Question
How can the experience of finding your route and getting on your bus be made easier to encourage ridership?
Research Process
The project began with an inquiry into why people prefer not to use MUNI services, particularly during off peak hours. Numerous systemic issues like cleanliness and security emerged, but we chose to focus the project on areas particularly suited to a digital app - a lack of meaningful information and a requirement for exact change.
Design Strategy
Provide meaningful information in a timely manner, and allow for cashless payment from the app.
Suggestions
1. GPS tracking of all MUNI vehicles to show precise location, putting wait time in context.
Research Process
Through all of the interviews I did with users of different transportation services, it became evident that people need to know exactly how long they need to wait and why. Impatience leads to abandonment. People seemed particularly pleased by the GPS vehicle tracking provided by modern car services.
Design Strategy
Implementing GPS tracking of MUNI vehicles provides precise arrival time to stations and contextualizes any waiting time that may occur. The direct visual feedback puts users at ease and engages them in their transportation experience.
2. Tracking both the environmental emissions and personal dollars saved by riding MUNI to incentivize use.
Research Process
Transportation users revealed that they often go to more convenient competitors despite their higher cost, both monetarily and environmentally. Many people indicated that providing higher visibility of the impacts of their actions would go a long way in changing their habits.
Design Strategy
While people may claim to care about their environmental impact or personal finances, they often need visual reminders to maintain good habits. Allowing users to redeem a free ride when they have offset the environmental cost of that ride provides a real world incentive for people to use the app and engage with MUNI.
3. Full trip planning providing step by step navigation from your location to your destination and cost comparisons.
Research Process
Contextual inquiry of potential MUNI riders revealed that a lack of information about MUNI services, lines, and stops, combined with an unsatisfied need for guidance through the system, led to widespread abandonment in favor of more straightforward services.
Design Strategy
By telling people step by step, from their location to their destination, exactly where they need to go and what they need to do, the app removes the intimidation of using an unfamiliar system to get around. Presenting time/cost comparisons to car services and bicycles further encourages and incentivizes people to use MUNI.
4. Mobile ticketing and proof-of-purchase.
Research Process
Perhaps the largest deterring factor for potential MUNI riders is the requirement to have exactly $2.25 in cash to buy a ticket. Throughout interviews and in the field, people kept expressing how much they wished they could use their phones to pay.
Design Strategy
Allowing people to buy a 90 minute ticket for MUNI services before boarding decreases congestion at the bus entrance expediting the line, and expands ridership by allowing those without cash to participate. This could easily be integrated with existing Clipper infrastructure and allow for data analysis of ticket purchases.
