Interviews

During the user interviews, I asked the users to describe their journeys through maps, layouts of existing buses and questionnaires.

Depending on their answers; I did some specifications such as:

Younger:
Sit at the back together and talk to each other.

Disabled:
Front seats are dedicated for disabled, but they don’t want to sit there.
They prefer the middle of the bus, near to the door.
But then can’t get control of kneeling function of the bus.

Elderly:
Use the middle of the bus, the seats close to the door or the foldable ones all the time.
It is easier to get up from them. It’s higher than the others.
The other seats are hard for the elderly and with walking sticks to turn around and sit on them.
They want to be close to the door, because it takes a lot of time getting off the bus.
Otherwise the door closes before they get off.

User Research

During the user research phase, I did some short visits to the Youth Habilitation Center in Umea, the Handicapped Organization in Umea, the Swebus Bus Garage, the Public Transportation department of the Umea Municipality and homes of users who accepted to make interview with me.



Beside these visits, I tried some special equipments for disabilities in the Hjälpsmedels Center, also visited a scene talking cinema for visually impaired people in Umea.

I did the user interviews with a homogenious group of people with the help of Elisabeth and Britta in finding people who have different expertise and disabilities. As a result, the interviews were done with:

. 2 bus drivers
. 2 wheelchair users
. a young wheelchair user with her assistant
. a visually impaired woman
. a hearing impaired 80 year old man
. a movement disabled woman with rheumatism
. a parent with pram . a young student
. an occupational therapist

With some of the users I traveled together and documented their journey. I also did some interviews in visits. I tried to do the user visits in an unofficial coffee visit atmosphere, instead of creating an official atmosphere with questionnaires to be filled in.

During the interviews, I asked the users' daily journey cycle from the starting point till the final destination. Their private stories were also welcome in order to use them during the evaluation process.

Daniella and Sara
their daily journey and use of the city bus

Ulrik and his small family

taking their first bus trip to the city center with a pram


Ander's use of transportation in Umea
He took the pictures himself with a disposable camera that I gave to him.


A visually impaired person's view inside the bus
This is almost how I experienced when I tried the special glasses that are designed for witnessing a visual disabled person's sight.