group8A 


 * Part A:

Group Resume**

Sara Abdelshahid – 4th year student in CCIT and Human Geography. Skills: -Adobe Suite technical and design thinking skills -Social Research Methods. Including survey experience.

Vinay Parujanwala – 4th year student in CCIT and Political Science. Skills: - Adobe Suite technical and design thinking skills. - Leadership and Management experience.

Savraj Lota – 4th year student in CCIT and Economics. Skills: - Adobe Suite Technical and Design Thinking Skills. - Time Management, Organization and Planning

Caroline Bosgoed - 4th year student in CCIT and Art History Skills: - Adobe Suite technical and design thinking skills - Leadership and organizational skills - Previous re-design experience

Responsibilities 1) Team meetings; planning and organizing meetings. 2) Maintaining Wikispaces; feedback management 3) Input into Design, design changes and modifications. Brainstorming. 4) Equally divided work 5) Individual responsibilities will be taken into account, further into the project. Rules 1) Polite, respectful, and honest towards others. 2) Punctual 3) Open to others (ideas, criticism)
 * Shared/Team Responsibilities and Rules:**


 * PACT Analysis (People, Activity, Context, Technology)**

__Idea__ Re-design the physical Public Bus, which includes a better interior layout and enhancing the user experience. In addition to creating a GPS bus communication platform allowing users to be well informed of bus locations.

__People__ We are targeting public bus users, taking into consideration all ages (Elderly, middle-age, students, youth and parents). Our objective is to enhance the experience people incur while commuting; this includes the experience in the bus and waiting for the bus.

__Activities__ The re-design will focus at achieving two goals. Firstly, a better user experience specifically by introducing a new seating arrangement with adjustable seats and new rail design to accommodate the safety & comfort of those standing. Secondly, to implement a GPS tracking system on the busses for commuters informing them of bus locations, delay’s and approximate time of arrivals. At each bus stop this information can be received through the mounted information display.

__Context__ Current Problems: 1) Seating – it is not adjustable. 2) Rails – placement issues, causes exhaustion for the arm. 3) Buttons – not enough of them, placement issues as well. 4) Bus Stops – no information display (static maps/information)

__Technology__ For the interior of the bus, we will be using pre-existing push button technology to indicate “stop requested.” We will also implement a display system that will provide users of the necessary information. There will also be a G.P.S tracker on each bus.

At the bus stops there will be a G.P.S receiver and that will allow the wall-mounted LCD displays to show information.


 * Part B:**


 * User Study Goals:**

Our goals are to improve a users overall interaction with the bus by enhancing the comfort level and the ergonomics of the rails and seating. This will in turn help to improve the overall experience of the user during their bus ride.

Our core questions we want the user to address are their level of comfort, considering both seating and standing. This will give us insight into how we should re-design the seats and rail locations. Another question to address are the problems that the user encounters on their daily bus rides. This will help us to re-configure the interior layout of the bus bearing in mind the problems the users encounter. In addition we will re-consider other technologies such as “button requests” and whatever else the user may require of us during the re-design process.

Our main research method is through the use of conducting surveys. This will give us a chance to take a quantitative approach to collect a mass amount of data. At the same time this allows our participants to remain anonymous therefore their information is confidential, which is important to our ethical approach.

Other Methods such as interviews would provide for qualitative research as the user will be able to articulate their experiences better to us. However, our research does require a large amount of data so we can grasp the experiences of a wide range of users to find common problems and changes that will be needed. With the use of specific questions in our survey we do not limit the quality of our research.

How often do you take the bus? Once a week 2-3 times a week 4-5 times a week more than 5 times a week
 * Questionnaire:**

One a scale of one to five (one being the least comfortable and five being the most comfortable) how comfortable are the bus seats? 1 2 3 4 5

To make the seats more comfortable, which of the following are necessary? (Please check all that apply) Wider seats Arm rests Softer seats Adjustable seats Swivel seats Other (Please specify) _____________

What problems do you encounter while standing during a bus ride?

Rails too high? Strain on arm or hand? (while holding rail) Not enough grip? (floor) Grip problems when floor is wet?

What method do you prefer to signal a “stop requested”? • Button • Wire (along the windows) • Other (Please specify) ________________

Do you ride during peek hours? Yes No • If yes, do you feel people are in your personal space? Yes No • If yes again, which of the following do you think will address this problem? (Please chose all that apply) o New Seating Plan o Double-Decker Bus o Increase the number of extended busses in use

Why do you take the bus? • For Work • For School • For Errands (grocery etc) • Personal (shopping etc) • Leisure

Age _ _

Gender Male Female

Overall satisfaction of your experience with the bus? • Very Satisfied • Satisfied • Dissatisfied • Very Dissatisfied

Our survey will conform to all the ethical principles for conducting research on human subjects. Before we hand out our survey, we will let all respondents know that we are conducting this research for a school research project, which is under the supervision of the instructor Prof. Jones, and that all information will be kept confidential. In order to ensure that our survey does conform to all ethical principles, we will keep in mind 5 ethical principles/questions, which are: Is there harm to participants? Is there lack of informed consent? Is there invasion of privacy? Is deception involved? Is there coercion (was anyone forced)? Our survey will be given to those who are 16 years of age or older and who were willing to volunteer. When a respondent decides not to complete the survey halfway through, they are more than welcomed to do so, since they are not obligated. We will then discard the questionnaire since it is incomplete.
 * Ethical Considerations:**