Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Avraham Raskin Finding your bus in a crowded bus station

Moovit, the popular public transportation app, was created for the purpose of staying updated on schedules for buses and other modes of public transportation. Moovits’ optimal feature is its’ real time ETA- the trustworthy green numbers that appear indicating live arrival time. I find myself choosing Moovit over Google Maps because of this game-changing feature.

This feature has saved us all countless times, yet I still notice some areas that could be enhanced. I decided to sit down and design scenarios that would dramatically change the users experience of this app. As you guys should know already, mt ideas naturally gravitated straight to Augmented Reality, as I have been immersed in that world for more than a couple years now.

The power of Augmented Reality (AR) is not about having cool little holograms hovering around you or watching 12 floating transparent screens. The power of AR is in its context; the ability to merge tangible reality and the digital world seamlessly. Currently, we have a 2D interface living inside of our smartphones and as AR designers it is our job to merge these worlds together.

The power of AR is all in its context, the ability to merge the two worlds, real and digital together, seamlessly.

Today’s Scenario: A scenario we all know too well.. Chasing your bus, and upon arriving at the station, frantically running up and down checking each line in the traffic, knowing it is possible that your bus has not yet arrived or just left seconds before.

AR Scenario: Instead of arriving at your bus stop in a huff from running the last couple of metres, your bus has been clearly highlighted on the road for your convenience and ease.

That one right there.. You literally can’t miss it..

So obvious. So different. So easy.

Imagine seeing your bus coming down the road, or watching as it exits the station. Say its the dark of night or you’re on your balcony looking down at the street and you want to know what time you must catch it. Now you can see your bus slowly snaking its way through traffic or coming through from behind a building or around a corner! The pop up over your bus à la The Sims, can relay all this information!

Tracking a bus à la ‘The Sims’

Today’s Scenario: We have alternative routes while we drive with Google Maps and Waze why don’t we have this while riding public transport? We don’t question the bus we get on, we came to the right station, we jump on the bus we were told, we just don’t second guess.. There is nothing telling us that because our bus came 2 minutes late, we’ll now miss the next connecting one. There is no reason any of us would pull out our phones right then and look for a better option.. we just get on.

AR Scenario: Now the bus behind ours starts to light up, informing us that taking this bus would save us time.

Yes there is.

Today’s Scenario: You are leaving the office at the end of a long day and want to get home and crash on the couch. You check Moovit for directions. The bus is coming in 6 minutes and it’s a 5 minute walk to the bus stop. You put your phone back in your pocket, grab your bag and walk out of the building. During your walk, you don’t know this, but the bus is going a little faster than usual or went through that orange light it usually stops at and is now coming 2 minutes earlier than usual. You don’t know any of this because you know how to get to the stop, you’re in a little hurry and there is no reason to pull your phone out to double check your route. So you get to the stop and your bus is far in the distance, picking up passengers at the next stop.

AR Scenario: You’ve checked your directions. You’ve packed up.. walking to the stop, and on the ground in front of you is a little icon flashing telling you to run because the bus is coming now in 2 minutes instead of 4. You pick up the pace and you catch the bus. This is the difference between making the bus and having to wait another half hour until the next one is coming.

[Edit: This scenario is obviously better with glasses. The point I’m making about pulling out your phone while using Mobile AR will still exist to a degree. However, it is much easier and safer be looking at your phone while you’re walking (or running) when you’re looking through a camera lens and seeing what’s in front of you as opposed to staring at a 2D app interface that blocks your view. It also has to do with refocusing on different focal points, but that’s a whole other article…]

If you keep walking, you’ll miss the bus by a minute..

The reason you won’t pull out your phone and check out your notification has to do with how we handle pulling out our phone to check it while in a rush. Pulling out a phone to double check something we already know, or looking for a little snippet of information might just take 20 seconds, but when we are in a rush or in a stressful situation, no matter how ‘low stress’ it is, it will feel like forever. Even if this piece of information would save us a lot of time in the long run we don’t do it.

We will ignore that vibration, we don’t know what it might be, but one thing we do know is that we are in a rush.

Don’t know which side of the street is your stop? Find the info. Find your stop.

Moovit AR is contextual, it’s happening in real time, the information is right in front of your eyes, and because of this it will give us what we need when we need it.

Closing Thoughts

AR is more powerful than flat smartphone apps because it does the mapping for you. With smartphone apps you need to cognitively map between the ‘world’ on your screen and the world around you. AR maps it straight on.

When we are in a rush or stressed we don’t pull our smartphone to check our notifications, even if it would only take 20 seconds and potentially save us a lot of time. It feels like too much cognitive power at this moment, so we don’t.

Putting visuals straight into our FOV gives us the information and notification at the same time, as opposed to just a notification or vibration in your pocket, which just notifies you that there is something without knowing its urgency.

Questions or comments?

Thanks for reading, if you have any thoughts or ideas how to improve navigation, share them in a response or in a private message.

I’m an Augmented Reality Designer living in Israel. Check out my work on my website or on Behance. I spend most of my time dreaming up and creating new ways to augment the real world with the power of the virtual.

Augmented Reality for Moovit was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Augmented Reality for Moovit

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