Designing an Integrated and Seamless CTA* Travel Experience
*This is a research project for academic purposes and does not officially represent any updates from the CTA.
Design Research and Service Design | 2022 | Designed using Qualtrics, Figma, Adobe Illustrator/XD | Role - Service Designer
This academic project was a collaborative effort led by Aabha Kale, Eileen Lopez, and myself, combining our diverse skills and perspectives.
My role involved designing the final interventions, as well as conducting observations, contextual inquiry, survey design, analysis, and synthesizing the research findings.
In our project, we focused on improving the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) riding experience. As frequent riders ourselves, we were keen to explore the challenges in the service and find ways to improve it. Our aim was to make the journeys of CTA riders easier, empowering, and efficient.
We conducted thorough user research and utilized various synthesis frameworks to dissect and understand the core issues. This led to the development of a new feature, designed to integrate with the existing CTA system.
Methods
40
Hours of Desk Research
40+
Survey Responses
20
Hours of On-site Observations
10
Interviews
The Problem Overview
The CTA connected over 3.2 million people across Chicago and its suburbs, achieving a total ridership of 243.5 million in 2022. This service reaches a broad spectrum of the community, including students, elderly individuals, veterans, non-native speakers, tourists, and both first-time and international commuters. With a diverse community in Chicago, commuters often face issues with communication.
Imagine you are traveling on one of the CTA Trains. You are late, and suddenly, the train stops unexpectedly in the middle of nowhere. Frustration and confusion set in as you try to understand what's happening. The driver's announcement is vague and unclear, adding to your anxiety. When you attempt to find information online, there’s nothing available to clarify the situation.
Unfortunately, this scenario reflects the daily experience of many CTA riders, highlighting a significant need for improved communication.
Research
To gain a quantitative understanding and obtain a comprehensive overview of CTA riders' experiences, we launched a survey distributed digitally via Qualtrics, targeting Facebook groups, IIT student communities, and also through in-person distribution. Our research methodology encompassed engaging with numerous riders through contextual inquiries and in-depth interviews lasting 60 minutes. Furthermore, we conducted ethnographic observations at stations and on trains, in addition to accompanying riders on their journeys to directly observe and understand their experiences and perspectives.
Analysis & Synthesis
Refining our research to ensure it was succinct and impactful, we meticulously analyzed and synthesized the gathered data. By employing methodologies such as Journey Mapping, Trend Analysis, and the PESTLE framework, we were able to distill insights and identify patterns. This strategic approach allowed us to delve into and understand the nuances of rider experiences comprehensively.
Insights
We gained important insights by using Competitor Mapping, ERAF, and Mental Models. These tools helped us understand our competition, assess risks, and figure out what users are thinking, making our study more thorough and insightful.
How might we enhance the CTA's communication strategies to make real-time service schedules more accurate and accessible to all riders?
Presenting
Visito by Ventra
An integrated and personalized mode for travelers within the CTA ecosystem app to help with a smoother and convenient public travel experience.
Visito will enable you to add and personalize routes.
Simplifying the process of finding places of interest, determining how to get there, and compiling lists for your journey. You can craft a plan, and Visito will furnish you with all the necessary information from the start of your journey until you reach your destination.
Visito sends alerts and reminders on transit information, walkthrough and timings.
You will find QR codes in the stations and bus stops which will give real-time provided by other riders and accurate information about the current timing, reroutes and alerts.
Visito also keeps you informed with notifications about delays on your saved routes, and offers live tracking to send alerts on the best time to start your journey. This ensures you reach your planned destination on time, taking into account any delays or emergencies that may arise along the way.
Visito enables you to select your preferred language.
Visito makes it easy for the user understand information and skip language barriers that limits cultural accessibility.
Visito allows users to submit feedback, aiming to improve the precision of its real-time tracking features.
Implementing a feedback system for riders facilitates a retrospective analysis of transit information. Users can report instances of missed or delayed vehicles, aligning issues directly with real-time feedback. This eliminates the need to juggle various apps, tabs, and tools for travel management. Say goodbye to the days of travel confusion, missing buses, and stressful journeys.
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