Case Study:
MARTA
The goal of this case study was to understand diverse user experience problems the MARTA (Atlanta Public Transit System) mobile app has, and ultimately, to solve these issues by designing more accessible and user friendly interfaces.
ROLE
UX Research
Interface Design
Information Architecture
Wireframing
Prototyping
TEAM
Self-directed
CLIENTS
MARTA (Potential)
Design Challenge
MARTA’s mobile app has many issues with their usabilities, such as their unmotivating and complicated In-app navigation process, their unclear design language, and lack of focus on user needs.
Another challenge was how to improve MARTA’s public service timeliness by redesigning their mobile app.
User Research - Mobile App Review
User Research - Interviews
“Thought I would be able to use it to get to work teaching elementary school, but it was so frustrating, I ended up giving up on the whole public transit system altogether and just decided to bite the price tag and Uber to work instead.”
“The app makes no sense. I can’t even purchase a ticket to get on the train from it. I have to use a completely separate app for that? Are you kidding?”
“I have been frustrated with how there is no direction on how to get from point A to point B, it expects me to know the whole layout of the city like the back of my hand and just have knowledge of all the station stops. No longer use this app, I now use Google maps but those times are always off so it just sucks.”
User Persona
Event Security
Tushar Levinston
Tushar is a working class man reliant on more than one job around the city. Recently he has been struggling to reach work and often has showed up late because the MARTA app does not present a simplistic route from point A to B with updated transit schedules built in for him. He has become so frustrated, he now is saving up for a car to longer have to use the app and transit system. He feels exhausted and frustrated with all of these unclear features and complications that MARTA provided.
3rd Grade Teacher
Breanna Lei
Breanna is a 3rd grade teacher who has tried her best to take the MARTA. But the poor app functionality was her last straw. She now opts to take Uber and pay the extra money each morning because she never felt she could understand the MARTA app and MARTA system as a whole. Without the ability to pay in app or type in a destination, she decided it was too much to deal with on her already tight schedule.
Solution
I solved the problems in a more design-focused manner. After conducting user research, I considered three main components which made for a negative user experience, these being: complicated user flow, lacking design consistency, and missing essential features.
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Many people are frustrated with the horrific design of the app and instead decide to use Google Maps. However, Google Maps lists buses that do not show up and times which are far off schedule leading to high frustration for every single rider. This is a disgrace to the low-income communities that rely on public transit.
01
User flow
The MARTA app has a complicated and difficult to determine flow, making the process incredibly frustrating and inefficient.
Current App Structure: Simply put, all functionality is hidden and the flow assumes the user is extremely knowledgable of the current system already!
As the solution, I brought all the user functionality to the forefront, destination based home screen, simple menu bar, and ticketing screen.
Home
Menu
Ticketing
Information architecture
02
Visual Design
A general problem of the app was the lack of design consistency and its rigidity.
Original Design
Redesign
My solution was to unify the entire interface
by rounding out rough edges and coloring reflective of the brand identity.
More functional welcoming screen to greet the user with destination at forefront.
Replacement of rigid edges with rounds and simple color scheme to focus on the buttons and type.
Important buttons are now in plain sight with easy navigation from app open.
Old
New
03
User experience
A majority of complaints about the MARTA app recognized the inability to purchase tickets in the app, how a separate app was necessary.
Breeze Mobile
Ticketing functionality
MARTA App
No ticketing functionality
With this realization, I created a 'Get Pass' feature in the menu bar
that gives travelers a place to purchase a ticket and a ‘Wallet’ to scan their QR code at the gate.
Purchasing options available from menu.
Gate scanning functionality built into wallet.
Wireframe sketches
Final designs + prototypes
Final look
