Especially for internationals, finding the right bus in bilingual Helsinki is very challenging. Riders also aren't aware of helpful live status data that support the bus travel experience.
Restructuring how journey data is shown will help riders find their busses more easily. A more intentional journey experience will also increase HSL app users and engagement beyond just ticketing.
Riders found their busses more easily and with less stress. The project was accepted by Helsinki Public Transit is currently under implementation.
Helsinki is planning to substantially invest in public transit to render car ownership unnessecary by 2050. This requires outstanding service design to create seamless everyday experiences for everyone.
I talked to riders and had them navigate to an unknown destination to uncover gaps in the existing experience. After that, I created a service map for a better overview over the entire experience and analyzed the current app to better understand existing data and functionality.
Lack of information about the bus and bus stop made it difficult to understand which exact bus to take. Riders were constantly checking their phones on the bus as not to miss the stop. A lot of powerful journey-related data exists in the HSL app but it's spread out and hidden.
Exploring various options for different stages of the journey experience and using user testing as feedback to supplement lack of design team. Throughout, I constantly reassesed the product thinking and broke down the product into actionable steps.
I created detailed documentation of my approach, explorations and final design and product solution to pitch to HSL. I'm still in conversation with them after handing off the project to them.
Service design inspired product design to create experiences within complex environments. Managing scope, understanding design processes from outside the team and breaking down the product.
