Audrey Tang

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Design


d1. NEMO x Leaf It to Me
d2.Street Planters for Downtown
d3.TheRide Detour Toolkit
d4.Urban Tech Yearbook
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TheRide Detour Toolkit





DEC 2023
6 weeks
Service Design, UI/UX Research & Design

In collaboration with Theo Berry, Yichen Hu, and My Dao

Role: Project Management, Book Design, Content Writing
A toolkit to help service planners at Ann Arbor’s bus system TheRide to effectively communicate detour situations to riders. While detours may inevitably disrupt some travels, the Toolkit aims to reduce rider abandonment by improving basic text and graphic communication standards and information distribution.

Detours occur frequently in Ann Arbor due to construction projects and other circumstances outside of TheRide’s control. However, these detours should not deter riders from using the bus service, and the passenger communication system should offer recourse to assist riders in adapting their travels to the detours.

This project was selected as part of the 2024 Taubman Student Awards Exhibition.

How can we optimize detour 
alerts to improve rider experience?

Each summer, Ann Arbor undergoes a number of construction projects that impact roads and forces detours for local bus services. With over a million boardings each year, these detours impact a significant number of TheRide’s ridership experience, and our research has found that the service is ill-equipped to communicate detours with their riders. 

With budget in consideration, what are some improvements that can be made to the existing information system? Using principles of UX research and design, this project aims to inform staff at TheRide with a straightforward and comprehensive detour protocol when the unexpected happens.