Next Ferry iOS app

The challenge

As a regular commuter to the Manly ferry services, I always struggled to find and navigate through ferry timetables.

With that in mind, I wrote down 'Zero interaction app' and thought it would be a unique north star to follow for this personal project.

Methodology

This project came out of time dedicated to personal projects at work. That's how I met a fantastic iOS developer and now good friend Matthew Tonkin.

We agreed to meet-up after hours to work on it over a few weeks. I put together a feature list attached to release # to help us visualise what our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) would be. Because we worked on the project at the same time, we both received instant feedback on our work, allowing us to progress swiftly.

Two weeks later, I ran some user-testing with friends using Testflight. After a final round of feedback, we pushed the first build of the app to the app store.

💡 Some of the problems I overcame during the project:

• Live data: A blessing and a curse at the same time. I wanted to aggregate two separate types of ferries operated by two independent companies with two different ways of managing timetables. One company is public and has all its data managed in real-time and publicly available via an API. The other one is private-owned and maintains its schedule via a PDF document. Because of the timeframe we had, I wasn't comfortable with the idea of having some data live and some data static. So I decided to hard code the data from both ferry companies directly into the app. Probably not the recommended approach but it worked. It forces me to keep an eye on the timetable changes and to push design improvements while maintaining the timetable up to date. This 'static' data allows me to bring a bit of my personality to the app by inserting microcopy when needed (during disruption periods caused by Wharf maintenance, for example).

• How do I use this app to do some good? I asked myself this question from the very beginning. I was about to provide a user base with a helpful service for free. I wanted to figure out a way to get something in return that I could use to do some good for the planet. The quickest and most cost-effective solution was to display banner Ads within the app and offer the option to remove them for a cost. I wanted to be different, so I designed a unique and fun 'Ads removal' experience. I tried to tickle the curious trait of my users and reward them for using it. A cute icon asks the users to interact with it; once they do, I greet them with the donation page. That page explains how I'll use their money and in which proportion. I wanted to be transparent and educate users on what is going on behind their app purchases. I also chose to use the word 'Tip' to soften the message around the transaction and hopefully increase the conversion rate. I had to put the release of that feature on hold because the charity I chose at the time (Manly Aquarium) has unfortunately shut down. I'll release it as soon as I find another charity matching my criteria.

For the visual design of Next Ferry, I wanted to stand out entirely from my competitors. With a 'zero interaction' mindset, it was pretty easy. I used colours to reference locations. Because my MVP only had Manly and Circular Quay as locations, I chose two very distinctive tones for each (while keeping accessibility standards (WCAG) high). My research told me that ferries are full from Manly in the morning and pretty much empty when they return from Circular Quay and vice versa at night. That influenced my choice of colour; a warm hue of orange represents the sun rising and fits perfectly with the bulk of the users opening the app in the morning from Manly. At night, the Circular Quay is presented with a refreshing and relaxing blue, giving a feeling of night setting. Each location also displays a photo representing them with a wave and a surfer for Manly, the harbour bridge for the CBD. I took all these shots.

The information on the screen is minimalist. All a user needs to know is the type of ferry (slow or fast), the location it's departing from and the time until next departure. It's challenging to do simple things. I went through multiple iterations to find the right balance between each element on the screen to make sure the primary and secondary information was contrasted but homogeneous.