Transita Ecosystem · Leyla Vargas

Research

We conducted open-ended interviews with approximately 15 participants across different age groups, locations, and transportation habits. We explored how people experience transportation and mobility in their daily lives, without starting from a predefined problem.

Empathy map with color-coded sticky notes grouping what interviewees think, feel, see, hear, and do about public transportation

Insight: The most critical users were in-person workers who relied on public transit, had no access to a private vehicle, and commuted to fixed destinations during peak hours.

Matrix of user groups by vehicle ownership and destination flexibility, highlighting people with no own vehicle and a non-flexible destination as the most affected

We then mapped the broader transportation ecosystem, including operators, drivers, government entities, passengers, and physical infrastructure.

Understanding the User

We identified three primary user groups: in-person workers, university students with fixed schedules, and older adults, creating four personas based on interview data.

Women faced additional challenges around safety, access to private transportation, and caregiving trips. This informed our primary persona, Marcela, a receptionist commuting from Pavas to Escazú, who became the focus of our journey map.

Persona of Marcela Rodríguez, a 40-year-old receptionist from Pavas, with her bio, goals, frustrations, motivations, personality, and technology use

Journey & Opportunities

We mapped both directions of Marcela’s commute to capture how her experience changed throughout the day. While unpredictable wait times, exhausting transfers, and limited information affected her overall journey, the return commute added further strain as afternoon rain increased traffic, overcrowding, and delays.

Outbound journey map with six stages from preparation to the second bus ride, an experience curve, and improvement opportunities

Return journey map with five stages from arriving at the destination to the second bus ride home, an experience curve, and improvement opportunities

We prioritized opportunities based on their potential to reduce travel time and improve commuters’ physical and emotional well-being. The two most impactful opportunities that emerged were: real-time bus tracking via GPS and increased service frequency.

Validation

We conducted seven in-depth interviews with in-person workers, followed by a survey of 61 participants to validate and quantify the patterns we observed.

Key insight: Public transit users experience a loss of control over their time. Unpredictable schedules, unreliable information, overcrowding, and lengthy transfers force commuters to plan hours in advance, sacrificing time, comfort, and peace of mind just to arrive on time.

Survey charts: typical commute time, where 39.3% travel more than an hour, and rainy season travel experience, which 55.7% describe as traumatic or unbearable

Survey charts: decisions under time pressure, where 73.8% take an Uber or DiDi, and top priority improvement, led by more frequent bus service at 42.6%

The survey confirmed the scale of these challenges:

82% commute at least one hour each way.
72% wake up 2–3 hours earlier due to unreliable schedules.
74% face unexpected costs when buses fail to arrive.
49% experience chronic stress and anxiety linked to transit uncertainty.

The Transita Ecosystem

The final proposal was an integrated transit platform combining increased bus frequency, route synchronization, and real-time communication. Improving reliability required coordination across the entire transit network, not just better information for riders.

The solution evolved into Transita, an ecosystem composed of three interconnected products.

Solution ecosystem diagram with the Administrative Platform, Bus Driver App, and Passenger App, each with its primary users and key capabilities

From Research to Design

We focused on the Passenger App, where uncertainty had the greatest impact on the commuting experience. Our initial wireframes explored route planning, stop information, real-time tracking, and incident alerts.

Testing

We conducted an initial usability test with four participants, covering key journeys such as onboarding, route planning, transfers, favorites, schedules, and incident reporting.

Animated walkthrough of the Transita wireframe prototype, from onboarding to route results

Testing revealed opportunities to improve clarity and navigation, leading us to refine the information architecture, redesign key screens, and optimize incident reporting.

First and second prototypes of the route detail and route search screens, showing the changes after usability testing

First and second prototypes of the incident report and map home screens, showing the changes after usability testing

Even with limited functionality in the initial prototype, users saw strong potential in Transita to reduce uncertainty when using public transportation.

Final UI

The visual direction was designed to communicate trust and reliability through a modern, technology-driven interface, contrasting with the uncertainty of the existing public transportation experience.