The Project
Imagine: you need to get somewhere within or to the city, but you can already see the traffic jam. What about the bus or the subway? You check your route using the planner on the website. That looks okay! You hurry to the bus stop, but to your frustration you missed it anyway. Fortunately, the real-time information at the stop shows you that the next bus will be here in five minutes. Great! That gives you just enough time to buy a ticket online and send your ETA to your date.
You may not think about it at the time, but there is a lot of innovation and advanced development behind public transport applications. For years, De Lijn has been striving to provide its customers with the best possible user experience. And to do this, they were counting on our very own UX/UI designer.
At first, De Lijn intended to just visually modify their website. However, they quickly noticed more room for improvement. The team expanded and revised the entire website: what was needed to ensure a flawless user experience? And what should it look like? That's how De Lijn came up with an advanced, modular system that focuses on the user journey. Every stop, every address, every municipality and street was given a separate data entity for an improved route planner. Soon you will be able to enjoy the best De Lijn website experience to date!
But the website is one thing. There are so many more ways to inform travellers. Our designer also took care of the real-time information boards at stops and stations. The result can now be seen everywhere! It may seem rather basic, but the simpler the design, the more difficult it often is. Afterall, such information boards offer little space and possibilities, but a lot of information has to be displayed. Can we use colours at all? Is a top plate necessary to interpret the info? What is the clearest way to display information?
Research is key here: does '5' suffice, or is '5 min' clearer to indicate that the bus will arrive in 5 minutes? Should all information be displayed on one screen, or can a scrolling screen offer a solution to give more information? It's important to know how the end-user reads these signs because that's the only way to get an optimal design.
For B2B, De Lijn also wanted to improve user experience. That's why they developed a user-friendly portal where employers could manage their employees' subscriptions. Our UX/UI talent took charge of this project: from idea and requirements to user flows, a suitable design and of course optimization based on user feedback.
As you can see, there was a lot to design. Many different designers worked on the projects. That is why it is important that the designs are all nicely coordinated. Our designer also worked on a style guide: she designed different icons, put together a colour set, chose the typography and even recorded possible surfaces. The ideal guide for a coherent brand experience.
Do you also need beautiful designs, adapted to your customer needs? Contact us, our UX/UI designer would love to meet you!
