Bus Interior Mockup, Not actual representation.
To go about the task, I followed a specific User Experience Design Process. The project started off by making a list of How Might We’s to find out the range of possible problems faced by an average daily user of the BMTC bus Service. I then made a set of Design Principles I wanted my final outcome to follow.
Proto Personas were then created of the users that might be travelling in a BMTC Bus. After doing some primary research in the form of interviewing a variety of users, a Primary Persona of my user was created to know whom the design is intended for.
With the help of a Customer Journey Map and a User Scenario, Touchpoints were located and a basic understanding of how the user might function was determined.
User Scenario
Various methods of Ideation such as - Crazy 8's, Break the Rules, Bizzaro World, and S.C.A.M.P.E.R were carried out and sketched roughly.
A few rounds of ideation later, a storyboard for the final idea and the Smart Bus Handle and Window Panel were created and prototyped.
Storyboard
Bus Handle with navigation bar
Above bus window, navigation bar
The handlebar of the BMTC bus is modified to reduce the anxiety of the passenger as s/he is on his/her journey. The handlebar has an LED strip that indicates the stop that the bus is now arriving at. When the bus is 5 minutes away from the stop, the handlebar will vibrate for a brief period and the light will glow, thus indicating the bus stop that you are arriving at.
This is a way to help those standing in a crowded bus, with little to no visibility of the stop that they are reaching. This can also cause a person to get alert, as people tend to zone out as they travel in a bus. If the person is not familiar with the city, and thus, has a language barrier to communicate, this helps them get off safely and without worry of missing their stop.
The metal frame between the passengers’ window and the glass that touches the roof of the bus is fitted with an LED strip that indicates the stop that the bus will arrive at next.
This helps eliminate anxiety that is formed when a person who is sitting cannot find any signage (due to their absence or due to lot of crowd/traffic) that is supposed to indicate the stop that the bus has arrived at. When the bus is about to arrive at a particular stop, the LED of that stop glows.
After creating the prototypes, I user tested it and got appropriate feedback for the same.
A group project by Mahalaxmi B and Calvin J Stanley