TranzIt
A redesigned transit experience built to reduce friction in everyday commuting across Hawai’i
Project Type: Conceptual Capstone Project
Timeline: 2022 | 8 weeks
Project Overview
Public transit riders in Hawai’i face fragmented information, unclear schedules, and inconsistent user experiences that make commuting unnecessarily stressful, especially for first-time and daily riders. TranzIt was designed to centralize route planning, real-time updates, and navigation into a more intuitive user experience.
My role was to be a designer in the entirety of the project, spearheading all design initiatives from discovery, planning for the user experience, to executing user interfaces.
In this project, I led end-to-end UX and interface design, including user research, information architecture, wireframing, visual design, and interactive prototyping.
Research & Problem Landscape
User research was conducted to evaluate how commuters currently navigate Hawai’i’s public transportation system and identify opportunities to reduce friction throughout the transit experience. Through secondary research and user interviews, I found that riders often relied on multiple disconnected platforms to access directions, schedules, and arrival times. While these tools provided basic functionality, research revealed several recurring pain points and opportunities to improve the overall commuting experience.
Pain Points
- Difficulty understanding unfamiliar routes and transit systems
- Challenges navigating unfamiliar locations and destinations
- Inaccurate or inconsistent wait times across existing transit applications
Opportunities
- Reduce uncertainty and wait time through real-time updates
- Centralize transit information into a more accessible experience
- Simplify route planning and navigation for commuters
Solution Ideation & Wireframes
Reducing Uncertainty Around Arrival Times
To address inaccurate and inconsistent wait times, the app was designed to prioritize real-time transit updates and recent route data. A community reporting feature was introduced to allow users to submit delays, traffic conditions, or service disruptions, helping provide commuters with more accurate arrival information.
Making Transit Information More Accessible
Research revealed that transit information often felt fragmented and difficult to navigate across existing platforms. To centralize information into a more accessible experience, the app was designed to support multiple methods of discovery, including searching by city, landmark, route, nearby stops, or directly though the map interface.
Simplifying Route Planning & Navigation
To create a more flexible navigation experience, users were given multiple route options based on different commuting properties. Riders could choose routes based on factors such as earliest arrival times, fewer transfers, or proximity to their destination, allowing them to select the option that best suited their needs.
Guided by these solution directions and insights gathered through guerrilla usability testing, I began translating concepts into wireframes and user flows. The wireframes focused on core interactions including reporting delays, exploring route and stop information, navigating transit directions, and creating a more intuitive search experience. Below are several key screens that illustrate these solutions in practice.
Brand & styling
The brand identity for TranzIt was developed to reflect transit experience that feels approachable, reliable, and easy to navigate. The name “TranzIt” combines the word “transit” with the local Hawai’i greeting “Howzit,” connecting the product to both its purpose and regional context.
To reinforce the brand’s focus on reliability and accessibility, the visual system centered around shades of blue and yellow. Blue was used to communicate stability, trust, and clarity throughout the interface, while yellow introduced warmth and approachability to create a more welcoming commuting experience.
These brand attributes were carried throughout the UI through the use of rounded interface elements, clean visual hierarchy, and simplified layouts designed to make transit information feel more intuitive and accessible for riders.
Prototyping
Community Reporting & Real-time Updates
To help reduce uncertainty during commutes, the prototype included a community reporting feature that allowed users to submit delays, traffic conditions, or service disruptions directly within the app. The home screen functioned as a personalized dashboard designed to prioritize glanceable transit information and reduce the number of steps needed to access time-sensitive updates. Users could quickly view nearby reports, monitor transit activity, and contribute new reports in real time.
Accessible Transit Information
The prototype also focused on improving access to route and arrival information by supporting multiple search methods. Through the arrivals experience, users could search by either bus stop or route depending on their preferred mental model and commuting behavior. Selecting a stop or route displayed real-time arrival information designed to help commuters make quicker and more informed transit decisions. The interface prioritized clarity and speed of access to minimize friction during time-sensitive commuting situations.
Flexible Navigation Experience
To simplify trip planning and navigation, the prototype guided users through the process of searching for destinations, selecting routes, and beginning navigation. Users could compare different route options based on priorities such as arrival time, route efficiency, or proximity to destinations, allowing commuters to choose the experience that best matched their needs. This flexibility helped support both planned and spontaneous commuting behaviors while creating a more intuitive navigation experience overall. Providing multiple navigation pathways also helped accommodate varying levels of familiarity with Hawai’i’s transit system.
Usability Testing Feedback & Insights
Usability testing was conducted to evaluate the clarity of navigation, accessibility of interface elements, and overall ease of use throughout the prototype experience. While participants were able to successfully complete all primary tasks, testing revealed several opportunities to improve visual clarity and interaction feedback across the interface.
One recurring observation involved the “More” buttons used throughout the application. Participants occasionally perceived the lighter gray styling as inactive rather than interactive. To improve affordance and visibility, the button styling was updated with increased contrast while maintaining consistency within the overall visual system.
Additional feedback highlighted the importance of designing for a wider range of user familiarity with technology. Some participants noted that certain icons could potentially feel unclear for older or less tech-savvy users, reinforcing the need for intuitive visual language and accessible navigation patterns throughout the experience.
Overall, usability testing validated the effectiveness of the core navigation flows while identifying small refinements that improved clarity and accessibility within the final design.
Learns & Future Iterations
Designing TranzIt end-to-end strengthened my ability to translate user research into a complete product experience. Conducting user interviews and usability testing helped deepen my understanding of how commuters interact with transit tools, identify friction points throughout the user journey, and evaluate design decisions based on real user behavior and feedback.
While the MVP successfully addressed the project’s core goals, future iterations could further improve reliability and accessibility through features such as in-app technical issue reporting, more consistent interface patterns, and refined iconography across the design system.
Overall, this project reinforced the importance of designing intuitive, accessible experiences that help users navigate time-sensitive situations with greater confidence and clarity.