Jordan Reiser

JR

New Jersey Transit

UX MOBILE APP AND SERVICE DESIGN AUDIT
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Problem Overview

During the past 30 years, New Jersey's transit system has been established as an essential service. Unfortunately, riders found the end-to-end experience, less than optimal. Aging buses and political and financial troubles resulted in a public outcry for massive improvements. New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy, called for a comprehensive audit of the state’s public transportation operator to include: an assessment of the New Jersey Transit Mobile App and an analysis of the (customer) service experience for its riders. The solution was presented to Governor Murphey and featured in the New York Times. Full Report: Chapter 7

A mobile prototype can be shown upon request.

Solution Method

  • Usability audit
  • Behavioral Archetyping
  • Semantic Profiling Analysis
  • Intercept interviews w/staff
  • Intercept interviews w/riders
  • Needs to features analysis
  • Service design analysis
  • Mid-fi Prototyping
  • Feature storywriting
  • Agile QA
Positive Press from Audit Results
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news articles
Notable Artifacts
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behavioral archetypes
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isometric journey map
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mobile prototype
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in-depth report
Recommendations actioned
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(personalized alert system, improved app layout, ticket management)

The story

Usability Audit

I evaluated the current system by instituting a unique and proprietary experience analysis that accounted for all the major component layers of the specific virtual, physical, or hybrid experiences:
  • Technology – how the experience is run, how well it performs
  • Information – how the content is organized and understandable it is, how does it communicate what to do, how compelling is the content itself
  • Interactivity – how intuitively information is accessed, moved, stored, and transformed to complete actions and how does the system provide feedback from action inputs to keep users on track
  • Aesthetics – how unity and cosmetic attributes add to the overall experience 

Define & Design

Beyond the audit, a request for recommendations was made by the Governor’s office for the app and other dependent systems that could be upgraded. A deep exploration was conducted, comprised of stakeholder and rider interviews, research into other transit authorities globally, and a needs breakdown. This work led to the development of a unique roadmap referred to as a Feature Fan and a vision prototype.

Tying it all together

The ultimate output led to a summary conclusion deliverable in the form of a specialized journey map that detailed a common journey experience for both bus and train riders. Recommendations were annotated along the way. The journey map pointed to key service slices in time, highlighting critical pain and opportunity points. Each macro-interaction shown is positioned as a companion to a micro-interaction in the app. The journey map is referred to as a super graphic since it has the ability to be understood simultaneously, at both a high and a deep level.

The Press

The eventual results of the audit were documented in a 100+ page report. The app analysis can be found in Full Report: Chapter 7. Beyond this many news articles were published in magazines and major news outlets such as the NY Times and NJ.com . 

See more

More design assets are available upon request.

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