TTSee
Streamlining the every day commute for Torontonians.
Project Type
Master’s course project
Timeline
Oct - Dec 2023
Team
J. Abando, A. Chen, D. Hendersen
Platform
Mobile
My Role
The components of this portfolio, including research, data visualization, graphics, and prototypes, have been developed and refined to showcase my expertise in design and design thinking.
My Official Position - Research Analysis Lead, Ideation and Prototyping Co-lead
My Responsibilities
Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Visualization of Data
Development of Personas and Empathy Mapping, along with User Journey Mapping
Facilitation and Note-taking during Interviews and Usability Evaluations
Tools I Used - Figma, JigJam, Miro, Indesign
Define problem space
Start
User research
My team was asked to tackle a design challenge -
Improve the lives of Torontonians.
This was the design thinking framework:
Research analysis
User scenario mapping
User needs statements
Ideation
Wireframing/ Prototyping
Usability evaluation
End
Problem Space
Have you ever been stuck in transit, helpless and stressed?
Two-thirds of Toronto transit riders regularly face migraine-inducing delays and disruptions.
A commute is more than traveling some distance — for some, it marks the beginning and end of their day. Only about 14% of Toronto transit routes are classified on-time.
User Research
Understanding TTC users 🗣️
To identify the root of the problem, we conducted secondary research to develop our hypotheses. Following this, our team carried out a survey with 41 participants and interviewed 12 individuals.
Our research focused on three hypotheses regarding TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) riders:
They find it challenging to access relevant information about their commute on existing platforms.
They struggle with route planning due to unreliable services.
They have difficulty interpreting and responding to announcements about service disruptions.
Survey Findings
Lead, original graphics/annotation
Interview Findings
Lead, original graphics/annotation
Organizing the Findings 📊
We asked our participants to provide insight on their experiences and rated their satisfaction on a scale of 1 (extremely dissatisfied) to 7 (extremely satisfied). The survey results showed us that:
65% of the participants rated their experience of finding TTC disruption-related information a 3 or below.
60% relied on live or overhead announcements for updates of disruptions and rated their experience a 3 or below.
I led the organization of our findings and cross-referenced the interview results from 12 participants:
Service inconsistencies included, abrupt changes in public transit routes and skipped stations.
The lack of information provided, unavailability of TTC staff, and mismatched schedules.
Although Google Maps is commonly used for trip planning and viewing route options, it often provided inaccurate information and lack of personalization.
Live service announcements and electronic screens, while available, were frequently inaudible and hard to read.
Participants appreciated the affordability and convenience of the TTC; however, their overall sentiments ranged from neutral to negative, commonly expressing feelings of annoyance, worry, and a sense of insecurity.
Barriers faced by riders:
Existing mobile platforms riders use:
Emotional responses to barriers:
💡The design problem became clear
Regular TTC commuters have difficulties navigating around inconsistent services and important TTC information with ease.
Research Analysis
Lead, original graphics/annotation
Turning data into a story 💁📖
The findings aided in creating a user persona and understanding regular TTC riders.
Team brainstorm session
Team brainstorm session
User Needs
Co-creator
Penelope the Passenger needs a way to:
be made aware of TTC service disruptions before leaving,
so that they can plan around the disruption to stay on time.
quickly find re-routing options when TTC service disruptions occur,
so that they can make prompt and informed decisions.
efficiently narrow TTC information updates,
so that they can find route-specific information, avoiding information overload.
Ideation
Co-creator, original graphics
Brainstorming solutions for Penelope
Based on the needs statements created, the aim was to generate diverse ideas without judgment to uncover potential design solutions.
I developed these ideas:
Idea Voting
Subsequently, my ideas were merged with those of the team, and we assessed and voted on their feasibility and impact.
⬇
Ranking Matrix
After voting on the most feasible and impactful ideas, they were arranged on a ranking matrix to assess which ideas to prioritize.
The winners:
Proximity Notifications, Notifications for Your Routes, and In-App Audio Announcements emerged as our top choices in terms of both impact and feasibility.
