Commuter

Inspiration

A bus that was supposed to come now actually arrived at the station 5 minutes early and is now gone. We usually have no choice but to wait anxiously at the station. Our team found that people usually lack access to accurate information about the bus, thus they waste their time and have bad experiences. Also, according to research, our team found that government has a large budget for Seattle transportation. Therefore, we are wondering if the government needs ideas to do the improvement of the transportation system. Combining our user research and the situation in the post-covid stage, we decide to design a system for the Seattle bus station -- Commuter.

What it does

It provides bus information to our users while them riding the bus. Our current bus system is extremely lacking the information that the rider needs. It helps to fulfill those gaps and provide a more convenient commuting way for our riders. For example, it tells the rider where is the bus, how long are we going to wait for the bus, information regarding each station, and also where should they go to find their bus station. That information is provided without any internet and cellphone requirements on the user side. So no matter the rider has a cellphone or not, they can all obtain the same information and arrive at their destination.

How we built it

We have our brainstorming meeting with our team members. We have researched the problem of the current bus system and we also have a deep discussion of the experience with the bus system in Seattle. Summarizing all of those problems, we came up with lots of solutions. Yet some of those solutions are great but due to the time limitation, we do not have the time to build them. In the end, we choose the best solution that can fulfill everybody's needs and achieve our goal of bringing convenient commute to our community.

Challenges we ran into

Since our topic is Post-Covid, we have a huge challenge of how should our users interact with our system since it should require people to touch on it. Yet if all of our users touch on our interactive screen, then the chance of spreading covid-19 and another communicable disease will increase a lot. After our research and discussion with tech people, we finally find a technology that will be mass production this year. We hope we can collaborate with them and apply their screen to every bus station so that people do not have to touch on the screen but still can interact with the information

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We came up with a solution that can fill the information gap! And this solution is not required for people to have internet and cellphone. People always give out solutions first with an app on their phone or a website, but it is really unfriendly with people who do not have access to the internet and cellphone. Although currently in Seattle 72% of the people have cell phones, it is still not cover 100%. As we develop something that requires people with a phone, the target audience is always left out those people without cellphone. I think those people are deserving the same treatment as people with phones. It's just they do not have the ability to buy it, not loss the right to have with. I think this is the compliment that we are proud of and we wish we can get out more ideas that both considering people with the ability of internet and cellphone, and people do not.

What we learned

We learned that communication is really important when it comes to teamwork. It is important to say out loud your concern and your ideas. If everyone just keeps silent and does not say anything, then there will be no progress in the project. Although sometimes it might get into an argument, those arguments are benefiting the project because we are all wishing this project gets better. It is also a way to firm your idea during the argument.

What's next for Commuter

Our team does not have a system engineer, so I think it is important to get a system engineer to let our product realize. We also need to send our system to our potential users to get feedback. In order to continually further optimize our product, the user feedback is crucial for us. Those two things can be set together, but they are equally crucial as each other.

Built With

• figma
• pr
• ps