BUSPAS
Product strategy, graphic design, and UX/UI design for Buspas' new digital bus stop.
An award winning new paradigm for passenger information, safety and accessibility developed in partnership with SurfaceID for Buspas.
About Buspas
Buspas is a transportation hardware + software technology startup based in Montreal with $11M in funding.
Services Provided
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Qualitative and quantitative UX research
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Product strategy
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UX/UI design and prototyping
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User-centered testing and iteration
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Industrial design partner: SurfaceID
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Objective
Buspas wanted to reimagine the traditional bus stop panel, using AI powered real-time data services for both passengers and transit authorities. Our role was to:
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Identify the opportunities for improving the passenger experience
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Develop a holistic product strategy for the project
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Design the UX/UI of the smart bus stop
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Research
Hybrid UX conducted qualitative interviews with passengers in three target persona groups to identify key pain points in their public transit experience, covering topics such as planning, navigation, accessibility and safety.
We uncovered many opportunities around themes of bus arrival times, bus locations, bus occupancy, auditory updates, and safety.
KEY INSIGHTS
Go beyond static schedule
Bus occupancy affects wait
Passengers often felt unsafe
Passengers didn't trust the planned bus schedule. Too many factors affected actual arrival times, and passengers wanted real time updates and estimates.
Passengers wanted to know bus occupancy because sometimes buses couldn't accept more passengers during peak hours causing increased wait times.
Safety was a recurring theme in passenger experience. Bus stops are often unlit at night, and the city was informed of disruptive behaviour too late to help stop it.
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Design
We prototyped and tested key features like real-time bus arrival predictions, current bus occupancy, bus locations, motion-detection lighting at night, audio updates, and sensor data transmitted to bus network operators.
Hybrid UX ensured the final design was bringing value to passengers, inclusive, particularly for ADA compliance, and addressed safety issues uncovered during research.
FORM FACTOR EXPLORATION (SURFACEID)
FORM FACTOR REFINEMENT
UX/UI EXPLORATION
FIRST FUNCTIONAL PROTOTYPE
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Results
The smart bus stop design significantly improved both rider satisfaction and transit system efficiency, as demonstrated in pilot deployments in North America and European cities as well as the Meta campus in Palo Alto, CA.
Named a winner at the Barcelona Innova Lab Mobility competition, winning a year-long pilot in Barcelona.
Finalist in the NYC Transit Tech Lab, in the Customer Experience category.
