Russell Lee



From branding projects to book covers, I am a designer passionate about creating experiences that meet client and user needs through well-considered design choices.

My weird wish is to sing Whitney Houston and hope that the signage in Tokyo’s subways slightly improve.
 Brand ExperienceSingapore  
Vintage Supply
Australian Disability Rights Network
Motion IllustrationReimagining TimeBook DesignA Very Short Introduction Playground
Experience & Contact

Highlighted Projects  

Improving Sydney’s Bus System

User Experience Design


Brief
After noticing how unfriendly Sydney’s bus systems are for helping new users navigate its bus routes, I decided to see how I could improve it
Credits
Russell Lee

What I did
Research
User Testing & Prototyping
Journey Mapping
Experience Design
When
2025 Improving Sydney’s bus stops to guide new users to make confident travelling decisions

Challenge
I have observed that without TripView or Google Maps, it would be incredibly difficult to know which bus to take to new destinations, even for frequent bus users. 

The Goal
The goal is to develop a function to help users navigate Sydney’s bus system within the physical limitations of recently introduced bus eStop signs, to rely less on external apps like TripView or Google.

Research
  • In-person interviews
  • User testing
  • Other research included: analysing other country’s bus systems and searching Reddit for first-hand experiences

Approach
Understanding the broad range of problems encountered by bus commuters, I aimed to engineer solutions for each identified problem. I wanted to keep the scope of my redesign within the reasonable physical limitations of existing infrastructure. 

Outcome
Through rounds of user testing, feedback, and low-fidelity prototypes, I refined the user journey, guiding users toward a clearer end goal. Watching users experience that “wow, I get it” moment was incredibly satisfying as a designer.


The FINAL OUTCOME. A bus stop eSign with my new integrated function.



The Problems Observed

  • Navigating Sydney’s bus system well requires a high level of previous and/or tacit knowledge, making it very unfriendly for new users particularly.

  • Without using TripView or Google, it is difficult to know which bus routes to take or where to alight.

  • Bus stops do not adequately inform users where the bus goes and where it alights – only key interchanges or terminal points. Knowledge of this heavily relies on pre-existing tacit experience.





“I might as well just use my phone, right?”
– Stephen, when first asked how he would navigate to a destination using a bus stop sign


Evaluting the Problem with Interviews

Participants I interviewed confirmed several of my observations.

  • All participants predominantely relied on Google Maps or TripView to determine how to get to new destinations; or relied on previous experience to know which buses to take

  • Sam thinks the bus stops are useless and would use his phone instead

  • All agreed that knowing which stop to alight at or where a bus services travels to requires knowing the area well beforehand or using their phones

  • Vincent said if he needed to know where a bus were going, he would ask the driver. Even then, asking a bus driver often yields curt replies or themselves not knowing whether or not their route goes to a certain stop.


On-Site Observations



“It’s my general belief that any design system should always be able to guide its users without much, if any, external apps or help – that’s what makes a design system effective”
– My belief and approach


Developing a Solution

 With that said, how can I achieve this for Sydney’s bus system?

After reviewing the interviews, I decided to create an in-built function into the eSigns where users are able to see bus routes and stops provided by the bus services. This would:

  • Make up for insufficient bus stop information (e.g. enabling users to see the entire bus route, besides just key stops) allowing users to make more informed decisions

  • Enable user-confidence regarding which bus to take or where to alight. Particularly for new users or those who cannot access/use Google Maps or TripView, like the elderly

  • Less need to ask the bus driver for help everytime, overall avoiding unpleasant interactions

“The first time I used a bus as a kid, I wasn’t confident which bus to take. I was going to call my parents...I only know where to get off because I’ved lived in Carlingford for so long.”
– Sam, on his first bus experience as a kid


Sketching and Build

FIGMA build – with early iterations to more developed prototypes.




Prototyping & User Testing

In order to test the functionality of my prototype, I asked participants to catch a bus to meet a friend, who lives in Baulkham Hills, when they are in the QVB without using their phones.

  • Overall, all participants managed to determine which bus service to take with ease.

  • I observed that participants would scan all the services at the bus stop before confirming which service is the best. Meaning that the information provided by the new function was useful to also know which bus route not to take.

  • I had to adjust some zoom and scroll functions. Overall, however, users seemed to understand how the scroll and zoom work intuitively without much confusion. 


Pushing the Design

To evaluate the effectiveness of my design I tested it on people from various age groups, especially those who didn’t usually take the bus.

To further challenge the effectiveness of my design I removed all the location headings of each bus service, forcing participants to deeply engage with my design. This would truly determine if users would be able to find which route is needed without any initial affordances.
No location names for each bus service. For example, it would usually say ‘Castle Hill’ as the terminal for the 610X.  




Conclusion

To evaluate the effectiveness of my design I tested it on people from various age groups, especially those who didn’t usually take th

Appendix & Other NotesI anticipate a few questions regarding my design, so I want to address them.

  • I’d want to re-emphasise that the scope of my design is to not fix any other issues other than having a visualiser for bus routes. There are other issues (such as an indicator for overcrowded buses, etc.) that I do not aim to solve here.

  • The prototype is not fully developed. In other words, the prototype is only sufficient in so far as to user test the concept.

  • I want to acknowledge that this design doesn’t entirely solve all bus user problems. For a design to more adequately need the entire needs of a bus commuter, a more rigourous system would be required. For the purposes of keeping my assignment realistic, I wanted to challenge myself in creating a design that could be fitted into the existing infrastructure of the current bus eSigns.

  • Other investigations into the UI design: