Opening Door To
A Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority experience intervention.
PROJECT SUMMARY
Background: An individual project from the course: Design Process, Context, and Systems.
Objective: Design an aspirational experience that improves the current MBTA.
Timespan: Spring 2019; 4 weeks.
Audience: Tourists visiting Boston.
Goal: Improve the T's accessibility to tourists.
THE PROBLEM
After staying in Boston for a semester, I have figured the best way to determine whether a person is visiting Boston for the first time -- other than asking them to pronounce Worcester -- is observing if they know how to make the T stop at their desired open-platform station.
I still remember watching the stations flew by the T, disappear in the snow, and thought I was on the Polar Express. The T didn't bother to stop until a bing, but I couldn't tell who or what made that sound. It wasn't a few stops later that I saw someone pressing onto a black strap by the window, followed by a bing. Other than feeling weirdly accomplished discovering the hidden mechanism, I was pretty sure whoever came up with this definitely didn't read "The Design of Everyday Things."
This little discovery, along with other days getting lost at Park Street and struggling to get a Charlie Card, made me think: How can we improve the T’s accessibility for tourists? In other words, how do we help travelers learn how to utilize the T efficiently during their visit?
I later documented a trip and created an experience map to better understand the stages of taking the T.
My MBTA experience map.
I then concluded the expected inconvenience for tourists' can be dissected into the following:
- Hardships in navigation caused by poor signage, complicated routing, and unfamiliarity with Boston.
- Difficulties in receiving further assistance due to unstable cellular service and no immediate sight-seeing information.
THE SOLUTION
Introducing: Opening Door To!
Opening Door To introduces public WiFi on Ts that allows immediate access to request stops, recharge Charlie Cards, touring information, and MBTA announcements. (Since this is an aspirational project, WiFi is assumed to be installed and working.) Users will be directed to the website with the four features after connecting and logging in to the WiFi.
Home page of Opening Door To website.
- Virtual stop request reduces tourists' confusion in when to press the straps.
- Charlie Card recharge feature saves time from standing in front of the ticket machines.
- MBTA notifications provides live updates of maintenance problems, delays, and important announcements.
- Touring information, or Dumble-door as I call it (more Easter eggs to be discovered!), gives transportation directions for efficient traveling.
- More with access to WiFi, be it messaging, listening to music, or surfing the internet. In other words, although the targeted audience is tourists, the website also benefits all other passengers.
Sketches, wireframes, and iterations of logo and web page design.
Simple process flows.
THE OUTCOME
Opening Door To takes the form of websites instead of applications, which needs to be downloaded, to optimize efficiency. Users will be directed to the website after connecting and logging in to the WiFi.
Passengers can request stops by pressing the straps, which will light up in addition to the bing as an interaction feedback, or via the website. It is expected that commuters and locals will use the straps while tourists, who are unfamiliar with the T, will utilize virtual stop requests.
Signage will be posted in the cars to inform available WiFi and deliver strap usage.
Posters announcing available WiFi.
Prototype
The screens were created in Illustrator and imported into InVision.
Prototype created in InVision.
Reflection
This is my first interface design project ever, and I definitely see a lot of room for improvement looking back at it. I only had a very basic understanding of design process, thus there wasn't enough planning around the experience design. It was a hands-on experience in finding out the importance of flowcharts, wireframes, and style guides as there is a lot of missing screens, interactions, and elements that I didn't recognize. It was a start, an "opening door to" experience and interaction design.
Questions, comments, or suggestions? Leave a comment or message me! I would love to hear your what you think and discuss them with you. I promise I don't bite.
