Client
Malaysian
Year
2023
Team size
1
My role
User research, User interface design
Overview
This project is currently in the discovery stage and I'm currently interviewing the users, feel free to read about the latest progress below (Last updated 16 Aug 2023, 6:35 PM)
I'm an avid public transport user in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I took the bus and train system almost everyday during my college days and even now when I head to the city. I'll take the bus and train to avoid traffic jams and unavailable parking spaces.
After travelling to other countries and experienced their public transportation system and came back to Malaysia I think that our system and service really needed to improve to drive the nation forward.
The Problem
It is no surprise to Malaysian living in the city to face different kinds of problems when they are commuting to work everyday. I have seen complaints almost everyday in various social media towards the services providers about all sorts of problems. It is endless.
Here are some typical but crucial ones
Regular break down of the train system during peak hours
Insufficient train coaches and buses during the peak hours
Inability to track bus and train schedules properly
Depending on location, buses arrival time doesn't match the tracked time
Diving deeper into the user journey of commuting to work
Although the problems are obvious since a lot of people are already complaining. As a designer, I wanted to know more about the users. What are they like, what are the unobvious challenges they face, how do less tech-savvy commuters use the system on a daily. They are a lot of problems and it will be impossible for me as a sole designer to solve every single problem. I had to identify potential solvable problems and also what kind of questions I need to prepare.
User interviews
Currently I'm interviewing 5-6 public transport users who has experience taking the bus and the trains as they are the ones who has been through the entire system compared to people who only takes the train.
Insights found after talking to users
Here are some insights I have found so far after interviewing 4 people (including the pilot session)
Consistent arrival and departure time helps in trip planning
As of now the biggest problem faced by the users are busses not being consistent with the arrival and departure time.
Although apps are able to track the location of the busses or trains but it can't prevent the bus being late or arrives earlier that reported
Public transportation staffs doesn't seem to have a good or clear SOP for them to conduct their duties properly to assist commuters
Drivers don't take the departure time very seriously and sometimes would depart earlier or later (almost 10 mins)
Based on users' sentiment, they feel like bus drivers skip stations to catch up to the time that they missed
In terms ticketing problems, some stations would enable commuters to pay at the counter and some don't which frustrates the user
Using multiple apps and methods to find the most convenient and cost-saving route
Almost all of the users will use multiple digital solutions to plan their journey like Google Maps, Moovit, Waze, and Rapid website. Additionally, all of the users think that the Rapid app is not user friendly and lacks core features that helps them to plan their journey.
All of the user values a journey that is cost and time saving as they can avoid traffic jams and the need to find parking spaces. Though one of the users did mention that the journey using the public transport is still vary time-consuming
In-depth analysis and insights writing are in progress
Currently I'm still working to find another 2-3 users as the last users was not suitable after talking to her. At the same time I am also working on consolidating the notes and writing more preliminary insights from the interviews I have done.
Stay tuned for latest updates! (Last updated 16 Aug 2023 6:35 PM)
