There aren’t enough people in Northern Ireland using public transport on a daily basis which has led to the congestion of personal vehicles on the roads, resulting in higher levels of carbon emissions. From the most recent reports on transportation, only about 4% of all travel around the country is by public transport. Most people drive, leading to serious congestion in built-up areas like Belfast. This also increases CO2 emissions which can contribute to health problems. Translink has goals to provide a full net zero fleet of buses by 2040 but unfortunately, this will not be enough to decrease emission levels.
I believe the online experience of public transport is significantly important to encourage adoption and battle the levels of carbon emissions. Some issues that I have found through research are as follows:
Whilst living in Belfast for the past 4 years, I have used many public transport services. These include; Metro buses, Goldline, AirPort Express, fonaCAB, Uber, NI Trains, Next bikes, and the Glider. Each of these types of transport provides its own online experience which links customers to their services. From the frequent use of many of these transportation methods, I have developed a strong opinion of them. For many, I have found buying tickets quickly and gaining access to certain information quite difficult.
Even though this project is mostly motivated by my desire to improve something in the local area, climate change is also an ongoing problem in our country. Currently, transport represents 35 percent of all energy used and over 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Congestion is also a major concern, which is why the Glider buses were implemented. They were effective at increasing the use of public transport in their first year by 30% but in order for this to continuously increase, I feel that further improvement must be made with its online services to make it more desirable.
From the most recent reports, only around 4% of commuters are using Public transport in Northern Ireland and around 75% are relying on their cars. One of the main reasons people travel within Northern Ireland is for work, which is a recurring event almost every day for most people. These people are my main personas. If I can make public transport more desirable for people who commute on a daily basis and who need access to travel information quickly, the outcome could be significant.
I like the idea of having everything in one place. One app that would cater to all transportation methods and show people their options for traveling. My goal is to combine buses, trains, taxis, Uber, bikes, and scooters into one app to encourage the adoption of public transport, thus creating a Greener environment. I also want to add gamification to this app to provide an incentive for usage.
To achieve my goals and expected outcomes, I will continue to extensively research transport systems and experiences to understand how people are feeling and how they are affected. I also want to find out what competitors are doing to enhance users’ experience with transport.
I have examined two of the most recent reports from TSNI to find out valuable information about how and why people are travelling. I have discovered a lot of interesting facts and statistics from newspapers and trusted articles about congestion in NI, health problems associated with pollutants, and plans that are in place to bring transportation in NI to net zero.
I have reviewed and audited numerous applications that currently exist for local transport and I have organised my findings to highlight the problems.
Once I have completed all of my initial research to enable me to get started, I will begin sketching wireframes, user flows, and sitemaps to get a feel for how my product will function. I will continue to conduct research whilst developing my initial idea to ensure my designs are aligned with the user requirements.
Whilst ideating I will continue with my brand development, gathering feedback as I go along and ensuring it promotes the right message for the product’s objectives.
After I have finished designing on paper, I will transfer my designs to low-fi mock-ups, where I will test the functionality of my app with several different user groups. This will ensure that I am still aligned with user goals and help uncover any issues that the designs have. This will ultimately save me a lot of time before I begin prototyping in high fidelity.