Amble: crowdsourcing pedestrian navigation
context
When? What? Who?
Facilitating informed pedestrian commutes by providing crowd-sourced information.
Year
2022 Fall
Role
Research, design
Team
Self + 3 UX designers
Context
Mobile app
Background
So what's the problem?
Navigation apps prioritize motor vehicles, neglecting a significant cohort of commuters: pedestrians. Pedestrians are exceptionally vulnerable to their environment, increasing their need for accurate, up-to-date navigation. We focused on providing a navigation solution for pedestrians, iterating through multiple stages of exploratory and evaluative research to arrive at our solution. Amble allows users to choose what navigational concerns to avoid on their route while also enabling them to create new reports, up and downvote existing reports, and earn rewards for participating in the reporting system.
Background
The competition
Our initial understanding of the problem space led us to understand this as an issue of navigation and safety. As such, we looked at competitors like Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, and Citizen. Google and Apple both offer pedestrian maps but lack the ability to navigate around obstacles. Waze has a robust reporting functionality but lacks pedestrian inclusion. Citizen focuses on safety and local crime reporting but also encourages vigilantism in an undesirable way.
Initial research
Safety first—or not?
We interviewed 8 cellphone-savvy individuals from urban and semi-urban areas who used walking as a significant mode of transportation in their commutes. We uncovered several common themes.
Ultimately, it became clear that our problem was one of awareness, where safety was a byproduct of being aware or unaware.
Walkway conditions
People mentioned both construction, deteriorated walkways, and incomplete walkways
Human presence
The presence of other people may be reassuring or uncomfortable
Lighting
Lighting strongly impacted perception of route, whether as a result of broken utilities or time of day
Open space
Constricted spaces posed an obstacle for a variety of uses, making them worthy of avoidance
the pivot
How might we...?
How might we enable pedestrians to make better-informed decisions during their walking commutes about obstacles and other elements present in their environments?
User flow
Go with the flow
We used our research to craft personas, scenarios, and storyboards, all of which was used to clarify the users’ needs. The following preliminary flow was developed to show the basic required functionality.
Iteration
Pen meets paper
Per our flow, we created paper wireframes.
Iteration
Paper meets pen (tool)
Our paper wireframe was iterated into a true wireframe. Shown below are the home screen, the hazard filtering screen, and the route selection screen.
Evaluative testing
Reviewing our heuristic review
We conducted preliminary user testing with our wireframe using a casual heuristic evaluation structure, finding four key takeaways. These takeaways were incorporated into the mid-hi prototype, which was used in the next step of user testing (usability testing).
Error prevention
Various signifiers were not accurately recognized
User control and freedom
Users sought out missing navigational elements
Flexibility & efficiency of use
Users tried to use swipe navigation where it wasn’t present
Recognize & recover from errors
Users sought out a back arrow where none was present
Evaluative testing
Mitigating usability snafus
In the mid-hi prototype, features that obscured other elements were expected to close automatically or move other elements automatically, leading to user confusion. We adjusted dropdown behavior to comply with user expectation.
In the mid-hi prototype, there was no confirmation for reward redemption, leading users to repeatedly tap on a reward without noticing it was already redeemed. Accordingly, we added confirmation prompts.
In the mid-hi prototype, users didn’t correctly interpret signifiers. Accordingly, we updated the iconography.
In the mid-hi prototype, cursor tracking indicated that users wasted time trying to find certain information. Accordingly, we adjusted the information architecture to accommodate for users’ mental models, the typical posture in which users hold their phones, and to increase prompt saliency.
the design
Go with the (final) flow
the design
Ambling along
Based on crowd-sourced information about obstacles and other elements present in the environment, Amble enables pedestrians to make informed decisions during their walking commutes. Amble:
- Provides users with high-level and up-to-date information about hazards in their environment
- Allows users to make informed and flexible decisions about their walking commutes
- Enables users to self-report about obstacles or hazards in the environment
- Offers a gamified approach to pedestrian navigation
Reflection
Looking back
Given more time and the opportunity, there are a few elements of this project that I would love to focus on and/or revisit:
- Information architecture: Some pages could use revision and exploration to improve clarity or simply to reduce users’ mental load
- UI/graphics: The app could benefit from a little bit more consistency and cleanliness in the UI
- Feature depth: Some features, such as rewards, could use additional fleshing-out to increase their depth and meaningfulness
- Additional testing: Some significant changes were made based on usability testing results; evaluation of these changes through additional testing would be worthwhile
