Transit deserts in Seattle limit transportation options, disproportionately affecting lower socioeconomic and Black households. This lack of access restricts opportunities for jobs, education, and healthcare, as seen in higher unemployment rates and reduced student attendance and performance. Improving transit access can reduce air pollution and emissions, benefiting both the environment and underserved communities. Source↗

GoFarther.org is a website that crowdsources bus stop suggestions from riders to help cities identify and fill gaps in public transit access. The app collects location-tagged submissions to highlight proposals for feasible new stops that connect underserved transit areas.

Seattle residents can easily propose new bus stops. Users input their desired location, usage frequency, and travel times, helping transit authorities make informed decisions.

Seattle residents can propose bus route extensions, where users pinpoint desired new extensions, inputting their location, usage frequency, and travel times, enhancing the network's reach and convenience.

Seattle residents can request improvements to existing bus stops. Users can easily report safety concerns, cleanliness issues, or suggest schedule changes, with an option for more detailed feedback.

For engaged residents, the community map displays where other users have proposed new stops or route extensions. Viewers can explore these suggestions and gauge local transit needs.

My team initially explored the problem space by doing desk research by analyzing existing sources about transit deserts. We found that the main cause of transit deserts is poor transit planning and lack of municipality knowledge of that poor planning. While downtown Seattle and northern neighborhoods are well-served by light rail and buses, southern neighborhoods suffer from inadequate transit.

We interviewed Christine Bae, an Associate Professor in the Urban Planning Department at the University of Washington, to understand best practices in transit planning and strategies for improving access.

Christina recommends providing some transit access to suburban areas: a connecting line from the suburbs to a nearby light rail station. This allows suburban residents an option to access the larger transportation infrastructure when needed, while most day-to-day travel is still done by personal car.  

finding 1

Extending Existing Routes is More Successful

Adding stops to routes is less costly and complex for transit agencies to expand a current route. Creating new bus routes requires more planning around new paths, schedules, etc.

finding 2

Light Rail With Connecting Bus Routes

Connecting areas to light rails with bus routes is convenient for longer-distance riders, as light rail offers quicker transit into the urban core. Riders can transfer to buses for specific neighborhoods, reducing long bus rides from outlying areas

finding 3

Lower Demand For Public Transit in Suburban Areas

Public transit demand is lower in suburban areas, where higher-income households prefer using personal vehicles, making these areas transit deserts despite available services.

Along with our domain expert, I interviewed 3 individuals who have expressed frustrations with public transit in their area.

From our interviews, I decided to expand our idea to include areas with higher incomes and not only underserved areas, as a connecting line from the suburbs to the light rail station allows suburban residents an option to access the larger transportation infrastructure when needed.

After analyzing our research data, our team identified two distinct groups of users within Seattle's public transit system: suburban commuters and urban transit-dependent residents. These groups were crystallized into personas that serve as data-driven representations of our target audience.

Following the completion of the research phase, I formulated several problem statements that aligned closely with my findings. The most relevant problem statement was then selected to guide the remainder of this project:

How might we empower Seattle residents to directly influence public transit planning in their area to increase transportation access, equity, and sustainability?

Now that I had a good understanding of who we are building for and their needs, I was able to start thinking of solutions. I identified that the solution needed to extend an existing bus route, modify an existing bus route, and create a new bus stop.

Based on these key experiences, I determined our applications' 2 main request features: Creation of a bus stop and modification of a bus stop.

Using my ideation and key experiences, I sketched our low-fidelity user flows, depicting our initial vision user flow for GoFarther.org.

After the paper sketches, my team moved it into Figma where it was easier to move things around. The working name for our application at the time was BusSign, but down the line, it evolved into GoFarther.org

Landing Page - Request Stop

Request Stop: Fill out questionnarie pop-up

Existing Stop:

Existing Stop: Select a bus stop to modify

Existing Stop: Fill out questionnaire pop-up

My team conducted A/B testing with 7 new student participants who regularly use public transit. Half received an introduction to GoFarther.org and its goals (Group A), while the other half got no context (Group B). All users completed key website tasks, followed by reflective discussions. This approach helped us assess how context affected user interactions and perceptions, informing our design decisions.

All users were asked to complete a series of tasks related to the key features of the website, and then we debriefed with each participant to ensure they didn't feel like they failed if they couldn't complete certain tasks by guiding them through any incomplete tasks.

• Task 1: Notify Seattle legislators where you want a new bus stop to be added to improve public transit access.
  
• Task 2: See where other people have requested stops.
  
• Task 3: Notify Seattle legislators that an existing bus stop requires modifications.
• Task 4: Notify Seattle legislators than you want to extend a bus route.

I incorporated pop-up instructions that directed the user depending on if they want to request a stop or modify an existing route, allowing the user to better navigate the website based on their objectives.

I added more clear labeling to our buttons so users had some type of context. I additionally made the state of the button more apparent.

I enlarged the 'Request a New Stop' and 'Modify an Existing Route' buttons and moved them to the top of the screen. This prominent placement emphasizes our application's core functions, helping users immediately recognize these as the website's primary features.

I chose a color palette with primarily blue tones to establish a sense of reliability and credibility since our service requires trust and confidence from users. I used a sans-serif typeface to allow for ease of readability and to make GoFarther.org feel modern and user-friendly.

As Lead Product Designer for GoFarther.org, I established a comprehensive design system, creating reusable components and documentation to ensure a consistent and intuitive user experience across the platform.

Now that we were able to iterate our design and adhere to our design system, let's take a look at the final Figma prototype showcasing the polished interface for GoFarther.org.