Amble
Finding comfort in your commute!
Role
UX Designer & Researcher, Graphic Designer
Year
Fall 2022
Skills/Tools
Figma, Miro, Design Thinking, User Research, User Interviews, Iterative Design, User Testing, Wireframing, Prototyping
What’s the problem?
How might we enable individuals who commute using non-personal motor vehicles, particularly in last-mile situations, to better make informed decisions, thus enabling them to feel safe and confident through every point of their commute?
The Research
Our team conducted thoughtful research to uncover the why this problem exists and how we can best design a system that solves the problem! The Research phase consists of the following methods:
Competitive Analysis
User Research
User Scenarios
User Personas
User Flows
Competitive Analysis
What solutions already exist and how to they compare? We conducted a competitive analysis to see how other navigation services compare with providing non-vehicle commuters the necessary tools for a safe experience. We used Google Maps and Waze as the primary product competitors:
Discovered Themes & User Quotes!
✦ Concerns for public transit and walking
“Also, the one bus stop has a light at it, but the stop I get off at doesn’t have a light at it, and we have purple [street] lights and they’re creepy so I don’t like to do that.”
- User G
✦ Preparation for taking public transit or visiting unfamiliar places
“I always walk to unfamiliar places, I love visiting hidden restaurants in Manhattan. I use google maps, and care less about crime reports, since I know there are people walking around and small businesses operating in Manhattan, which makes me feel safe. But I would love to listen to warnings and advice from a local friend.”
- User F
✦ Correlation between public transit and time of day
“Level of safety I feel when using public transit is dependent on the time of day. If it is daytime, and I am with friends, I feel safe, but if it is night time, I get uncomfortable.”
- User A
User Research
Our team interviewed 8 users of varying demographics and backgrounds. The goal was to determine their primary mode(s) of transportation and understand how they interacted with these modes of transportation, in addition to how they perceive the relative safety of their environments.
How the findings influenced our design
Our findings reinforced our initial ideas of a solution focused on personal commutes and safety. We also uncovered the potential positive social impact our solution could have through the integration of data analytics:
Crowd-sourced data regarding the state of infrastructure, such as potholes, locations where sidewalks end, inadequate streetlights, etc, in traffic-dense locations can facilitate the restoration of infrastructure in a more efficient manner.
Additionally, identifying pockets of social inequity through community-driven data-gathering may better enable community organizers to serve their communities.
User Scenarios
To better understand the situations our users may encounter, we created three scenarios to help think through the emotional journeys they may go through. Here is an example of one of the scenarios!
User Personas
Our team then created user personas and unique scenarios to evaluate the use of our app with. See their stories below!
User Flows
Using Miro, we created the user flow from three main features of the app: Report, Navigation, and My profile. Below is snapshot of one part of the flow our team created to help us understand how users might interact with the features of the solution.
Design & Iteration
The Design phase consists of the following:
Lo-Fi Paper Prototype
Mid-Fi Figma Wireframes
Usability Testing
The Final Design!
Lo-Fi Paper Prototype
Creating the paper prototype was a fun and creative process for our group! It gave us a chance to focus on the journey before the aesthetics which is a key part in embracing the user experience. We created a script and put together a demo of our paper prototype to bring our solution to life.
Figma Wireframes
Using Figma, we designed the following wireframes, shown below, which helped us refine features of the app and identify any changes that needed to be made.
Usability Testing
Finally, we ran usability testing on a few of our peers to evaluate interface interactions and to help identify areas that require improvement. The table below summarizes our findings and possible mitigation solutions based on the following six tasks:
Create an account
Select Obstacles to avoid during commute
Navigate to north quad
What happens if construction is encountered?
What happens if there is a wild animal on the loose?
Spend some earned points and acquire a crown for your profile!
Final Design & Demo!
So what does Amble do? Based on crowd-sourced information about obstacles and other elements present in the environment, amble enables pedestrians to make informed decisions during their walking commutes. The following are key elements of the solution:
Provides users with high-level up-to-date information about hazards in their environment.
Allows users to make informed and flexible decisions about their walking commutes.
Users can make self-reports about hazards or obstacles along their journey.
Offers gamified approach to pedestrian navigation!
Social Impact!
We hope that Amble can foster a positive social impact by facilitating meaningful restoration of community infrastructure based on user-sourced input. Additionally, identifying pockets of social inequity through community-driven data-gathering to enable community organizers to serve their communities.
Given more time, our team we would like to further the opportunity for community engagement through the gamified profile feature. Additionally, one of the social impacts of the app is that it creates a database through which communities can access information about underserved areas. We'd like to spend more time on this element because it could help local stakeholders identify areas of potential redevelopment opportunity.