In 2017 Martine Powers and Kolin Pope interviewed blind Metro rider David Kosub for the Washington post about the event that has changed his life forever. Kosub had to save his own life when he fell in between two train cars. His story has spearheaded safety changes to future train car models. 

Problem

I suspect there is a missed opportunity to design for the disabled community which needs more accessibility features while using public transportation.

There are currently 1.3 million people who are legally blind in the United States.

Value Proposition

Disabled people face certain challenges when it comes to transportation (See Figure 1). Seeing DC can add support to a community in need of products that work with their personal challenges. Seeing DC focuses on safety for unsighted individuals, improving their confidence, independence and quality of life. 

(Statistics Source : The Braille Literacy Crisis in America)

Reasons Expressed by Persons w/ Disabilities for Never Leaving Home 

The Design Team

The Process

Evolution Of The Target Audience

Superusers > Tourists, Seniors & Disabled > Seniors & Disabled > Sight & Hearing Impaired > Sight Impaired

Results of interviews and testing caused changes to my target audience.

How did I find this problem?

While attending General Assembly I was asked to solve a problem. At the time I was reliant on the Metro to get to class and I was familiar with Metro's pain points for riders. Local riders have been complaining about numerous problems Metro has had over the years. I decided to find out what the real problem was with Metro.

Surveys, audio recorded interviews and superusers:

I conducted several rounds surveys and recorded interviews. Initially my scope was too large because I was trying to create an app that targeted superusers. These individuals had existing work arounds and listed problems that I couldn't provide a solution for. Problems included Metro's infrastructure and the lack of communication between the service and it's customers.

Tourists, seniors and the smartrip card machine:

Based on the results of the interviews, I decided to observe how tourists used the Metro. During an interview with a senior citizen, he shared the problems he was having refilling his Smartrip card. He previously lived in DC and was surprised Metro was still using machines that were more than 20 years old. 

Observations and Metro's challenges:

The insight I gained from observations and interviews about Metro's card machine helped me shift my focus on what accessibility features Metro offered as a whole. During an interview with a senior couple they said that the Metro maps were visually confusing. They said they only cared about where they are and where they were headed.

From my observation I found that Metro lacks:

• A headphone jack for audio directions (card machines)
• Braille on all text (card machines)
• Easy access to senior/disability fare smartrip cards
• Braille or audio on gates
• Safety ropes between trains (new train cars)
• Easy access to wheelchair parking (old trains)
• Clear audio destination descriptions from train operators (old trains)

I committed to designing for the sight impaired:

My biggest insight came from my interview with Daria Finley, she lost her sight at the age of 45 after being sighted her entire life. She expressed what works for her in her daily routine and her challenges with Metro. Some of her challenges were Metro had no headphone jack for audio directions when she wanted to refill her card and even though Metro provided spotty braille she could not interpret it based on wether it's contracted or uncontracted. She wished Metro's audio was as easy to use as the audio on ATM machines. When I had to make a decision wether to design for sight impaired or hearing impaired individuals Daria's interview and past research helped me solidify my target audience.

 In our interview she spoke about how her school placed an emphasis on learning to navigate the Metro without help because it establishes independence

Competitive Analysis

Sketches

Wireframe

This is a sketch I created showing how a user would move through my application at a minimum viable product (MVP) stage. 

First Round of Testing

Before I committed to targeting sight impaired users I performed my first test by enlarging my wireframe, placed it on a foam board and asked my users at the Metro to provide me with their feedback. Participants placed green dots and red dots next to features based on their likability. This was the first stage in my process where I intergrated audio and screen gestures.

Mission: To determine if the gestures are easy to understand and to find out if the app should have a visual dominate interface or an audio dominate interface.

Results: The participants favored the audio dominate interface, which led me to select my target audience as sight impaired individuals.

Second Round of Testing

After receiving feedback from my first test, I had difficulty finding individuals within my target audience to perform my second test so I had to improvise. I typed the audio for the application and blindfolded my father and had him perform the second test.

Mission: Find out if the audio descriptions posed challenges for the user.

Results:

• I found that the audio experience needed more detail
• I needed to add features that provided spatial awareness such as a footstep countdown and a compass for orientation

Legacy Versions

Before Seeing DC became a plugin I created a few versions titled "ADAM" (Accessibility Diction Audio Map) and Connect The Dots. Features from my legacy versions have been attributed to what Seeing DC is today.

Solution: Seeing DC Mobile Mockups

How Does Seeing DC Work?

Seeing DC must be downloaded and synced into Seeing AI before use. The app should be used as a guide and does not replace the users cane, dog or any other medical assistance device. In figure four I display how audio dictation helps the user set up their trip quickly using already existing features like location services. Seeing AI already has one sided audio narration but it was important to add an audio chatbot that provided audio responses.

Conversation with a user:

The decision to add a chatbot was prompted by a conversation I had with a mother and her blind 12 year old son. During the conversation they described how hard it was to hear train announcements from the conductor while standing on the platform. They expressed that the combination of poorly narrated information and not being familiar with the area made traveling more difficult. I used that information to develop features that provide reassurance for the user.

Explanation of figures:

In figure 5 I fulfill a user need of an augmented map that tells you an audio overview of your trip and alerts of transfers and upcoming stops. In figure 5 and 6 I included the Metro's app that provides live updates of train and bus status. These features satisfy the user need of knowing where they are at all times and does not involve asking anyone else for directions. In figure 7 and 8 I show how other Seeing AI features on demand makes it easy to get an estimation of how close the things are around you when using the Seeing DC plugin. Through multiple iterations Seeing DC now has features that are streamlined to serve needs and more flexibility to be able to skip unwanted information and access desired information.

Project Challenges

My project challenges were:

• Selecting the right problem with a validated need
• Selecting a target audience
• Flagging down users to fill out surveys
• Using paper surveys resulted in inaccurate data
• Finding multiple unsighted individuals to interview
• Deciding what visuals should be on the screen if the user is unsighted