Conversational User Experience Design
TrackMate for MTA TrainTime
Client
MTA Train Time
(Class Project)
ROLE
UX Designer
EXPERTISE
Conversational UX,
Voiceflow
CUX
TimeLine
8 Weeks
How often are you in a rush when commuting?
45% of New Yorkers feel that they are 'in a rush' when commuting.
There's approximately 3.6 million commuters in New York City everyday, and about 1.2 million of these commuters rely on MTA's Train Time app.
MTA TrainTime is a great app for commuters in and out of NYC. But what if it was better?
What if you could buy your train ticket while sipping your morning coffee, and check departures as you're rushing over to the station… all without needing to constantly look at the screen and tapping away?
Introducing TrackMate!… MTA's informative voice-bot.
Hands free usage…
Hands free usage…
… even in a rush
… even in a rush
And… multi-modal communication.
So you can type when you can't talk!
And… multi-modal communication.
So you can type when you can't talk!
But wait… how is designing a conversation different from other disciplines of UX design?
Honestly, conversational UX isn't all too different from traditional UX. Here's the questions that went into designing a Conversation flow —
The big question to answer…
How does a conversation begin, how does it shift topics, and how does it end?
Our Answer(s)…
Utterances
All the different ways of saying the same Phrase.
Error pathways
Sometimes we need to correct ourselves before decisions are made.
Global conclusion
You can't just end a conversation out of the blue.
Throughout the project timeline, we created and perfected the flow of two main tasks -
Checking Schedules flow
Buying Tickets Flow
Why not just use the app?
Users spent 30% less time looking at the screen with TrackMate.
When you don't have to give all your senses towards your phone…
You get more done in the same amount of time compared to typing and scrolling.
What would be further explored down the road…
There's obviously a lot more things you can do with Train Time than checking schedules and buying tickets. The "next phase" of TrackMate's development would support more time-saving superpowers —
Checking Accessibility status (like elevator outages and such).
Checking for any delays.
Tracking on-board train status.
There's so much that went into this project. Check out this Demo video to see the voice bot's brain 🧠
Like what you see? Let's create together!!
Introducing TrackMate!… An informative voice bot.
Over a course of 8 weeks, we designed and prototyped a Conversational Agent concept for Train Time - MTA's very own, extensive transit app.
Hands free usage…
Hands free usage…
… even in a rush
… even in a rush
But when you can't talk, just type!
But when you can't talk, just type!
But wait… how is designing a conversation different from other disciplines of UX design?
Honestly, conversational UX isn't all too different from traditional UX. Here's the questions that went into designing a Conversation flow —
How do people generally talk to each other? How does a conversation begin, how does it shift topics, and how does it end?
How do we "take back" a mistake?
the different ways of saying something.
Made with "Utterances" —
the different ways of saying something.
Made with "Utterances" —
Sometimes we say the wrong things.
So we fix it with Error Pathways
Sometimes we say the wrong things.
So we fix it with Error Pathways
Throughout the project timeline, we created and perfected the flow of two main tasks -
Checking Schedules flow
Buying Tickets Flow
Why not just use the app?
When testing the prototype, we found that users spend about 30% less time looking at the screen when compared to just using the app as it is. Studies show that an average person can speak about 120 words per minute while they can only type 40 words per minute. To put it simply, you get more done in the same time compared to typing and scrolling.
Why is it important to spend less time looking at the screen?
When thinking of commute, most people have it down to the minutes. When you have just minutes do multiple things at once, giving all of your senses to your phone is… pretty inconvenient.
What would be further explored down the road…
There's obviously a lot more things you can do with Train Time than checking schedules and buying tickets. The "next phase" of TrackMate's development would support more time saving superpowers —
Checking Accessibility status (like elevator outages and such).
Checking for any delays.
Tracking on-board train status.