Research
While the app should have functionality to be used across devices, we went with a mobile-first approach and started with wireframing for Android screens. I wanted the app to be very simplified and easy to use in a hurry for students who would possibly already be running late. We also wanted drivers who were already preoccupied to be able to quickly respond.
While conducting interviews and creating the personas, I wanted to make sure we included perspectives of both students AND parents.
Because of this, I made sure to create user journey maps that reflected these perspectives.
Creating a timeline was helpful. But I definitely put in some hours over the weekend. In a group environment it would also be helpful to get more feedback.
Research
While the app should have functionality to be used across devices, we went with a mobile-first approach and started with wireframing for Android screens. I wanted the app to be very simplified and easy to use in a hurry for students who would possibly already be running late. We also wanted drivers who were already preoccupied to be able to quickly respond.
While conducting interviews and creating the personas, I wanted to make sure we included perspectives of both students AND parents.
Because of this, I made sure to create user journey maps that reflected these perspectives.
Creating a timeline was helpful. But I definitely put in some hours over the weekend. In a group environment it would also be helpful to get more feedback.
Ideation
Starting off, I always like to do research because it helps me establish goals on what needs we’re actually trying to address.
My initial question was, “would an app like this actually be useful?” Thinking back to my time in school, bus routes were usually offered to parents after a quick phone call or office visit. And this isn’t something subject to change regularly. Would they really want or need an app dedicated to this or would they still want to check once on a website?
Since this is a hypothetical case, there’d be no direct answer to this. To complete the project I continued to include this feature, but time and effort were dedicated to the carpooling aspect which would be much more involved and probably used more regularly.
Further questions addressed:
- How would we go about validating students?
- Should students be able to sign up for the school bus via the app or would they still have to go to office?
- How would we validate and verify drivers?
- How will we make parents and students comfortable with this verification process?
Ideation
Starting off, I always like to do research because it helps me establish goals on what needs we’re actually trying to address.
My initial question was, “would an app like this actually be useful?” Thinking back to my time in school, bus routes were usually offered to parents after a quick phone call or office visit. And this isn’t something subject to change regularly. Would they really want or need an app dedicated to this or would they still want to check once on a website?
Since this is a hypothetical case, there’d be no direct answer to this. To complete the project I continued to include this feature, but time and effort were dedicated to the carpooling aspect which would be much more involved and probably used more regularly.
Further questions addressed:
- How would we go about validating students?
- Should students be able to sign up for the school bus via the app or would they still have to go to office?
- How would we validate and verify drivers?
- How will we make parents and students comfortable with this verification process?
Wireframing
Aside from the visual suggestions from the prompt we used, we wanted the app to be very simplified and easy to use in a hurry for students who would possibly already be running late. We also wanted drivers who were already preoccupied to be able to quickly respond.
Based on our initial research, I thought a rider AND driver view would be necessary.
Wireframing
Aside from the visual suggestions from the prompt we used, we wanted the app to be very simplified and easy to use in a hurry for students who would possibly already be running late. We also wanted drivers who were already preoccupied to be able to quickly respond.
Based on our initial research, I thought a rider AND driver view would be necessary.
Prototyping
Further mapping out the wirefreames making sure the sitemap is logical
Prototyping
Further mapping out the wirefreames making sure the sitemap is logical
Refining
Fleshing out designs, making sure to keep in mind the experiences from multiple devices and perspectives.
Refining
Fleshing out designs, making sure to keep in mind the experiences from multiple devices and perspectives.
Next Steps
Issues I faced:
- Recruiting children for user studies is difficult.
- I relied on opinions from friends/family and their siblings a lot more for this project than I intended. For a real project, I assume it would be easier since we’d already have connections to a school that has shown interest and we’d be able to sort out things like waivers and get consent from parents to interview students.
- Final decisions will have to be made by the office.
- Most user journeys will end in either the students or drivers having to contact the school’s office to complete school bus registration or driver verification. Initially, we tried to find ways to complete many of these steps within the app, but this would require there to be a 3rd branch of the app used by administrators that they would have to regularly monitor. To save time and resources, it makes more sense to defer all final decisions back to the school’s administration since they already have systems in place.
Next Steps
Issues I faced:
- Recruiting children for user studies is difficult.
- I relied on opinions from friends/family and their siblings a lot more for this project than I intended. For a real project, I assume it would be easier since we’d already have connections to a school that has shown interest and we’d be able to sort out things like waivers and get consent from parents to interview students.
- Final decisions will have to be made by the office.
- Most user journeys will end in either the students or drivers having to contact the school’s office to complete school bus registration or driver verification. Initially, we tried to find ways to complete many of these steps within the app, but this would require there to be a 3rd branch of the app used by administrators that they would have to regularly monitor. To save time and resources, it makes more sense to defer all final decisions back to the school’s administration since they already have systems in place.