Transport for NSW
Transport Innovation Challenge Hyperlocal Navigation App Concept
Introduction
Transport for NSW ran an innovation challenge in 2021 seeking hyperlocal navigational technology solutions to assist customers with vision impairment and other accessibility needs using the public transport network.
While the winning technology vendor (Bindimaps) proceeded with working on a proof of concept, it was within the scope of the internal experience design team at TfNSW to aid and assist in creating the design strategy, UI design concepts and user experience research plan for the project.
Hyperlocal navigation is an indoor digital navigation capability of <30cm accuracy within a precinct or station to help customers reach and discover their destinations easily.
My Role and Impact
My responsibility on the Hyperlocal Navigation project was to lead the project as a Senior Experience Design Lead and determine research and design outputs.
I prepared a comprehensive design strategy and research plan and conducted extensive internal and external research including user interviews and prototype testing to help determine the target customers’ needs, pain points and existing approaches to navigation within stations and transport precincts. As part of the design strategy, I was also tasked to ideate on the brand name and identity design of the product. The first phase of the project delivery concluded in May 2024, culminating in the successful demonstration of a proof of concept - a prototype mobile application - utilising and applying and the user research outcomes like personas and customer journeys as well as design strategy and concepts developed by me.
Proof of Concept
The Process
Human Centred Design - UXR, UX, UI and CX
01
Discover
I conducted discovery and business alignment workshops with the business stakeholders to determine the problem statement, then identified hypothetical user types, and conducted qualitative research customer interviews and quantitative surveys to validate and develop a final persona to reflect the target user.
02
Define
The final persona of a vision impaired traveller helped me define the design strategy for the user interface of the application. I then created customer experience blueprints to reflect the end to end journey of the user which would then assist in creating the concept wireframes for the application.
03
Design
The objective was to integrate the application UI concept with the existing travel app of the organisation, which meant using the design system components and creating concept wireframes reflecting the salient features of a new indoor navigational concept.
The concept screens highlighted audio accessibility for the vision impaired customer as well as accessibility features like text enhancement and colour contrast.
04
Deliver
Personas, Customer Journey Maps and Figma Concept Screens were delivered in time to aid and assist in the proof of concept work by the external technology vendor.
The proof of concept demonstration was conducted successfully integrated with audio instructions and real time indoor location navigation and pinpointing location to the accuracy of up to 30cm, at the Castle Hill Metro Station by the external technology vendor.
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