Redesigning TRAFI: the UX behind public transportation in Jakarta
Riding public transportation brings many advantages, such as reducing air pollution, saving expenses, more practical and more productive (for some people). However, sometimes it turns to bad experiences because of the struggle of being on time, tracking the rides, and it’s confusing.
Trafi is an app that helps public transportation passengers in Jakarta. It provides Transjakarta (big bus), bus, medium bus, mini bus, and train schedules. Through this app, people can find out the schedule and estimate departure of public transportation in real-time.
However, people more often use Trafi to track Transjakarta schedules. Considering the large numbers of Transjakarta ‘s passengers — more than 1 million passengers per day, I focused on redesigning one of the features on Trafi for Transjakarta target audiences.
PROBLEM
According to some interviews I have done with Trafi users, I found a few difficulties while they are using Trafi. The following factors are the reason of the difficulties.
1. Uncertainty.
2. Non optimal function.
3. Confusing.
4. Inconvenience usage.
GOALS
The goal is to improve Trafi that brings convenience and advantages for the users’ experiences on taking public transportation in Jakarta, especially Transjakarta.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
USER RESEARCH
Target User
There are generally two types of people that use Transjakarta:
Target 1
The workers who ride Transjakarta every day to go to the work place/college or go home.
Target 2
The people who want to go somewhere they rarely or never visit (including the traveler who come from outside Jakarta).
User Journey Maps
I have selected some people who are related to the target user. I chose them to understand the pain points and their challenges in using Trafi.
Target 1 — User Journey Map
Target 2— User Journey Map
Identifying and Prioritizing Pain Points
After describing users journey map, I identified some user pain point.
1. Annoyed with people borrowing tapping cards.
2. There are faster routes that not appear in the app.
3. Sometimes the passengers miss the stops.
4. They don’t know the direction to walk.
5. It becomes exhausting when you want to meet your friend at some points.
6. People confused about which Transjakarta buses pass their current stops.
7. When users are clueless about the route, can Trafi suggest them some?
8. Can users directly order online transportations from Trafi?
Then I prioritized each pain point based on its importance to the user as well as its importance to Trafi.
DEFINING THE PROBLEMS
I decided to solve the seven pain points that were both important to users and Trafi.
Pain Point 1 : People sometimes forget the tapping cards balance.
Card balance is very important when people are going to ride buses. However, sometime people are distracted with many things that make them not paying attention to the cards balance. On the more troublesome side, not all bus stops provide services to top up the tapping card balance.
Pain Point 2 : Sometimes people know the faster route that don’t appear on Trafi’s recommended routes.
People want to compare some routes they know with the routes recommended by Trafi, which route is faster and more practical.
Pain Point 3 : People are lack of awareness to take the stops.
To make the best use of time, people like to listening to podcast, listening to music, reading books, or even sleeping on the bus (Transjakarta). The thing is people are potentially miss the stops. Usually people should pay attention to the speaker that telling us which stop we are at so they don’t miss their stops.
Pain Point 4 : People don’t know the direction to walk.
In unfamiliar places, people will be confused about the walking direction to the stops or places.
Pain Point 5 : It becomes exhausting when you want to meet your friend at some points.
It becomes inconvenience when you can’t share your location to your friends that you will meet with.
Pain Point 6 : People confused about which Transjakarta buses pass their current bus stops.
When people get the wrong stop, they need to see which buses can get them back.
Pain Point 7 : When users are clueless about the route, can Trafi suggest them some?
Trafi actually can suggest users the route they need to take by “Get Me Somewhere” bar, but some people often can’t find this features because it is awkwardly placed on the covered area.
IDEATING SOLUTIONS
I came up with several potential solutions to each of pain points and made some rough sketches.
I also did some validations on the Lo-Fi sketches and used the feedback to refine my sketches and narrow down my solutions for the Hi-Fi mockups.
The Lo-Fi validation receive some critics, as follows:
- Some features are awkwardly placed
- Tricky navigation process
- People confused about whether this app is real time or not
Base on the feedback, I created Hi-Fi mockups of my solutions. I do some usability tests. I tested the prototype with 5 individuals. Insight from the validation tests led me to reiterate on some screens.
Below are the Hi-Fi mockups of my final solutions which are divided based on the pain points.
Pain Point 1 : People sometimes forget the tapping cards balance.
Design Solution : Allow the users to be able to check for the balance and in the same time they can top up their balance — New Feature.
Pain Point 2 : Sometimes people know the faster route that don’t appear on Trafi’s recommended routes
Design Solution : Allow the users to create their own route and compare it to Trafi’s recommended routes. Users can also delete the route they create — New Feature.
Pain Point 3 : People are lack of awareness to take the stops.
Design Solution : Add a feature for users that can alert them to take the stops.
Pain Point 4 : People don’t know the direction to walk.
Design Solution : Allow the users to see the real track to walk somewhere.
Pain Point 5 : It becomes exhausting when you want to meet your friend at some points.
Design Solution : Allow users to be able to share their location to their friend.
Pain Point 6 : People confused about which Transjakarta buses pass their current bus stops.
Design Solution : Add a feature that can help users to see which buses will stop at the bus stops.
Pain Point 7 : When users are clueless about the route, can Trafi suggest them some?
Design Solution : Move the “Get Me Somewhere” to easy-to-find screen area.
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Task 1 : People want to go somewhere with Transjakarta.
Task 2 : See and top up the tapping card balance.
Task 3 : Searching about which Transjakarta buses pass the current bus stops.
Task 4 : Adding new route.
CONCLUSION
Trafi redesign gives me an understanding that how we empathize the users is just as important as creating the app in the first place. Get to know real users — user testing is the key to help us understand what is their needs.
What I also learned from doing this case study is how important about the path and the placement of one features that can affect the users’ satisfaction. It is important to make the app as easy and friction-less as possible for a user to use those tools. And sometimes a change as small as enlarging a button, moving a search bar, or changing an icon can make a difference.
Thanks for reading! :D
