Improving Sydney’s Bus Signs
Self-Initiated ProjectBrief
This is an independently directed and initiated project aimed at challenging myself to solve a social problem I have observed. I have observed. It was designed by myself over a 4 week sprint.
Description
To increase user-friendliness and accessibility of Sydney’s bus system for those who aren’t familiar with it and/or cannot access technology to help them.
This project not only required a deep understanding of Sydney’s bus system and its inadequacies, but a lot of time and effort given to identify problems, testing prototypes, iterating on solutions, and building Figma prototypes.
This project was to further develop my Figma skills, as well as being a passion project to helping create human-centric solutions to meet the shortcomings we have in Australia as everyday citizens.
This project was to further develop my Figma skills, as well as being a passion project to helping create human-centric solutions to meet the shortcomings we have in Australia as everyday citizens.
Credits
- Russell Lee
What I did
- On-site research
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Interviews
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Creating prototypes on paper & Figma
- User testing
Softwares
- Figma
Timelines
A capstone project over 12 weeks in Semester 2, 2024
If you need to use Google to know how to turn a doorknob, it’s probably not a very well-designed doorknob.
Likewise, if you always need to use Google to know which bus to take maybe bus information should be better provided.
If you need to use Google to know how to turn a doorknob, it’s probably not a very well-designed doorknob.
Likewise, if you always need to use Google to know which bus to take maybe bus information should be better provided.
It’s difficult to navigate the bus system without Google Maps; reducing our reliance on external apps with better information design
Can we navigate Sydney’s bus services without external help, like using apps or Google? If we cannot, then that might suggest the current bus stop information we have is inadequate in helping its users. Here are my observations with what is wrong with Sydney’s bus stops:
- Navigating Sydney’s bus system requires a high level of previous/tacit knowledge, making it very unfriendly for new users
- Without using TripView or Google, it is difficult to know which bus to take or where to alight. In other words, the information provided within the stops are inadequate in supporting user needs.
- More specifically, Sydney’s bus stop signs provide very little information about each service. They only headline either key stops or terminal points – but nothing about the exact stops nor suburbs that are less significant which they still pass through. Take the above image for example: the bus stop on Pitt St has many different services that around the city – namely, other bus stops on Pitt St. However, because there are no extra information and details for each bus services beyond key locations & terminals, it is difficult to know the difference between exactly where on Pitt St each bus goes to.
“Can’t I just use my phone?”
– Stephen, when showed the prototype bus sign suggesting our reliance on phones to navigate Sydney’s systems
“Can’t I just use my phone?”
– Stephen, when showed the prototype bus sign suggesting our reliance on phones to navigate Sydney’s systems
Interview participants agree that they rely on apps to help them get around – not bus sign information
Participants I interviewed confirmed several of my observations.
- All participants heavily relied on Google Maps or TripView to determine how to get to new destinations. This suggests that bus stops in itself do not adequate help users
- All agreed that knowing which stop to alight at or which bus service to take requires knowing the area beforehand or using their phones
- Vincent said if he needed to know where a bus is going, he would ask the driver. Even then, Vincent observed that some bus drivers cannot even answer his question on whether their service goes to a certain stop. Either that or the bus driver returns a curt reply