UX Design — Fundamentals of UX (part 1)
Introduction
Applying a design thinking process we reviewed the Bus Eireann school transport scheme to understand user experience issues — gaining insight and empathy with the target users in order to design and evaluate a potential prototyped solution. The scope of the project is to understand the problem and explore possible solutions.
Problem
Both Bus Eireann, the Dept of Education (the funders) and Trapeze recognise that the website requires a refresh.They want to engage with UI/UX experts that can help us with the project.
Approach
With a team of 3 (Frances Mowlds, Mateus Bettio Moreira, & Myself) we wanted to split up the work, as to “divide and conquer” and then later regroup and present our finding. This worked as a team to complete the project, but was lacking in the experience point of view, as I was unable to fully grasp all the aspects of sections that where carried out. I would have preferred to do all sections together but because we were all far away, it was hard to meet-up.
User Experience
I just want to start by stating that to register a single child on the Bus Eireann bus to school website took me around 11 minutes and 55 seconds. Most of the issues are related to form entry, postal codes not working correctly and incorrect names/location for schools.
“I tried to fill in the form for my son. for the first time. It said eligible but when I got to the end of the form and I wasn’t allowed to fill in the section for the medical card number.” — Elizabeth Harrison
Task Analysis
In the task analysis we observe a number of friction points (In RED) for the user.
- Feedback late in the process (Am I Eligible?)
- Start Digital and Ends Paper
- Form filling is not smooth — user is jumping in and out of the process
Storyboard
Story — checking eligibility status
- There are a lot of steps involved before you even know your eligibility status.
- Information about requirements are not well presented.
- Old fashion system with post to notify concessionary transport eligibility.
“Hello. I paid for my children’s bus ticket. One child it said ticket was issued. The other 2 are in primary and have always got the bus but it says no ticket has been issued? Is this the case that no decision has been made or they just didn’t get one??” — Edel Tahran
“A school transport crisis is looming just weeks ahead of the new term. Thousands of parents are in limbo about whether or not their child will get a place on the school bus due to a shortage of spaces.” — Independent
Heuristic evaluation
We completed the Nielson 10 step Heuristic evaluation — We identified some minor usability issues, some cosmetic problems and one Major Usability problem which will be prioritised (3,4,5,9).
3. User Control And freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
9. Help user to recognise, diagnose and recover from errors.
Check out the whole set of Heuristic evaluations.
