Role: Designer, Intern
Duration: 12 months
Skills: Figma
Project Overview
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is the largest public transportation corporation in the US. It’s based in New York and is responsible for carrying over 11 million passengers a day. The TrainTime app allows riders to view train times for the MNR and LIRR as well as purchase tickets.
Throughout my internship at the MTA, I worked on user stories with a member of the MTA TrainTime design team and one other intern as practice with design solutions. We looked at multiple user stories and the pain points that were brought up in them to design quick and effective solutions.
User Story 1: Notifications
"As a TrainTime user, I want to be notified when my trains are arriving at the station, have alerts for specific trains/ trips, and be notified when a track is changed. I also want a way to see if a scheduled train is close to the station."
Acceptance Criteria:
Review the push notification options we have currently for the MNR and LIRR.
Think about adding a bell icon into an already crowded trip details page.
Acceptance Criteria:
Review the push notification options we have currently for the MNR and LIRR.
Think about adding a bell icon into an already crowded trip details page.
User Story 2: Map Interactions
"As a long distance commuter, I would like to see some controls to indicate I can play with the map in the trip details page so I can look at each station of the trip."
Acceptance Criteria:
Only show these controls when the bottom sheet is in “down” position.
A possible zoom in/ zoom out bar.
Acceptance Criteria:
Only show these controls when the bottom sheet is in “down” position.
A possible zoom in/ zoom out bar.
User Story 3: Repurchase tickets already bought
"As someone who buy tickets in bulk (10 trip, 20 trip, etc.), it would be nice to have a “buy again” option under my past/ expired tickets tab so I don’t have to navigate through the whole purchase work flow to buy the same ticket every time."
Acceptance Criteria:
Add a long press feature on the Tickets page
Change the “Buy” button to “Buy Again” when you swipe to your “Past Tickets Page”
Acceptance Criteria:
Add a long press feature on the Tickets page
Change the “Buy” button to “Buy Again” when you swipe to your “Past Tickets Page”
Conclusion and Takeaways
These were very good exercises to get my mind thinking about what a user/ paying customer would prioritize. It also forced me to do a lot of research on other apps and standard UI practices which, in the end, broadened my understanding about UI and what are standards for many features in many apps.
