University of South Florida

Improving inter-campus connectivity for students, faculty, and staff through the implementation of a free bus service.

Designlab Project:

After USF consolidated its campuses in 2020, I designed a free bus service to address the lack of intercampus transportation between Tampa and St. Petersburg. My solution improves accessibility, reduces commuting challenges, and fosters a unified university experience while supporting sustainability goals.

UX Researcher
Product Designer

Role

Duration

One month: April 2024 - May 2024

Overview

On July 1, 2020, the University of South Florida (USF) consolidated its three campuses into one unified university, with the main campus in Tampa and additional campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. Due to the 40-minute commute between Tampa and St. Petersburg, students, faculty, and staff frequently travel between these two locations. While USF Tampa has a free shuttle service for students and employees within the Tampa campus, there is no shuttle service at USF St. Petersburg or between the campuses.

Background

The smaller St. Petersburg campus faces course registration challenges as Tampa-based students often fill in-person and online course slots first, forcing St. Petersburg students to attend in-person classes in Tampa. This disparity affects the St. Petersburg student’s access to educational resources directly. Some faculty members are required to teach at both campuses, leading to extended commutes and late nights managing grading. Additionally, staff members must attend in-person meetings in Tampa, incurring parking expenses and gas costs without reimbursement, therefore adding financial strain in an inflated economy.

The Problem

Current challenges related to inter-campus commuting have highlighted the need for a more efficient and accessible transportation solution. The introduction of a free bus service presents an opportunity to address these challenges, providing a cost-effective and sustainable mode of transportation.

Proposed Solution

The Research

A competitive analysis was done on 3 different institutions that offer bus services: St. Petersburg College, State College of Florida, and Hillsborough Community College. I discovered the following key learnings:

  1. SPC (St. Petersburg College) uses a grant from Pinellas County to pay for the free bus service, while SCF (State College of Florida) and HCC (Hillsborough Community College) offer varying discounts for students and employees.

  2. SCF and HCC also extend their bus services to residents.

  3. Even though USF does not offer a free bus service to the St. Petersburg campus, they offer discounted Uber rides through the Student Government.

Competitive Analysis

St. Petersburg College
Students, faculty, and staff can enjoy free transportation through the Universal Pass or U-PASS, an agreement between the college and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA).

State College of Florida
Offers a $170 savings for students. The bus pass costs $30 per semester for students and $50 per month for faculty and staff.

Hillsborough Community College
Offers 50% off for students, faculty, and staff. The bus pass normally costs $220, but comes out to $110 for the year or $48.75 a month.

Opportunities Identified

  1. Leverage sustainability efforts: Over the years, USF has secured several grants to support its ongoing sustainability initiatives. By consistently gathering data and conducting research on the free bus service over time, USF can enhance its chances of obtaining additional funding for future projects. This approach will also bolster its reputation as a leader in innovative and sustainable practices.

  2. Class schedule integration: Students and faculty can seamlessly coordinate their class schedule with the transportation schedule.

  3. Reward system for taking the bus: Students will receive a mystery prize after riding the bus 100 times. They can keep track of their rides and their friends’ rides on a leadership board.

  4. Unified campus: Providing a complimentary bus service creates a seamless transportation experience across USF campuses. This will help students and employees feel more connected and reduce their reliance on driving or taking Uber.

Affinity Mapping

Key Insights:

  1. Modes of transportation: Out of 8 participants, 7 of them stated they drive to campus, 3 of them sometimes take an Uber, 3 of them sometimes have a family member drop them off, and 1 sometimes walks.

  2. Reduce commuting stress: Five participants noted parking as a stressor, while 4 mentioned traffic as their biggest stressor. Three participants also mentioned that Highway 275, which is the only highway that connects St. Petersburg and Tampa, is dangerous.

  3. Extended hours for events: Five participants think the bus should run on nights and weekends for events, and one participant mentioned the bus should have flyers of events and lectures.

  4. Design and research: Two participants stated the graphic arts students should design the bus, one participant wants the graphic arts and the marine science program to work together to design a sustainable banner around the bus, and one person believes that the Data Visualization new hire should research the effects of the bus service vs. how many students drive between campuses.

  5. Free bus service impacts and benefits: Four participants expressed what a great service the free bus would be for students.One participant mentioned it would be particularly good for international students and another participant mentioned it would be good for students with accessibility needs. Three participants mentioned it would be good for faculty who need to teach classes in Tampa and St. Petersburg. Finally, 5 participants noted how environmentally friendly the bus service would be.

  6. Student and community engagement: One participant mentioned the free bus service would open up more opportunities for students to work between campuses. Another feature mentioned was accessibility, which would make people feel safe and heard by the university. Another participant mentioned it would be great for students to get involved with the libraries and their events, as well as getting students involved with sustainability efforts that marine sciences is doing in the bay. One participant stated it would be great for students to clean up the bus as part of extra credit and finally, one participant mentioned the bus service would be great for students to attend art events in Tampa and St. Petersburg.

