NxStop

NxStop is a real-time transit tracking app that provides transit data to students, parents, and school administrators. 

James Polhemus, Founder & CEO, created NxStop so students wouldn't have to miss a bus in sub-zero degree Jersey winters like he did.

Goal

Visual storytelling - Translate the transit journey into a visual story with a beginning and end for multiple users.

Action from insight - Introduce more meaningful data to provide insight and encourage action.

Modernization - Simplify, clean up, and modernize the interface for a competitive edge. 

Discovery

Target users

Students - K-12 Students need to board their bus on time and make sure they’re on time for school.

Parents - Parents need assurance that their children are dropped off to school safely.

Administrators - School administrators need to manage all bus routes, provide system notifications, and affirm parents of their children's transit success.

Pain points

Mobile - The mobile app did not visually communicate with a start or end in mind. Route progression, boarding status, destination timeline - these were all missing.

Desktop - The desktop navigation took the user through a maze of confusing options when trying to manage a route. The UI was completely unbranded.

Design

Mobile features

Performance insights - Students either catch the bus or miss it. The app did not display data based on previous history. I created “Trip Insights” to display real-time alerts, performance history, and schedule predictions clearly and minimally. 

Landing page

Design - I designed a new landing page that showcases key differentiators and value propositions into a modern brand style.

Development - I developed the frontend HTML, JS, and CSS for desktop and mobile responsiveness. 

Admin portal

I redesigned the UI to include route progression, performance metrics, and destination timelines in order to give the user more situational context. I applied a modern, energizing, and minimal visual style to appeal to the family as a whole.

Results

Successes

• Create a simple and sleek mobile interface that emphasizes data visualization to provide more insight to the students.
  

• Introduced new features that target the user’s concerns of ETAs, trends, and expectations. 

• Simplified desktop architecture and provided simpler navigation for administrators to manage routes.

Lessons learned

• Data should be communicated in a clear and relevant way in order to empower users' decisions ahead of time.
• Meaning is cultivated by connecting the dots between what data is available and what data users are interested in. 
  
• Important questions to ask when designing for improvement are "Does this benefit anyone?” and "Is this the benefit the user is looking for?"

fredkimdesign@gmail.com