the solutions overview.
We created a toolkit for MARTA to ideate and implement changes. Based on feasibility and resources required, we created short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term solutions that targets multiple pain points that we uncovered from our research.
SHORT TERM
INTERMEDIATE TERM
LONG TERM
* Can be Implemented almost immediately without high cost or time*
*Requires more resources
(time, funding and process changes)
*Will require the most resources (time, funding, and process changes) to implement.
research overview.
How can MARTA collect
information to improve
methodological efficiency
& effectiveness?
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Stakeholder Interviews
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Contextual Inquiry
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Observations
RESEARCHING THE
MARTA PROCESSES
How can we optimize the
survey questionnaire content to more accurately capture the voice of the customer?
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Artifact Analysis with Affinity Mapping
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Think Aloud
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Participatory Design
RESEARCHING THE
SURVEY
What change is collecting and
analyzing this data supposed to drive? How can it be analyzed and presented to support that goal?
-
Stakeholder Interviews
-
Artifact Analysis
RESEARCHING THE
REPORTS
MARTA
Annual
Reports
Background & Context: MARTA Processes
How can MARTA collect information to improve methodological efficiency & effectiveness?
With stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiries, and field observations, we created process flow diagrams process and empathy maps of our users to help give us background and context, inform our designs, and identify pain points of the current processes.
high level current
processes Flow diagrams
Based on our research, we created a high level process flow diagram to identify the current steps of the process to help us understand MARTA's processes.
*Please see this link to review for more detail.
Service blueprint of survey
We also created a service blueprint to identify more granularly the steps of the survey administration process. Information denoted in red are pain points that we have identified in the current system.
*Please see this link to review for more detail.
informing design WITH EMPATHY MAPS
Based on our interviews and contextual inquiries, I created empathy maps for surveyors and also patrons. This was used to communicate our understanding of our users and see their world from their point of view. When designing and provided recommendations, we kept these in mind to help ensure that we address the problems and understand their context.
Survey Redesign Overview
RESEARCH QUESTION
How might we optimize the survey questionnaire content to accurately capture the voice of the customer?
WHAT DID YOU DO?
A) Artifact Analysis with Affinity Mapping
B) Think Alouds with Survey Designers
C) Focus Group Participatory Design Sessions with Surveyors
SOLUTION
Recommendation toolkit to redesign the survey
Artifact analysis with affinity mapping and Think Alouds
INSIGHT: Half of the survey questions are demographic questions (purple stickies).
HOW MIGHT WE
reduce the demographic questions or find another way to capture this data?
I created an affinity map with every single question on the survey and grouped them under categories. (Yellow stickies were questions on the rail survey, whereas green stickies were questions on the bus survey. Purple stickies were asked on both surveys.)
We also conducted a Think Aloud Session with Survey Designers to understand the reasons why each question was asked. This helped us and the survey creators understand and justify why each question was asked.
Participatory design focus group
Justification & Reasoning
Surveyors work directly with the riders on the field and know which questions are problematic for them and for patrons
Surveyors want to be involved and were very keen to provide rich feedback
Method
Once questions were grouped and categorized with affinity mapping, we asked surveyors to add stickers to each question to identify if the question was:
1. Unclear/confusing
2. Redundant
3. Not always applicable
4. I don't like this question
Then, we asked them to fill out a survey on their own and conducted a short group discussion. We wanted to understand their opinions and recommendations. Since it was a focus group, they were able to bounce ideas from each other and also defend their answers.
We relayed this information to MARTA with feedback from the Surveyors to help them reword question, consolidate/remove questions, and create better survey logic for survey redesign.
Improving Data Explanations
RESEARCH QUESTION
What change is collecting and analyzing this data supposed to drive? How can it be analyzed & presented to support that goal?
WHAT DID YOU DO?
A) Stakeholder Interviews
B) Artifact Analysis with MARTA Reports
SOLUTIONS
A) Annual Report Revamp
B) Data Dashboard
C) Public Information Campaign
Stakeholder Interviews &
Artifact Analysis
Pain Points
Annual Report Revamp
Artifact Analysis
of Annual Report
-
Annual report is organized around how the data is collected, stored, and it’s inherent traits, rather than change or maintenance goals for MARTA
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Reading & absorbing the report critically requires some data literacy
Summary of Artifact Analysis
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Leaves readers searching for relevance and meaning that actually affects or empowers them
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Reading the report shouldn’t be a pain point: the target audience should feel their job would be harder if they didn’t read the report.