💭A challenge arose.
Our goal was to refine our ideas to identify those most beneficial for Penelope. Following a vote on ease of implementation and impact, we realized our ideas were somewhat broad. To address this, we conducted additional ideation, resulting in a few standout concepts for our app.
Ideation Rerun
Co-creator, original graphics
We conducted another round of ideation, emphasizing mobile app features that would address all the desires and necessities Penelope might have in an app to keep their commute smooth.
The team voted on the most favorable features.
(Progress work) The team generated ideas with an emphasis on quantity, after which they were grouped based on similarity as seen on the last image.
⬇
Ranking Matrix Rerun
The winners:
The above feature ideas emerged as our top choices in terms of both impact and feasibility.
Defining Goals
Co-creator, original graphics
Transforming ideas into goals
With our app, Penelope the Passenger can:
understand service disruptions —
more clearly than listening to live announcements.
find relevant updates to their commute routes —
quicker than scrolling through dozens of tweets.
save their favorite routes —
to instantly track the TTC’s status along them.
personalized updates feed
Sort and filter
Push notifications
Save your route
In-app notifications
With the most impactful and feasible ideas in mind, the ideas were transformed into objectives - stating what Penelope will be able to accomplish with the app, and what significant improvement will be brought to them.
ETA update
Figuring out the flow
Based on the 3 goals stated above, each member sketched screens for the task flows - then we discussed which elements were best to incorporate into the app.
Wireframing
Co-lead & creator
The team individually sketching wireframes
Selected aspects were drawn into wireframes, complete with task flows showing sequences of steps that a users like Penelope would follow to complete a specific tasks or achieve a particular goal within the TTSee app.
Low-fi Prototype
Co-lead, original annotation/layout
Sequential Storyboard
A sequential storyboard was developed to provide a visual narrative of the user experience, facilitate communication, and aid in the evaluation and improvement of the overall design.
Agile Usability Evaluation
Co-facilitator, main notetaker, analysis-lead
Quickly testing the flows with users 📋💨
Before increasing the level of detail and functionality of the design, it was crucial to run an agile evaluation to assess out hand-sketched - low-fi prototype.
Two evaluation facilitators - myself and a teammate - carried out an agile usability evaluation with two participants.
We set out to find out:
User needs and expectations for each functionality.
Areas of friction in the user journey.
User interaction and unexpected touchpoints.
Conducting a usability evaluation through a video call with a participant.
The agile evaluation helped us gather aspects to change, improve, remove or newly add.
Mid-fi Prototype
Co-creator
In response to user feedback and insights from the agile usability evaluation, significant design changes were implemented. The transition from low-fi to mid-fi followed an iterative and feedback-driven process.
Below shows the mid-fi prototype and illustration of some of the changes made based on the feedback received:
Summative Evaluation
Notetaker, analysis-lead
Testing the mid-fi📋
We conducted a summative evaluation with the mid-fi interactive prototype that strikes a balance between the early, exploratory nature of low-fidelity designs and the more polished, detailed stages of high-fidelity designs. Three participants participated in the evaluation.
We had two main goals for this evaluation:
Identify potential pain points within the three flows, addressing and iterating upon them as needed.
Assess user perceptions of the app's usefulness, address any concerns they may have, and identify enjoyable aspects during the testing process.
The key findings from the summative evaluation provided insights into what was effective, what didn't serve the app's function, confusions, and brilliant new ideas shared by users.
🏁 This was the end of the team project.
I chose to move forward with the project to demonstrate my vision for the potential direction of TTSee.
Valuable insights from the evaluation
This was some of the most insightful feedback we received:
More personalization:
Link Presto data and have the app suggest routes to save.
Emphasize the value it brings to user:
Home screen displays the app’s main value - recent and current routes.
Add displays of information relevant to the commute, such as ETA updates and TTC car arrival times.
Clarify the intent of features
Latest updates - are they service disruptions or TTC-related news?"
My Main Takeaways
Acknowledgment:
The graphics in this project were modified and reproduced for inclusion in this portfolio.