Trace
An app to create plans and help you explore the various transportation options to get there.
Context / Class project
Team / 3 other designers + me
Role / User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, User Experience Design, Visual Design
Project Duration / 4 months
Tools / Adobe XD, Illustrator, Photoshop, Marvel
01 Problem
This was a semester-long project in my Design Thinking class in which my team and I aimed to create a solution to assist exploration of more efficient and sustainable transportation options.
We focused on this observation: Why is the bus always empty? The Austin Metro is free for UT students; yet, people barely use it.
There are many ways to get around a city: bus, train, car, rideshare, scooter, bike, walk, and more. However, car and rideshare are chosen most of the time, even though there are more sustainable options.
How can we HELP UT STUDENTS explore other (and more sustainable) TRANSPORTATION options?
02 Interviews
We interviewed eighteen UT students on their transportation habits.
02.1 Learnings
Plans come first. Transportation decisions come later.
After talking with students, we learned that while “where you’re going” is always paired with “how you’re getting there”, the emphasis is placed on the former. It is not a priority to think about the latter, much less optimize it.
It is frustrating, confusing, and daunting to learn to use a new mode of transportation.
Due to factors such as lack of clear signage and unfamiliarity with the environment, people are deterred from exploring other modes of transportation to get to their destination.
While Ubering might not be the most sustainable or cheapest, it is the most convenient and convenience is what people prioritize.
We realized, we can’t create a solution that addresses transportation exploration in its own silo because that’s not how people think about it.
03 Design Process
With our learnings, my team decided to create an app that helps people make plans and also facilitates the exploration of different transportation options. I led the UX and UI development of our app, starting from creating an architecture diagram of how our app flows and preliminary low fidelity sketches to a functioning high fidelity prototype.
04 User Testing & Prototypes
We tested our wireframe on six UT students, asking them to perform specific tasks, such as creating a plan. Some feedback we received is below.
With their feedback, we created our second iteration, this time using our visual guide.
While testing the high fidelity prototype within our team, we realized we had a feature that not only had no interview data backing it up with, but also did not have much value-add to our app: the social feature.
This social side of Trace provided a feed so you can see what plans your friends have, what transportation options they chose, and the option to duplicate the plan if you like it.
05 Solution
Trace is a mobile application that assists in making plans, exploring transportation options, and discovering new things to do in your city:
Individual: Pre-plan transportation routes for your upcoming events and receive real-time notifications on your schedule.
Group: Easily create plans with your friends. During the plan, have real-time updates of your friends’ commutes.
Discovery: Discover new activities and routes through exploring new destinations.
Feature Walkthrough
Create plans
Create plans with your friends and get personally curated transportation routes on how to get there.
When a friend creates a plan and invites you, you have the option to accept, reject, or edit the plan.
Plan creator
Plan invitee
Feature Walkthrough
Garage
Select all the transportation options you are open to using in your Garage. You can set constraints, such as maximum distance and maximum time, on each option to help optimize your routes.
Feature Walkthrough
View plans
View all upcoming plans in the dashboard and see your upcoming transportation routes in the map.
For each event, view your personal travel and event itinerary, a map view of your friends’ and your travel routes, chat with your friends, and view your friends’ itineraries.
Feature Walkthrough
Discover plans
Discover new places to explore with your friends in your city. Location options come with price, duration, and transportation options.
06 Learnings
Defining an MVP in the beginning is important. We spent a lot of time fleshing out the social side of our app when we eventually realized we really did not need it at the end. Defining what our core product was in the beginning would’ve prevented this from happening.
Different backgrounds = different perspectives. My team was made up of a software engineer, a designer, an art director, and a marketer. Our varying points of views and unique perspectives led to more innovation in our design process.
We presented our final project in a 45-minute presentation with Q&A in front of our class, professor, and special design professional guests. We received high marks and an encouraging parting message from our professor:
Now go out there, and make it real!