Find My Train
Find My Train is a self-initiated project and a Startup Weekend Phoenix winner. We earned 2nd place and $15,000 in prizes, including an eight-week course at ASU's Rapid Startup School.
Year
2013 - 2015
Services
Product Design, Web Design, Branding
Problem
As an avid user of the Valley Metro Light Rail in Phoenix, I was painfully aware of how inefficient it is to find the train schedule or plan your rides. Before building this app, riders only had two options available:
1. Search the city's mobile website containing hundreds of data entries with station locations and times. The schedule was accurate, but poor design created a tedious and cumbersome process of searching enormous times tables with many hundreds of entries.
2. Download an existing app that attempted to make this information more accessible. I download every app I could find, but found the existing apps for Phoenix to be horrible experiences at best, with poor usability and inaccurate or outdated schedules. Believe it or not, one app had the schedule for only one direction.
Thanks to Startup Weekend, we were able to create a third option.
Solution
The goal of the design was to create a streamlined user experience for finding the most relevant information.
Based on in-person interviews at Light Rail stations, we determined most people were simply trying to find out when the next train was going to arrive (in Phoenix, the Light Rail may only come every 20 minutes, and waiting outside in 115° weather is less than ideal).
The other apps available required a lot of manual input to search and find the appropriate station and scheduling information. Not to mention, you had to do this every time you used the app.
We determined our app should make some basic assumptions based on the user’s location, and immediately deliver information for the nearest station (the one they would most likely be using). So now, by simply launching the app, a user is able to immediately see a countdown timer to when the next train will arrive at the nearest station.
If you won’t make it to that train, you can swipe to see a countdown to the next train, or the next, and so on. The information is pulled live from the Valley Metro to ensure it is up-to-date.
All other station schedules are available through the main menu.
Gallery
Response
The reception of our app was overwhelmingly positive. Since launch the user base has grown to 20,000+ users, and Valley Metro even approached our team to potentially help design their upcoming Light Rail application. Here are a few reviews from the app store:
"This is a great app that allows you to know when the train is coming and ensures you’re on time! This is a ‘must-download’ for the light rail commuters"
"This app is such an amazing invention. I even gifted it to a friend. A definite MUST for light rail riders both frequent and casual alike. Props guys!"
"This is a fantastic app for Phoenix metro residents. Nice, simple and clean UI. This will be super handy for me. Keep up the good work!"
Press
Team
Adam Mann - Creator, UI/UX
Al Wold - App Development
Brett Farmiloe - Social Media, Marketing
Michael Witham - User Research