I interviewed 8 participants total: 2 staff members, 2 faculty members, and 4 students. I used their thoughts to gain insight into how they would use the free bus service and what features they would like to see. Seven out of 8 participants said they would use the free bus service, but all of them had various features they would like to see. Some user needs mentioned were flexibility and convenience of bus schedule, community building and inter-campus connectivity, stress free commute, access to more events and job opportunities, accessibility, and sustainability.

User Needs

1. The potential for students and employees to be late to class or meetings.

2. Worry from faculty about students using a late bus as an excuse to be late to class.

3. Faculty note longer work hours due to driving back and forth between campuses, causing them to have to make up for hours lost commuting.

4. Finding funding for the bus service.

5. Potential safety concerns if the bus will be running late at night and on weekends.

6. Participants who frequently travel between campuses often get stuck in 1 hour+ traffic one way.

7. Finding parking specifically on the St. Petersburg campus can be difficult and the cost of parking on both campuses is really expensive.

8. Participants also mention that Highway 275 is dangerous and they often see accidents that cause long traffic times.

User Pain Points

1. Reduce commuting stress.

2. Optimize faculty efficiency.

3. Financial relief from parking costs for everyone.

4. Foster a sense of community.

5. Reduce environmental impact.

Project Goals

Based on the participant responses from the interviews, I came up with two personas:
1. The stressed-out student
2. The burned-out professor

Personas

The concept of implementing a free bus service at USF is to provide a cost-effective, sustainable transportation solution connecting the St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses. This service aims to enhance accessibility, reduce commuting stress, optimize faculty efficiency, and alleviate financial burdens for students, faculty, and staff. By offering scheduled, eco-friendly bus trips with schedule integration and incentivized commuting, this initiative fosters a sense of community and reduces the environmental impact of individual commutes.

Product Concept

  1. Bus schedule

  2. Schedule integration

  3. GPS navigation

  4. Notifications

  5. Commuting Initiative

Feature List

Through my research, I discovered that several participants wanted to see accessibility features such as ramps and lifts on the bus. Due to the limitations of this project, I was unable to include a bus to demonstrate these features. However, the inclusion of these accessibility features remains a possibility as the free bus service evolves.

Define: The Design Process

To begin the design process, I looked at the primary goals that users would want to achieve on the platform and created the following user flows:

Find a bus schedule:

This feature allows students, faculty, and staff to locate a bus schedule.

  1. Navigate to Parking & Transportation.

  2. User chooses Bus.

  3. User chooses origin.

  4. User chooses destination.

  5. User chooses a date.

  6. User chooses a time.

  7. User gets itinerary.

Schedule integration:

This feature allows students and faculty to locate bus lines corresponding to their academic schedules.

  1. Select add to class.

  2. User selects a class.

  3. User chooses to add bus to their class schedule.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Using the user flows I created, I began working on my low- and mid-fidelity wireframes. The primary flows I worked on creating were:

  1. Finding a bus schedule.

  2. Schedule integration.

  3. Incentivizing bus commutes.

  1. The bus schedule page helps users plan their transportation journey by choosing a time, date, and departure place.

2. The schedule integration page allows students and faculty to synchronize their class schedules with a bus schedule.

3. The incentivizing bus commutes page is designed to encourage more users to use the free bus service, by offering mystery prizes, a leaderboard, and information and calculations on CO₂ emissions.

Mid-Fidelity Wireframe

Test

The moment of truth: Usability testing!
I conducted testing on 8 users to help identify any potential issues and the app’s intuitiveness. Users were asked to go through the following task flows:

1. Finding a bus schedule.

2. Adding a bus to a current school schedule.

3. Viewing the bus ride initiative.

Usability Testing

Link to Prototype:

Participants were able to complete all tasks without issues and expressed that the bus ride initiative was their favorite part.

Below, you’ll find more information about the iterations that were made in response to comments from participants.

Results

Iterations

Five participants stated they did not like the “add to schedule” pop-up feature, while 2 participants stated they wished they could still see the map option on the schedule page. Participants suggested it would be better if the “add to schedule” pop-up appeared on the maps page instead.

Moving the pop-up

Changing the UI of the bus ride initiative

All participants understood the progress bar's purpose but were unclear about its display content. Three participants recommended using progress rings to indicate bus usage for better clarity. Additionally, four participants mentioned difficulty reading the text on the hero image and suggested darkening the image. One participant noted that the clam colors did not align with the branding and should be changed or removed. Another participant suggested moving the leaderboard higher, placing it right after the progress rings to maintain user attention.

Final Prototype

Conclusion

I discovered that while there is a need for a free bus between the St. Petersburg and Tampa campuses, the obstacle of funding the service, whether it be through a grant or through student fees, presents a significant challenge. Cross-functional collaboration between different departments, such as finances and the state of Florida would need to be arranged, as well as the process of applying for a grant. Maintaining a grant is also somewhat of a challenge of its own, as USF would have to prove the need for the bus service every year.

Next Steps

With additional time, the next step would involve conducting more thorough research on various funding options as well as adding accessibility features for students, faculty, and staff.

Next

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