Redesigning the Travel Booking Experience
Megabus
Megabus is a double-decker long distance bus service that offers fares starting at just $1. The Megabus app is designed to track bus locations and schedules in real time, which should make it convenient for riders to be dropped off or picked up.
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I tasked myself with a 3-day design sprint to redesign the functions of the app and aimed to make it more user-friendly. I removed the bus tracking system, which research proved to be faulty, and focused on encouraging users to purchase tickets with a clean and streamlined design.
Design Sprint /
Mobile App
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Role /
UX Designer
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Year /
2016
Research, interviews and testimonials led me to the conclusion that the current mobile app was extremely frustrating for users:
"When you select the "buy tickets" button, it takes you to the Megabus website where you have to put in all the information ALL OVER AGAIN. I'm uninstalling and bookmarking the website instead."
"Can't buy tickets, check schedule, check status, or even see routes. the best you can do is see the different stations, and that's it."
"You can't buy tickets. More importantly, the bus tracking is unreliable. It shows the bus where it isn't."
"It's like dealing with multiple levels of support and explaining your issue over and over!"
"Waste of time."
RESEARCH
DESIGN
DISCOVERY
Old Versus New
The current design is confusing and leads users to believe they can choose a trip and purchase tickets:
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Current landing page
Tapping "Departure"
Departure city entered
Web app landing page
Selecting a date on web app
Selecting 'back' function results in this screen
Splash screen
Once a user enters trip information and taps "Buy Tickets", they are redirected to Megabus's web app. The information a user has entered disappears and the user must enter it in again. What's worse, when a user clicks into the calendar view, they can no longer get back to the previous ticket booking screen and must start over a third time.
The Redesign
I focused on creating a step by step flow that would streamline users to purchase tickets. used Airbnb, Virgin America, and Greyhound for competitive and comparative analyses to focus on intuitive navigational cues for booking and purchasing tickets. I love the idea of having users enter as little information as possible in as few prompts as possible to get what they need and felt like each of these companies successfully incorporated this into their platforms.
I added a hamburger feature to the landing page so users could choose from immediately searching for trips or navigating to the menu where they would see existing or previous trips, notifications or information about the company:
Landing page
Tapping the hamburger menu
For booking, I condensed options so users could choose dates and departures without having to navigate between pages:
Entering trip information
Selecting departure date
Selecting return date
I wanted users to be able to see what seats they could choose, so I simulated the design of the bus with matching price upgrades:
Date confirmation
Choosing seats
Seat choice scrolls to view upper and lower decks
And importantly, I wanted users to be able to make purchases easily and immediately receive confirmation of their purchase:
Ticket summary and purchasing
Trip confirmation
Results
I completed this design sprint with a hi fidelity prototype. Usability testing was successful and I received positive feedback regarding an intuitive flow throughout the app.
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In the future, I would propose re-introducing a real time bus tracking feature, a "change reservation" feature to modify trips, as well as an in-app quick response code for boarding the bus.