigate to 'Alert Mode' on the app. Click the 'File a report button and then 'Submit report’

Findings

  • 90% responded that the report was an important feature

  • The alert button is easy to notice, and a reporting button is crucial in effecting real change

  • The three options of dial 000, alert conductor and file a report are straightforward and useful

  • The alert button is too close to the home button and should not be black

*An interface redesign occurs after this section

Wireframing

As our user feedback indicated the preference to be a mobile phone app based on user safety with trains. We started to conceptualise application designs and wireframes for the application’s user flow through sketches.

After creating wireframes based on safety features for a train transport app, we created a low-fidelity mock-up to conceptualise it as a mobile application.

Research Methods

Synthesis Methods

Low-Fidelity Prototype

A low-fi prototype was created to plan the key features of the app. These key features were synthesised from the feedback provided in the surveys and interviews.

  • Alert/report feature

  • What’s nearby (safe places with people i.e. cafés)

  • Navigation features (routes, train lines)

  • Noticeboard (official delays, news, and reports from users about potential dangers)

This progressed to us creating a paper prototype to evaluate how users would interact with the product before committing to a design.

Paper Prototype

Test

1. Each User was given one slide

2. They were asked to pull it through the phone frame

3. Asked if they knew the purpose of each slide.

After users familiarized themselves with each slide:

4. Ask participants to choose the slide depending on their required purpose.

Findings

  • Was an easy and straightforward method of prototyping. Allowed users to see if the app was to their liking before it was produced digitally.

  • Being used to complex applications installed on their phones, users expect every visible icon to be a link to a page.

  • Users also prefer apps that they can swipe through rather than just pressing buttons.

Limitations & Refinement

  • Timely to produce and cannot cover every working page of the application.

  • Users feel observed when using paper prototypes and cannot use them organically.

  • Assumed users use apps in a linear pathway which is often untrue.

Mid-Fidelity Iteration

Simple layout to access emergency features to allow a simple and effective user- flow. This is a consistent theme within the design to make each feature extremely accessible in the minimal amount of clicks required.

Iterative changes based on the findings from the paper prototype include having the app function with swiping gestures rather than clicking, as users were more familiar with this type of navigation.

We conducted numerous navigation and function tests to obtain user feedback for how we can improve and change these functions and pages.

User Testing 1

Feature Test 2

What’s Around feature

Process

Navigate to the 'What's around?' page and find the details about Cafe Blanco

Findings

  • The majority of participants found the navigation ‘really easy’ or ‘easy’

  • The over abundance of colours is hard to read and complicates the UI

  • Need more descriptive buttons in the toolbar because it makes initial navigation confusing

  • Some areas have too much empty space

Situation

Finding an announcement on the notice board.

Process

Home page → notice board → announcement preview → announcement details → read, like, favourite or share a post.

Walk-through

Navigating through the application from the perspective of a first-time user.

The ease of using the app was explored through:

  • Simulating a train station environment that was loud and busy via body-storming and role-playing

  • Navigating through sections of the app while in the simulated environment

Findings

  • Finding specific announcements was straightforward due to the search bar tool

  • It only takes 3-5 steps to navigate to a particular announcement due to the minimal layout

  • Keywords and hashtags for posts and announcements would greatly categorize and refine search results

  • Greater attention to detail for all the pages needed for the final prototype

Overview

  • 11 application pages

  • Key focus on a modern, flat and engaging aesthetic

  • Trip planning is achievable through the “where to” search page

  • Aim to be informative through the explore pages and different communication channels

  • Key focus on safety via the reporting feature

High-Fidelity Iteration

High-Fidelity Redesign

After reflecting on this project, I wanted to come back and redesign the user interface as I was not happy with the overall aesthetic. My naivety to design, accessibility within the design, and understanding of colour theory had ill-informed the design.

I wanted to create a redesigned interface to improve the aesthetic to be more modern and visually appealing.

I began by asking penultimate and final year students in the Interaction Design degree about their opinion on the user flow and interface design. Three main responses were:

  • The emojis for the navigation bar were too childlike and playful for the context of the app

  • The tile design for What’s Around and Notice Board were inconsistent and unappealing

  • The home screen needs more information/purpose.

— WIP

User Testing 2, 3, 4

Feature Test 3

Chat Forum feature

Process

To navigate to the 'Notice Board' page and click on the first announcement. Then, click on it again to see the announcement details.

Findings

  • Participants found the task both ‘really easy’ or ‘easy’

  • Nice font and layout for accessing announcements

  • Needs more variety

  • Icon/tile display was well regarded