The app redesign is for the mobile app of New Jersey Transit. The app puts all needs for traveling in one place including a tool to plan your trip, buy a ticket, carry your digital tickets with you, and be up to date with the live status of public transportation. The app is designed to assist the user in navigating and having quick access to all necessary things that are relevant for traveling. The app has the goal to bring confidence to the user in navigating through the app and to make the process from buying the ticket to onboarding and arriving at their destination comfortable. The app is mostly used on smartphones and serves to replace printed tickets and having to rely on updating screens at train stations or web searches. Users of the app are reliant on high functionality and a strong structure in order to navigate the app easily. The reason for that is that the app is mostly used when on the go, there is not much time for customers to spend time on understanding the navigation in detail. The app should rather come in handy and with a natural and easy way to navigate. Users wish to comfortably purchase tickets online and that they have an app that they can rely on like a travel assistant.
Currently, the app is not convenient for quick access and easy navigation which are the most important features of the app that should be in place. The app is confusing and aesthetically not pleasing. The use of dark blue and white don’t give a friendly look to the app which is amplified by sharp edges that are designed to segment the interface into different areas. There are conflicting elements within the app which are for example the use of sharp edge boxes for segments and on the other hand the use of rounded edges for icons that are used a lot in the current interface. These two components are fighting against each other in an aesthetic sense. Additionally, the icons themselves that are used are not constant either. Some icons are very simplistic and others are scaled down and are more complex with details. For an example here compare “My Tickets” and “Rider Tools” in the navigation bar of the current design. The font choice is very basic which contributes to an unfriendly look of the interface overall.
In order to make the use simple to use, have high functionality, and still be fun and easy to navigate through, a couple of components have to see a change. The concept of the interface has to be adjusted and the navigation of the app has to be optimized. Here, the site navigation has to be simplified and the layout of the page has to be easy to understand which can be aided by the use of contrasting colors and the correct way of using text and typefaces.
The navigation of the app can get confusing at times because there are jumps from one page to another that make the navigation harder and unnecessary. To give an example, when you proceed to buy a ticket you put in the station that you are traveling from first, once you select one it jumps to the next page. The user doesn’t see which station is selected. The user is left guessing if the right station was selected or not. Tapping in a slightly different area on the screen could change the selection which especially when used on the go is a high risk. In order to not have the user guessing, the station from where you are traveling and the destination are selected on one page. This information is located in one box or segment of the page from which the user is taken to the next page by hitting the button “Find ticket”. This navigation will make it easier for the user to be confident in the correct train stations being selected.
In order to give the user a better experience and to give the app a more reliable feature, one page is added in the redesign for the navigation. This page is a summary page that includes the information needed for the trip in detail. It shows the train connection with specific times of departure and arrival and also includes the number of transfers that have to be made. For the transfers, information is given on how much time there is to get from one to the other train. This gives the user time to plan ahead and be prepared for the trip. This page communicates the information necessary and gives a good understanding of where the user has to be and at what time for the trip. It is the final page before buying the ticket.
The aesthetic aspects of the design have the goal of improving in the aspect of being friendly, structured, energizing, and inviting to use. In order to achieve this the sharp edges that are used in the current design will be replaced with round shapes. The fact that Icons are used in the current design is a strength and will be kept in use for the redesign. The icons make it visually easier to navigate through the app. The icons that will be used have rounded edges as well and focus on being simplistic throughout. The colors that will be used should communicate to be friendly, fun, and energizing. The base colors for the color palette are retrieved from the New Jersey Transit logo which consists of blue, orange, and purple. Grey is added as a neutral color. The color palette makes use of tints for a lighter appearance which is more uplifting and energizing. To help bring a structure into the interface, shades, and tints of colors are used to create contrast and areas that are understood to be in place for different ways of navigating through the app. The font choice for the redesign is Ping Fang SC which is very legible and comes in different weights which makes it easier to have a better structure in the individual components. The different weights are used in segments to bring a visual hierarchy to the layout which makes the more important components stand out. Additionally, more important components are emphasized with the use of color.
Overall, the process of redesigning the NJ Transit app included improvement in structure, app navigation, and aesthetics in order to create an app with high functionality which is easily accessible to the everyday user. The goal for the redesign was to come up with a way that brings the most important information for the user on one page but reduces it to a minimum so that there is clear communication of important information. The app works as a travel assistant and the user should be able to find the information they need in the shortest amount of time without having to navigate through a bunch of different sites within the app. The app should bring excitement and reliability to the users that use NJ Transit to travel to their destinations. Users should be satisfied with the app in order for them to choose public transportation over other ways of transportation due to the fact that the app makes the process of planning and executing a trip so easy and convenient.