key features
HOW IT BENEFITS:
Provide recommended actions
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Timelines (Short, Medium, Long)
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Effort levels/contingencies )Minimum, Target, Reach)
Remove burden on user to find what is relevant to the them and why
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Change report organization orientation from “subject” to:
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Departmental and Board driven Initiatives
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Actions needed & recommendations
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“Tell me everything I need to know. Don’t tell me everything”
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Improve navigation speed for both explorers and queries
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Leverage “tags” and hyperlinks to other parts of the document or outside resources to allow for:
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sorting and filtering
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non linear, many to many navigation (wikipedia style)
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Internal citation of appendices of sets fo graphics
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Links out to contact people, departments, or generally take action
-
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Make it easy to quickly review at a high level (cursory read of, or “skim”)
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Wikipedia mobile style of content header expansion and roll ups
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*All feasible in Microsoft Word*
Data Dashboard
Key Features
Stakeholders submit “Hypothesis Cards” to the dashboard system
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Tag department’s known goals or initiatives
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Define & suggest relevant information or data they are aware of:
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Cuts and breaks
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Data points
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Data types
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Misc contextual info
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R&A team members create understanding through visualizations and infographics
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Tied to specific “Hypothesis Cards”
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Propose “Insight Cards” based on infographics by posting them to a forum/online wall
The board & vertical heads
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Propose “actions cards” tied to insights with details on what actions that should be taken when by whom
Other stakeholders can also propose:
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R&A are the analysts, & lead the charge
-
Insights are interpretations & up for discussion
Creating data trust with a collaborative insight dashboard
HOW IT BENEFITS:
Public Information Campaign
key features
HOW IT BENEFITS:
Easy to implement
-
Use space MARTA already owns and controls
-
Printed poster based
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Good communication graphic design will matter a lot, but is just a matter of a good hire
Content:
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Initiatives and their progress or upcoming milestones
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What is MARTA doing for me now? In the future?
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Town Halls, impactful votes coming up
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Info on upcoming events content
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Jow to attend or participate
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Empower your ridership to become advocates for MARTA
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Impacts to MARTA
-
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Contextually relevant
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To the location the information is posted
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The timing of posting AND removal
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Justification
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Political action groups organize for & against civic initiatives. with information campaigns that explain value propositions to incite support
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MARTA’s current need to grow hinges on public support.
Summary Assessment
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MARTA has reasons for changes & non changes but public doesn’t know why, transparency matters to the public ridership
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Marketing is powerful, & inexpensive; MARTA owns perfectly targeted ad space (stations & stops).
MARTA App Redesign
OVERVIEW
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A consumer facing app that combines Marta On the Go & Marta See & Say App
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Indirectly help surveyors because it is supplementary to the QOS survey
WHAT DID YOU DO?
A) Competitive Analysis
B) Low Fidelity > Medium Fidelity > High Fidelity Wireframes
Pain points
Design goals
Design Iterations
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|---|---|---|
 |
Final Prototype
Click here for the interactive prototype
KEy features
A) Automatic Data Capture
1. Breeze Card Registration
When patrons register their Breeze Cards, the app can automatically capture questions of the QoS regarding their payment information, frequency of use, and destinations and thus reducing questions on the QoS for surveyors.
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2. User Profile
When registering their Breeze Cards, patrons will be required to have a user profile. This profile can capture demographics questions which also reduces survey questions for QoS surveyors. In addition, people feel more comfortable answering the questions on their personal mobile devices instead of being in public.
“Demographic questions are uncomfortable for me to ask and uncomfortable for patrons to answer.” - Surveyor
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B) MARTA LOVES FEEDBACK SURVEYS
Immediate high-level feedback
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The app will push notification to remind users to give feedback after they take MARTA.
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MARTA can gather immediate high level feedback.
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MARTA can also tie the feedback data to the other demographic data to generate more insights
Benefits
Overall, with this mobile app, we hope to divorce the concept of surveyors capturing demographic data so they can focus on capturing the voice of the customer. This solution also reduces the length of the current survey. Capturing immediate high-level feedback can help MARTA focus target on these high-level problems and create more granular research questions for their analysis and reporting seen in the intermediate term solution.
Benefits
Overall, with this mobile app, we hope to divorce the concept of surveyors capturing demographic data so they can focus on capturing the voice of the customer. This solution also reduces the length of the current survey. Capturing immediate high-level feedback can help MARTA focus target on these high-level problems and create more granular research questions for their analysis and reporting seen in the intermediate term solution.
Additional Value
1. Language
Options
2. Combining See & Say App
3. Mobile Payments
4. Real Time Updates
& Notifications
What's next?
Possible ways of implementing the design:
-
The app will need resources in mobile app development and related MARTA infrastructure
(e.g., Breeze Card registration, mobile payment, schedule update). -
MARTA has two apps for riders and MARTA website also has contains service change updates. Combining all of this information on a mobile app can make information more accessible to patrons
Areas of improvement:
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Future user testing to improve the usability of the app
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Possible improvement to current MARTA infrastructures
Special Thanks
Special thanks to all the MARTA employees: Rob, Robin, and all the surveyors that we shadowed!
