Calcompanions
With Caltrain @ Stanford
AI-powered dating app transforming Caltrain commutes by fostering meaningful connections.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
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Challenge and Context:
Developing a way to simply enhance the California Caltrain experience for rides and increase ridership overall.
Timeline:
September 2024 - November 2024
Responsibilities:
Interviewing | Final UI/UX Prototype | Video-making | Storytelling | Animation
Opportunity:
Identified the issue of social disconnectivity among Caltrain commuters through user research, understanding rider needs and behaviors.
created an intuitive platform (prototype) that fosters meaningful connections and enhances the overall commuter experience.
Team Size:
4 Designers
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FINAL SOLUTION
The Solution and Final Product
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In the first month of Caltrain's electric service launch, ridership jumped 54% since the pandemic—a promising sign that people are getting back on the tracks. But stepping onto the platform, we couldn't help but notice a different trend: people, despite the influx, seemed more distant than ever. Detached. Isolated. Faces buried in screens, heads down, lost in their own little worlds. On the train itself, the atmosphere was quite the same.
How do we close this social gap?
We took a step back and asked ourselves what could break through this wall. A cafe? A separate social car? Then we asked ourselves what concepts had existed already to solve a similar social challenge. We asked ourselves what worked. Dating Apps! And this is what we wanted to explore.
After around 5 weeks of user research, interviewing, ideation and prototyping, we created on our product CalCompanions, a dating app that would integrate real-time Caltrain schedules, verified rider profiles, fun connection, and service-exclusive exploration of the Bay Area.
The Progress
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PROBLEM SPACE
Initial Problem Discovery: User Interviews
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We began the whole process by getting the ground and finding an pain point or a need that we could build a solution to. At the Palo Alto Caltrain station, we interviewed 15+ people. We tried to set a wide net to be able to look at the scene holistically (gender, age, ethnicity). In the end, we collected three quotes/observations that interested us and built insights out of that. From here, we started developing our problem space.
User Perspective
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From these insights, we built a user perspective. To build this, we combined who our realistic user is (single, 19- 30, lone traveler) with a need (isolation) and our insights (people want to meet people).
SOLUTION SPACE
HMWs & Ideation
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With a clear problem and a clear user, we began brainstorming HWMs and ideating. We created two HMWs that helped showcase the main design goals and values (engagement, safety, and sociability) that we wanted in our final solution. From these HMWs, we ideated 3 promising ideas and organized every point into an affinity map.
UX/UI : LOW Fidelity Templates
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With three ideas that target the same problem, we had a divergence and needed to decide on a final idea to build. After talking extensively with mentors and each other, discussing pros, cons, our exact point of interjection, and user flow logistics, we converged into a single idea.
Competitive Analysis
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After converging into a single idea, the traditional dating app, we took a step back to do some more research on our apps currently in the market. We complied strengths and weaknesses and gathered design insights from these competitors.
UX/UI : MID Fidelity Templates
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We started building. As the lead UI/UX designer on the team, I created our first set of prototypes, building the 30+ wireframes in Figma.
At this point we also had a divergence in our ideas as we discussed whether or not to it was better to continue with the "boring, done before" traditional dating app or the "unique, experimental" speed dating app.
Building both prototypes, we brought the two for testing on the Caltrain. Our Feedback included prs and cons for both.
Testing: Design Improvements and Clarifications
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After further testing, we realized that there were many aspects of our solution that needed clarifying such as the user flow and other system logistics. I addressed this organizing a user flow that will clarify a user pathway and justify some design decisions.
UX/UI : HIGH Fidelity Templates
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We began the whole process by getting the ground and finding an pain point or a need that we could build a solution to. At the Palo Alto Caltrain station, we interviewed 15+ people. We tried to set a wide net to be able to look at the scene holistically (gender, age, ethnicity). In the end, we collected three quotes/observations that interested us and built insights out of that. From here, we started developing our problem space.
DESIGN
Design System & Moodboard
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Business Factors
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REFLECTIONS
Reflection
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Key Takeaways as a Designer:
This was my first real big exposure to needfinding and UX research. It was my first time going out and interviewing people about what they needed, or what they didn't know they needed.
There were many twists and turns, divergences and convergences. As a designer that used to design alone, this was an experience to experience the boundless and unpredictable journey of the design process.
It was also a great opportunity to apply my UI/UX design skills to creating several prototypes, creating wireframes from Lo - Hi fidelity. It was a joy to see my work tested by potential users at the stations.
Next Steps:
The next step is to build out a complete app and consider all those edge cases. Once a complete wireframes are built in Figma, I would program it and build it into a functional app. Uploading to Testflight, I can get more insights and catch more bugs through larger scale testing.
Or email syan204@stanford.edu