Sweep

How I crafted a public transportation app, using preliminary research, surveys, and common product methodologies.

Mid 2021 • Product design student • Mobile app design, preliminary research, wireframe to prototype.

Sweep app case study - a public transportation alternative by Aviv Yogev

As part of the UX architects course I took in 2021 (by Dr. Ofer Monar), I was asked to design a public transportation app. The app should have several public transportation options (bus, train, taxi, etc.), and orient the user during all stages of his route. Here are a few words about the process I had.

Goals

Project’s main goal was included in the brief, while I added secondary goals to narrow the focus and orient my solutions toward specific principles. Later I compared, validated and modified these goals according to my research insights.

Sweep goals

Preliminary research

First things first, I started by conducting a survey to find common usage patterns and identify opportunities for improvement. I ended up with interesting results.

By asking users to rate their feature-usage frequency, I distilled the top 3 features in use. By combining rating-scale questions, and asking people to rate their level of agreement with certain statements, I pull out some more important insights about usage patterns. I also asked people to sort & prioritize their personal preferences while riding in public transportation.

Sweep app research insights

Other than the survey, I also did some benchmark research of popular public-transportation apps such as Moovit, Transit and Citymapper to review common patterns, and take inspiration for UI and features.

Example of my benchmarking research as part of the preliminary research.

Putting it all together

After the preliminary research I felt ready to assemble the pieces together. Starting by distilling a user persona:

The persona I created after my preliminary research.

In addition, I also sorted features by priority, analyzing the tasks our persona has to perform in order to take a successful ride, assembled an information architecture, and tied it all together in a user flows.

View full analysis →
Sweep user flows

After my analysis I ended up with 3 main used cases in mind for my design, even though eventually I choose to focus on a single, primary used case for my design.

Sweep app main used case

Wireframe, design, prototype...

It a long and iterative process, but as usual - I’m starting from whiteboard sketches that evolve into wireframes, up to a fully function prototype

Wireframe of sweep by Aviv Yogev

Outcome and conclusions

I ended up with something I was quite proud of. After all it was a school project I did very quickly, but I think I got the most out of it, especially the research process and survey building. Both the course and this project were great experiences that added to my confidence & skillset as a designer.

In retrospect, I probably should have explored more variations, and iterated more within the wireframe stage. I think I could have come up with more sophisticated, out-of-the-box solutions. But again, it was an educational project after all, so it fulfilled its purpose in that manner.