Bus it to the Buckeyes

Industry | Service

Methods | Observation, Intercepts Interviews

Timeline | 8-weeks

Bus it to the Buckeyes (BITTB) is a unique service offered by The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) to provide easy, convenient, hassle-free transportation to and from the Ohio State football games.

COTA believed the service was underutilized and could be improved with greater awareness, ease of access, and improvements to the rider journey from beginning to end.

Snapshot

Overview

Objectives

Identify both short-term and long-term opportunities for COTA to improve the value and service experience in areas such as:

  • Marketing efforts to raise awareness for varying user segments.

  • Increase confidence and engagement satisfaction with service touchpoints and interactions for current riders.

  • Identify opportunities for improved information, workflow, artifacts, communication, etc. for COTA employees.

My Role

As the User Research Lead, I ran the study E2E and also:

  • Produced recommendations for the COTA team to improve various touch-points of the BITTB experience for current riders.

  • Created additional deliverables that focused on opportunities for converting non-riders.

  • Proposed opportunities to improve communication & workflow for COTA employees on game days.

  • Hosted an Opportunity Workshop for the COTA team.

  • Brainstormed short-term and long-term opportunities for improvement with COTA team, based on my recommendations.

Outcomes

  • Created discussion guides, materials, and instructions to hand out to my research team (2-3 colleagues who volunteered to assist with intercepts on game days).

  • Conducted interviews with COTA staff to understand the BITTB process, employee touch-points, and better inform which questions were required of riders/non-riders.

  • Interviewed riders, collected qualitative and quantitative data to assess satisfaction and performance of the BITTB experience.

  • Interviewed non-riders to understand knowledge (if any) of the BITTB service. Probed into current experience traveling to game day and potential usage of the BITTB service.

  • Analyzed qualitative data for all segments (employee, rider, non-rider) and identified themes.

Data Collection

Example of the qualitative data that was collected.
Non-rider data is showcased. 

Refined Themes

Example of the analysis after patterns have been identified from the raw data. Detailed analysis is collapsed to showcase refined statements that tie into larger patterns. 

Conversion

Example of a draft that helped to tell the story of the non-rider experience and potential opportunities for improvement. This data was then refined and converted into a separate deliverable for the COTA team.

Nitty-Gritty

Methods

  • 1:1 interviews with COTA staff

  • 15 min. intercepts with riders/non-riders

  • Expert evaluation on the BITTB service

Participants

  • 60 game attendees — 30 rider, 30 non-riders

  • 15 employees — 4 Site managers, 6 ticketing staff, 5 bus riders

Analysis

  • Thematic analysis on qual data, transcribed from physical notes to excel

Deliverable

  • Journey map

  • Detailed findings and insights broken down by step in the journey

  • Recommendations for how to improve experience for employees, riders, and non-riders

Impact

  • In the off-season, COTA revamped their service by rearranging their teams to reflect the steps in the journey, ensuring staff had ownership and resources for their respective journey step

  • Each staff member in charge of a journey step was tasked with implementing the recommendations

Follow-up

  • The success of this work resulted in another service design project for the “Red, White, and Boom!” 4th of July rider experience