ON IMPROVING MUNI’S OFF PEAK HOUR RIDERSHIP

Giving riders the control over their transit through San Francisco 

Overview

SFMTA is motivated to increase Muni’s off-peak hour ridership to reduce road congestion and improve their revenue 

Team & Duration

Ashutosh Kole, Sahar Farhidmehr, Charles Haitkin from General Assembly UXDi Winter 2015. Duration was 2 weeks 

Tools & Methods

Background research, Competitive analysis, User Interviews, Contextual inquiry, Surveys, Affinity mapping, Concept model, ideation, wireframes, Tools: Pencil & paper Sketch 3, Invision 

CHALLENGE

“Muni does not really care for its riders”

- A Lyft rider

San Francisco residents and visitors equally do not view Muni as a preferred mode of transportation. Though Muni is perhaps the least expensive mode of transit within San Francisco (only next to walking and biking), given an option, riders prefer taxis and rideshare to Muni. Amongst the plethora of reasons why this is the case, lacking the timely and correct information about their ride - such as lack of knowledge of the schedule, reporting of delays, inadequate en route experience etc. This conveyed a general sense apathy towards the riders in this age of refined customer service, where the competition provided a much better and personalized experience.

Also, riders typically use multiple transit apps to figure out their travel and the Muni’s native app does not provide much functionality.

Commute hour ridership also suffers through these effects, but a higher frequency and expensive alternatives during commute hours make riders use Muni during these times. 

SOLUTION

Improving Muni’s overall customer service experience will give the control back in the hands of the riders 

The larger solution was to give the control back in the hands of the riders and enhance their overall experience by a single mobile application that helps them in the following way:

• Provide them with real-time information about their trip, ability to share the crowd level and maintenance issues in the bus for the future passengers on that route.

• Provide them with an alert before approaching the bus stop - if they opt to have that.

• Plan the trip in advance - including directions to the bus stop, details about the bus crowd level, delays, if any; driver details.

• Find out issues or delays with their particular bus line prior to boarding and helping them figure out alternatives.

• Give them options of transit to their final destination, after they get off the bus, by connecting them to other transit apps if that brings value to the user's commute.                                                                                                                                                                

In doing so, we believe that the overall improvement in rider’s experience will transfer to the off-peak rider experience. 

DELIVERABLES

APPROACH

User Interviews and Survey

We surveyed a lot of San Francisco residents, about 75% of whom were Muni riders. We got some very insightful trends which sensed towards a general sense of distrust and hopelessness towards Muni. We also talked to people who used rideshare and asked about their reasons to not take Muni instead. The answers mirrored the trend we got from the surveys. People did not feel that Muni was helpful. 

Comparative & Competitive Analysis

Comparing Muni as a mode of transit within San Francisco with the rideshare companies, through of the mode of the survey unveiled, not to our surprise, that rideshare is the most convenient, comfortable and predictable paid mode of transportation. Muni, on the other hand, leads the affordability aspect of the transit. Since the strengths of rideshare and Muni are in different areas, they could possibly work in conjunction to provide the best service to the raiders, including AFFORDABLE LAST MILE CONNECTIVITY, or in the case of San Francisco, the last few blocks of connectivity.

Currently, the users of Muni mostly prefer competitor apps to figure out the transit details within San Francisco. The scope for Muni to deliver the above discussed holistic solutions via a redesigned app is enormous because Muni already generates and distributes the transit-related data to the other apps. 

Affinity mapping and Concept Model

Based on the data we collected from User interviews and surveys, we mapped what people felts, said and thought about when they were talking about Muni. After multiple iterations of the arrangement of all the comments in various groups, we figured out the issues that were under Muni’s sphere of influence and those that were outside. Having this Concept Model in place helped us prioritize the features on the app that would address the issues of riders. 

We sorted out Muni’s infrastructural problems from its customer service related shortcomings. Lack of information became the major theme of targeted solution. We also took along the advantages Muni already offered to its riders and that of the rideshare options (Services like Lyft, Uber, Chariot etc.) for a potential collaboration for the last mile connectivity. 

IDEATION

Personas that were created helped serve the mode to test the robustness of the proposed deliverables. They helped by being part of the journey through Muni’s app. Multiple sketches were generated and quickly tested. Design critique by fellow designers led to further modification of the sketches and validation of the primary solution ideas. 

USABILITY TESTING

Usability testing revealed that though the basic flow was intuitive, some UI elements needed a revision. There were also a few suggestions regarding added functionality that needs to be thought on. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS AND FURTHER REFINEMENT

Very strong connection between the initial goals and the solution

Certain key features, such as Bus and driver information, Crowd estimation and reporting, Bus stop approach alert, Calories burnt estimate from walking to and from the bus stop were the highly appreciated features. All these features tie up to the primary goal of the project - giving the control back in the hands of the rider. We believe that this organic way of ride experience improvement through subtle features will regenerate trust amongst riders. This, in return, will increase ridership both at peak and off-peak hours.

Further refinement includes refinement in the UI elements to give clarity for the feature. Possibly adding few more useful features to the flow without causing featuritis. A possibility also of another survey to try and understand what people expect before boarding and post disembarking the bus and testing the idea further for a Muni-Rideshare nexus.