Buzzu
Commuting made communal
Overview
Buzzu is an app project designed to help promote good deeds and respect within public transport.
The lack of respect in public transports all around the world is alarming, even in a reference city such as London - England, 30% of its population doesn't feel safe or comfortable at any given time when commuting using the subway or buses.
Of those 30%, 68% said that anti social behaviours such as drunkenness, loudness and unpredictability in some people's actions make them feel not only more stressed but also unsafe. In São Paulo (Brazil), city chosen for this project, the same issues were present in the interviews with commuters. So the question was
This project is still ongoing
The current UI of this app is being redesigned, but its research and project is still documented here, so feel free to check that out
How to incentivise good practices and eliminate critical stress points in order to make the experience in São Paulo's public transport friendly and safe?
The Problem
Even though there are a lot of public transport apps, most of them focus on destination, not on the journey. After mapping the stress points, we figured out that while on the bus people are the most vulnerable, but when waiting for the bus factors such as weather conditions, long waiting times or "ghost buses" were the main issues.
This journey can define how a person will feel for the rest of their day/night.
Critical stress point
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- Lack of comfort
- No timetables
- Ghost buses
Critical stress point
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- Anti social behaviour
- Lack of comfort
- Hostile environment
- Confusion
Addressing Critical points
Best practices also needed to be promoted. By partnering with cinemas, shops and other services, the app would give discount codes or vouchers for every good deed done and validated by users on the same bus. Users could also earn "skins" for their avatar as well.
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On the app, it is possible to see which buses to take in case there is a delay in the preferred route. Also, buses have "charisma" factors such as cleanliness, availability of seats, driver's prudence, politeness of passengers and more, so users can choose between the available buses and alternative routes.
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The app also provides a feature in which the user can check if a friend is going to the same destination at the same time, if both of them have the function activated, they receive a push notification to travel together and a real time location to track when that bus will arrive at their bus stop.
Branding and Concept
We took inspiration from the bees, one of the most collaborative species of bugs known to us. It also worked well because the word "BUZZ" is not only the onomatopoeia for the sound bees make but also "the buzz around something" - which is what people are talking about + the actual word for bus and a regional contribution from my hometown where we call buses, "Buzus".
Bees are focused on community, working together to ensure the wellbeing of the hive. this is the philosophy of this app.
The idea is that every icon (where possible) will be shaped like a hexagon, to keep up with the bee hive concept. For this reason, the list of friends becomes a "friends hive" the app's currency is "bee points" and so on.
The logo
The logo icon is the junction of a bee and a bus, we wanted it to be fun, cute and to serve as a mascot for our app. The typography carries the same concept of fun and cuteness for its round shape. The font is quicksand with some slight alterations.
Mid fidelity prototype
Splash page
Dashboard
The dashboard shows your avatar, an edit button to change it, your friends, your activities log, validation of a good deed, your good deeds, app market and your "bee points" - discounts, vouchers and new skins for your avatar
Activities log
The activities log shows you the most recent activities such as how many friends you have, how many good deeds have been validated and how many bee points you have
Friends hive
Good deed registration
When in "good deed registration" mode, you'll see a hive of good actions you can choose from such as "gave a seat to an elderly person or someone that was injured". You can still see your journey's current status while on this mode.
Avatar design
Good deed validation
Other users need to validade your good deed, so a pop up will appear and they can say if they saw it or not. This also gives you points (not as much as the good deeds themselves, but we wanted to make users feel like everybody wins in a situation like this).
Search filters
After typing in your destination's address, you can choose when you want to arrive or leave your current location, how much further you want to walk to your destination after you get out of the bus and the charisma factor of buses. A list will appear with bus options to choose from.
Bus status - Positive
When you choose a bus, its status will appear so you can have details such as free seating, no delays, clean bus and good driver. The numbers on the top represent the number of reports that particular item has. On the top, you can see the "charisma bar". Which is an average of all reports
Bus status - Negative
If you find a bus with a low charisma bar, you can always go back to the filters and choose another, or, if you're in a hurry, you can still catch it but are prepared to not be caught by surprise.