EchoRide: A Design Research on Public Transportation for Young Adults in Israel
1. Introduction:
Israel has faced growing road congestion in recent years. Between 2010 and 2018, the population grew by 17%, but vehicle numbers surged by 36%, placing Israel at the top of the OECD's road congestion index. With infrastructure unable to keep pace, the key question is: how can we encourage the younger generation to choose public transportation over private cars?
Convincing young adults, who can afford cars, to use public transportation is essential to reducing congestion, improving road safety, and promoting eco-friendly habits. This research aimed to explore how to make public transport more appealing to 20-27 year olds.
Design research is a systematic process of gathering and analyzing information to support design decisions, rooted in design thinking—a human-centered approach to problem-solving. It emphasizes a deep understanding of users, their contexts, and the environment where the product or service will be used.
This research involved stakeholders from the public transport system (government, municipalities, operators, bus drivers, and young users) to capture diverse perspectives and needs. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods—interviews, surveys, observations, and data analysis—the goal was to uncover insights that would drive innovative, user-centered solutions.
2. Field Research
Our research focused on the experiences of young adults aged 20-27 who use buses in Israel’s major cities. Using interviews, expert insights, observations, and a survey, we explored how these passengers navigate the system and what influences their decisions. We concentrated on the in-ride experience, where we believed we could make the greatest design impact, as external factors like frequency or ride duration were beyond our control.
Key Insights:
Factors Affecting Travel Experience
Young passengers’ in-bus experiences are shaped by factors like temperature, smell, cleanliness, crowding, and travel duration. Deficiencies in these areas reduce their sense of security and trust in the service.
Disconnection in Challenging Rides
According to the National Public Transportation Authority, over 50% of passengers are occasional users. In rides with difficult conditions, there’s a need to mentally disconnect. Familiar routes allow mental disconnection, whereas unfamiliar ones require constant attention, often amplifying negative feelings like stress, especially when combined with crowding.
Barriers to
Reporting Issues
Most passengers avoid reporting issues due to the cumbersome process, shaped by experiences with Israeli bureaucracy. They only report extreme cases, accepting everyday disruptions as a normal part of public transport.
3. Opportunity Areas:
Our research identified several areas that the design team considered as an opportunity to improve the experience for young passengers:
Mental Escape: Provide a way for passengers to disconnect from the stresses of their journey without losing focus on their destination.
Sense of Belonging: Foster a deeper connection between passengers and the public transport system by enhancing their sense of ownership over their experience.
Participation & Engagement: Encourage young passengers to engage with the system, share feedback, and feel that their voices matter.
Voice & Agency: Create a platform for young passengers to express their opinions, which will lead to service improvements and a greater sense of empowerment.
4. Design Challenges
Based on these insights, we identified three key design challenges:
1.
How might we help young passengers manage challenging travel conditions (like overcrowding, discomfort, and noise) to foster a greater sense of belonging and ownership over public spaces?
2.
How might we encourage passengers to report their experiences in a way that strengthens their sense of agency, leads to real-time improvements, and increases overall satisfaction?
3.
How might we help passengers mentally disconnect from unpleasant travel conditions while still still staying aware of their navigation?
5. Design Concept: An Interactive Interface for Buses
To address these challenges, we developed an interactive interface for buses that promotes real-time engagement and feedback from passengers.
Mockup for suggested interface - in-bus experience
Key Features of the Reporting System Interface:
Anonymous Reporting:
Passengers can scan a QR code to rate and report their travel experiences, covering areas such as crowding, cleanliness, air quality, the driver, the journey itself, and their sense of safety.
The interface allows passengers to report both negative and positive experiences regarding the proposed criteria in a balanced manner. Each criterion is represented by a character designed in the Kawaii illustration style—a Japanese approach that adds a sense of friendliness and makes serious topics more approachable.
Interactive Graph:
As passengers submit reports, their feedback is displayed on a graph for everyone to see. This transparency fosters a sense of community and shared responsibility among passengers.
The reports are displayed in real time on a timeline of the ride, visible to all passengers. This transparency fosters a sense of community and encourages ongoing participation in the feedback process. The bubbles on the screen move in sync with the bus’s motion—shifting side to side as the bus turns and stops—offering passengers a dynamic, engaging visual to focus on during their journey.
Purpose of the Interface:
As the research advanced, we chose several emphases that we pursued in the concept’s development and implementation. We designed the interactive bus interface with several goals in mind, all of which bring distinct benefits to passengers and operators:
Increase Participation by Providing a Positive Experience: The interface should encourage passengers to actively share real-time feedback through a fun, accessible process. It should help reduce stress and enhance the overall travel experience.
Empower Passengers: Providing young passengers a platform to share their experiences in real time can enhance their sense of agency. Publicly displaying their feedback inside the bus acknowledges them and fosters the belief that they can influence positive change.
Foster a Collective Experience: Real-time feedback on an interactive graph fosters a sense of community and shared responsibility among passengers for improving the service..
Close the Feedback Loop: Data collected from passengers is planned to immediately be shared with operators, ensuring that their input is acted upon, which will ultimately improve service quality and the overall travel experience.
6. Prototypes and User Testing
We tested the interface with low- and high-fidelity prototypes:
Low-Fi Prototype:
Passengers shared feedback at bus stops using a tablet interface. Key insights revealed a strong desire for collaboration, the importance of recognizing shared experiences, and a need for impactful reporting.
High-Fi Prototype:
In a simulated bus environment, participants used the interactive reporting system, providing real-time feedback on their travel experience. This test revealed that negative experiences strongly motivated passengers to report, while positive interactions were enjoyed and shared willingly.
7. Conclusion
This research highlights the importance of engaging young adults in improving public transportation. By giving them a platform to share their experiences in real time, we can build trust and a sense of commitment within the young audience, enhance the travel experience, and create a public transport system they are more willing to use.
Our interactive interface offers a unique solution tailored to young passengers’ needs, providing a sense of ownership, an option for mental escape, and an opportunity for change. The next step is to test this solution in real-world conditions, working with public transportation operators to ensure its adequacy and success.
The issue of public transportation is close to our hearts, and we see great importance in improving services and making them more accessible to the public in order to create better travel experiences that take passengers into account. We believe that designers have a significant ability to influence the field of transportation, which has been in crisis in recent years, and the capacity to integrate the needs of various stakeholders.
Credits:
Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem
Supported by the Public Claims Fund, The Ministry of Justice
Project Team:
Dr. Romi Mikulinsky
Guy Blander
Yuri Klebanov
Tom Reznikov
Naomi Slaney
Research Assistant Students:
Field Research - Inbal Fogel, Doron Manber
Trial Days - Tamar Meiri, Sharon Dor
Prototype Development - Guy Blumenfeld, Anna Burukhin, Dima Zareski
Supervised by Dr. Tal Ripa-Hassdai, Head of Research Authority, Bezalel Academy
Additional Project Participants:
Tal Nissim - Photography
Ronen Tanhum - Interaction
Special Thanks:
Taryn Gillot, Dr. Yoav Friedman, Ben Lev, Shimrit Notman, Shai Kedem, Miri Rahamim, Itay Fleisig, Sivan Shmuelovitz, and Zohar Galil