BUSIT Card

Overview

BUSIT card is a special discount card available only in the Waikato region for University of Waikato & Wintec students and staff, high school students and elderly who are over 60 plus years.

There are two types of BUSIT cards cater for two different age groups. The '60+ card' is a BUSIT card specifically designed for people aged 60 years and over. Discounts apply at off-peak times. At peak times, normal BUSIT fares apply. For regular bus users, the BUSIT card (excluding the 60+ card) is a pre-paid card that can be used on all urban routes and also on the Cambridge, Huntly, Raglan, Taupō, Te Awamutu and Paeroa/Morrinsville services.

Problem Statement/Pain Points

BUSIT card have a few problems for users who uses bus often for travel to work, university or shopping. I took my time to analyse what are the problems that users are having issues with BUSIT card currently. Taking time to understand what are your users problems and being unhappy about is an important step as an UX Designer.

1. First problem is that users are not able to top up their card through the BUSIT website or on mobile phone. Currently there is no native app build for BUSIT. It currently has an app called Transit Realtime which provides users bus locations and time for each bus that are in your area but there is no option for users to top up credits onto their card.

2. Second problem is that users have to pay cash only to the bus driver to be able to top up their BUSIT card or go to the Transport Centre BUSIT counter which accept (cash or EFTPOS) or University of Waikato Student Centre which only accept EFTPOS. As you can see this is becoming a problem for example, what if a user doesn’t carry cash with them and they would need to go to the nearest Transport Centre BUSIT counter to top up their card or withdraw money out to pay the bus driver to top up their card.

3. Third problem is the top up amount for BUSIT card is minimum of NZD$10. For example, what if a user has less than $10 credit on their BUSIT card and don’t have $10 cash with them for that day, what would they do? They will not be able to use the discounted price and have to pay full price for the bus.

4. Last problem is currently there is no option for users to check their card balance on the website or mobile phone. The only way for them to check is to keep the latest receipt that you’ve got from the bus which shows the balance on the card. For example, what if the users don’t keep their receipt and would like to know their card balance? Which means that they would need to ask the bus driver or go to the nearest Transport Centre BUSIT counter to query the balance on their card.

User Research and Market Research

I did a lot of market research to find out if there are any other transportation services who also have this kind of problems for their users or not. I couldn’t find any other transportation services that has this kind of problem as they already have a system that solved all the problems for their users.

As for user research, I conducted 13 interviews with University students and high school students. The age group ranged from 15 years old to 35 years old students. By thinking through the current BUSIT interface as critically as possible, consider every situation and every screen. Communicating with the students(users) to find out the problems and collecting detailed information about the users and their experience, creating 13 typical user profiles.

Design Process

I’ve created a user flow of what the users would go through when they uses the BUSIT website or mobile phone version app. I gathered all the information that I’ve gathered from my research and did the user flow for the users.

Next step, I took was to create wireframes of the design that would help solving all the users problem. First I did a quick sketches on some piece of papers and then I used Adobe XD to draw up all the wireframes from my sketches.

By having low-fidelity wireframes, allows me to validate my solution are correct or not by interviewing the previous users that I have interviewed before. I asked their permission would they be happy to conduct another interview with me once I have a quick prototype ready and they were happy to do a quick user testing interview. The responses that I got back from the users were positive because they were happy not only I have solved their problem and I have made the BUSIT interface more minimalistic. “It’s simple, clean and good user experience design” were a few responses that I got back from the users. Another solution that I provide to users is that they are able to get notification on their phone whenever they have a balance less than $5 on their card or when they top up the their card, they would get a successful notification showing that the amount has been added to their card. Here are two examples screens:

The Visual Design

Based on the wireframes and first prototype that I had design early, I decided to choose a vibrant colour for the app because I want to keep everything simple, clean and minimal for users to use. Before I showed you the final design of BUSIT, I would like to show you the current version and new redesign version for comparison and get feedbacks from you guys. Here are the before and after design, final design of the app and website that I have redesign for BUSIT:

Overall Learning Experience

I am happy with the result of this project in the end as all the users that I have interviewed and showcase the prototype to are happy. The new design that I have created for users are able to track their card balance online without having to go to a Transport Centre BUSIT counter or wait to ask the bus driver. They are able to check it anytime and anywhere they like. It also have the ability to notify users whenever their card balance is less than $5 or top up successfully. This allows users to keep track on their card without having to worry if they don’t have cash with them as they can easily go online to top up now with the new redesign concept.

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