University of BaltimoreIDIA 612

Nikki Kerber and Allison Francis

BUS ME PROJECT

BUSINESS STRATEGY

• Motivating event

• Seeking inspiration and preliminary research

• Drafting a destination sequence

• Allocating dates, durations and activities

• Create a draft itinerary - building trip scenarios

• Research for accommodation and activities

• Iterate itinerary - additional scenarios

• Draft budget and additional iteration

• Share itinerary

Planning Travel as Everyday Design (Dean M.G. Hargreaves and Toni Robertson 2007)

BUSME PROCESS OF TRAVELUser Tasks:

• search for one-way, round trip or multiple leg travel

• Compare prices for the same route and similar times

• Ability to book tickets instantaneously via BusME.com

• Rate bus experience

• Indicate departure city, arrival city, date, price and preferred vendor

User Settings:

• A user can create a profile

• A user profile can store payment info, social media contacts, and their preferred operator info

Notifications:

• The system, using current traffic information, will notify the user when the trip’s route is congested

Vendor:

• Bus operators will be notified nightly of the total group of people wanting to go

• Bus operators can accept to take the group of customers

• Bus companies will be able to offer special pricing via BusME

Other:

• Users will be able to view if any of their Facebook friends are on the same bus

• Ability to see savings of bus travel compared to other modes of travel.

STATISTICS• For the third year in a row, intercity bus service was the fastest growing mode of intercity

transportation, outpacing air and rail transportation.

• Intercity bus operations expanded by 6.0% in 2010, showing that the sector’s renaissance continues.

• Companies such as Boltbus and Megabus, have rise in departures by 23.9% and account for more than 400 daily bus operations.

• Megabus has reported ridership growth of 48%

• Bus travel is reducing fuel consumption by about 11 million gallons annually—the equivalent benefit of removing 23,818 vehicles from the road.

STATISTICS

COMPETITORS• Direct

• Indirect

COMMON BUS TRAVEL TASKS• select round trip or one way (the following steps are based on a round trip selection)

• select city of departure

• select city of arrival (possible multiple locations in each city)

• select departure date

• select arrival date

• select quantity

• select to search for bus travel

• select to search for bus travel with lodging

• purchase

• print confirmation

COMPETITOR WEB SITES AND MOBILE SITES

COMPETITOR MOBILE

COMPETITOR MOBILE

COMPETITOR MOBILE

PERSONA #1 - TALLIE• Does not travel much, Budget conscious.

• Tallie is 18 years old

• a college student

• always on her iPhone.

• Travels home for vacations and breaks

Goal: Create an iPhone application that will quickly search all bus lines for the lowest possible rate to and from a destination. The application needs to clearly indicate the bus line and the price of the ticket at either one way or round trip.

PERSONA #2 - MARIA• Advanced traveler booking for others.

• Maria is 47 years old

• is married with three children

• owns her own travel agency.

• computer savy

• books travel packages for her clients

Goal: Read reviews of each bus line to assure clients of her choice of bus line and make reservations on behalf of the client. Might also want to get a list of things to do around the destination. (Advanced search options need to be present for a user who books travel daily).

PERSONA #3 - JOHN• Senior citizen

• does not use the Internet to book travel.

• John is a 63 year old man

• he is married

• 3 children

• lives in a small town in Illinois

• He is He is rarely on the Internet

Goal: To get competitive pricing on bus travel from the mid-west to the east-coast. Needs a well designed interface so that he doesn’t get discouraged from using the online service. Steps and order form need to be clearly labeled.

PERSONA #4 - ERIC• Single dad of 2 boys

• Eric is 39 years old,

• lives in Austin, Texas,

• Likes to plan family adventures

• V.P of Engineering at this company

• Bus ticket cost is not a factor

Goal: Ability to purchase more than 1 ticket. Ability to add various routes to tickets. Show amenities of bus line before making purchase.

PERSONA #5 - MARCI• Marci is 27 years old,

• HR Specialist at The University of Delaware,

• Walks to work

• Marci assists with reimbursing all travel expenses

Goals: Secondary user interface for people like Marci who see a completely different side of the UI. Perhaps a user login screen will route to a current list of faculty/staff who have purchased bus tickets through BusMe.com, connect to the schools finance database and submit reimbursements to their bank account or credit card used.

BUSME MOBILE APP PROTOTYPE

BUSME MOBILE APP PROTOTYPE

RECOMMENDATIONS• Social Media

• Building Trip Scenarios

• Opportunities for seeking inspiration

REMAINING STEPS• Finalize personas

• Paper prototype testing

• Tech prototype testing

• Website wireframes