Helping Bus commuters travel better
In our crazy lives of work and school, we sometimes find ourselves struggling to keep up with our busy schedules. Growing up in the city of Johannesburg, the metro bus was a key component to me getting to and from school, which later spilled over to my professional career where I had to take the Metro bus to get to where I needed to go.
Technology
The core function of the application revolves around the Global position system(GPS). By using the GPS on your phone and corresponding it with the GPS installed in the desired mode of transport. In this case, a GPS system will be installed on the bus, corresponding to the location of the bus with the location of the user.
With this technology, we will be able to predict as to when the bus will arrive when it departs from a station and show its main and alternative routes that it will be traveling in, this will help commuters keep track of the bus and help commuters know when their desired bus will be arriving.
Architecture
The application will start documenting the trip as soon as the commuter boards the bus up until the trip ends when the user reaches their destination. The trip is logged and stored in the database which the user can access at any time. There are three main components to the experience, the 'last trip' took, tracking the 'current trip', and the 'next trip' which is an option of possible buses the commuter can take.
Interface
The three main components of the application which center around the map
Last Trip: As soon a trip is completed by the user, the trip is logged and kept in the last 'trip section'. This is so the user can keep track of their trips, and have a log to reference for future trips.
Current Trip: Allows the user to track the bus they wish to board. The route of the bus will be displayed on the map highlighting possibles bus stops for our user to board the bus. This coupled with an estimated time of arrival for the bus, and a suggestion of the closest bus stop to the user.
Next Trip: This is a timetable that displays all the bus options the user has to choose from, as it will display the time the bus will leave the station and the route the bus will be taking. Engaging with one of the buses available will count as a ‘current trip’ and beginning the process of tracking the buses movement, which concludes with the trip being logged upon completion of the trip.
Experience
The map is the centerpiece of the application as it serves the landing screen and is the first thing the user encounters when logged in. Navigation utilizes a swipe gesture to transition from the 'current trip' to the 'last trip' and 'next trip', which would be swipe left or swipe right gesture to navigate through the three sections. The search and menu are all accessible on the landing screen with getting back to the map a swipe up gesture.
Final thoughts
The aim is to help commuters have a better public traveling experience, by taking the guesswork out of the journey. In providing a time table and way to track the bus's movement all in one system. This combined with Global Positioning System(GPS) we can achieve things like directing commuters to the closest bus stop to them and the time it will take for the bus to reach that location.
