Key stakeholders
YLAC (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship)
Type of work
Service Design
Participatory Design
Advocacy
Improving bus accessibility by identifying factors that affect the experience of a commuter, from doorstep to destination. Doddanekundi, Bengaluru was chosen as a pilot neighbourhood.
This project was undertaken with the Government of Karnataka as part of the #BengaluruMoving campaign. Our team of 5 interdisciplinary professionals were chosen by YLAC (Young Leaders for Active Citizenship) among 15 other Mobility Champions, to partner with Sensing Local (an Urban Living Lab).
Our involvement in the project. Process image from the book 'This is Service Design Thinking'
Meeting with stakeholders:
Sensing Local and the RWA (Resident Welfare Association)
The RWA involved provided us with data about the households and settlements in Doddanekundi. We identified 3 major groups-
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Doddanekundi Village: a dense settlement
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Apartments and gated communities
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Bagmane IT tech park
Engaging with stakeholders in Doddanekundi
Discovering the pulse of the neighbourhood: field visits, bus route audits & contextual interviews
Our goal during this exploration was to familiarise ourselves with the needs, concerns and desires of our users, and define the problem to solve for. Through conversations and dipstick interviews we identified specific issues that were contextual to Doddanekundi and each of our user groups.
Interviews, Activity mapping and Bus audits
We looked at the holistic experience of a bus user to understand the importance of first and last mile connectivity and information availability. Each of us also drafted our own bus experiences as Bus Diaries. With all our information put together, we sorted out common and unique issues, and emotional reactions during each leg of a typical journey.
Sample user journey map from documented Bus Diaries
Our survey design process started off with a brainstorming session with Sensing Local to define the structure and flow of the information that was required at every step. A detailed flowchart mapped out all possibilities of questions for each type of user. It was vital to get insights from both existing and potential bus users.
The flowchart created using Miro helped us structure and list down questions, which eventually made their way into a form using KoBo Toolbox.
We planned to administer these surveys at 3 types of locations-
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Bus stops
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Place of residence (Trip generators)
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Place of work, study, recreation (Trip attractors)
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Based on the type of user, we executed these either online or in person. We spent several more days on field sharing our form and interviewing people.
Survey administration strategy
Our initial analysis confirmed that issues were contextual to each user type. We sliced the data based on house and work location, profession, bus usage and gender. On an average, Convenience (accessible bus stops, first & last mile connectivity) and Reliability (arriving as per schedule) were chosen as top priority, and also what most issues were around.
Undertaking advocacy to gather interest, engagement and build community
Apart from spreading the word about our project during field visits, we also created content to share online. Our goal is to create a community of like minded people who are enthusiastic about improving public transport in their neighbourhood.
Content created-
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A video to encourage citizens to join our community
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Illustrations encouraging the use of the new Bus Priority Lane
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'Humans of New York' style stories highlighting lives of commuters and those part of the Bengaluru bus experience
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A new way to visualise information: a bus route map
Advocacy material created
Our work was featured in The New Indian Express, The News Minute and on Twitter handles. It will soon be up on Citizen Matters as well.
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As a Service Designer it was a great experience to be a part of a multidisciplinary team and work with various stakeholders. We approached the project from a holistic systems design perspective and strived to ensure it was truly participatory.
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This is an ongoing project which will see culmination by the end of 2021. We are currently continuing research and surveys to feed into the Design phase. Do reach out if you would like to be involved with the Doddanekundi community.
The ‘Mobility Champions’ program is a 2 month-long part-time engagement wherein passionate young residents of Bengaluru are groomed as Mobility Champions to explore policy solutions and undertake advocacy for better transportation systems, by engaging with policymakers, civil society organisations as well as citizen groups. Mobility Champions on the Bus Accessibility team- Ankit Pandey, Giriraj Heda, Kaushik Chandrasekaran & Tanushri Dalmiya.
Survey design, administration & analysis: Understanding travel patterns of Existing & Potential bus users
Key takeaways from our survey analysis:
priorities, perceptions and issues