Hundreds and thousands of people take the Long Island Railroad every single day and it can be difficult to find out what time their train is or when it’s going to arrive. Creating an app will greatly help these people easily find their train times and buy their tickets. Thus, it becomes is a necessity and very essential for traveling in an efficient way. It’s also very convenient to have everything you need to know about the LIRR all in the hands of your mobile device. The current MTA LIRR app is outdated, with information that could be organized in a more concise and efficient way so it’s easy to find the information you need. The design of the app should also be updated to a more modernized app, making it aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, and making it user friendly so that everyone can use and navigate around the app with ease. Thus, for my ART 4900 capstone project, I will be redesigning the current MTA LIRR app to create a tool that will better fit the LIRR customers’ needs, making it more efficient and accessible to use at all times. 

For my project, I started by sketching out all the pages/screens in the app and made a flowchart to show what each page or button leads to after tapping or swiping. This helps me to stay organized and create a map of the app that is easy to navigate. Creating this flowchart also helps me to figure out what kind of features to include or exclude, whether the information displayed on the screen/page is essential to know or not, and figure out the layout of each screen/page. I sketched out the main screens and all the sub-screens that link from it, as well as any animations I might add in to make it seem more interactive. I had to also do some research about UX/UI design and learn about interaction design, wireframes/prototypes, user research, layouts, colors, visual design, and typography. These are some of the main components of UX/UI design that is essential to know to design this app since I do not have much experience in designing apps. I had to figure out what makes an app easy to use and interactive in order to modernize the current LIRR app. I also researched some traveling/navigation apps and looked at their designs to get an idea of how the LIRR app should look like. I sketched out some of the designs and layouts of each screen and page, making everything look consistent such using the same shapes, the same placement of objects, using the same icons and logo. I changed the design of the main screen, the schedule boards, the page to view your ticket, the page to find your train stop, and also added a new loading screen for whenever the app needs to take some time to load the information. I then decided on the typefaces and color palette, and I chose the typeface, Gotham, and chose a light blue and white color scheme which I think is very appealing and is similar to the blue of the MTA logo. 

After sketching most of the flowchart and layout of the app, I went to InDesign to start designing all the screens/pages on the program which will then be used to create an app-like presentation using a website called InVision. The dimensions are based on the iPhone X which is 1125 px by 682.272 px. I also used a website called the NounProject to find some icons I can use for the app. Some of the features that I’ve added into the app is the feature to buy tickets directly from the app and activating your tickets instead of using another app to buy tickets. It’s easier and more efficient to be able to see your train schedule and buy/view your tickets all in the same app instead of having two separate apps, like how it is currently. I also added a feature where you can make your own profile so you can see your recent ticket purchases, have your own ticket wallet, and save your credit card information so you don’t have to input it a second time or when you’re in a rush to buy tickets. 

After designing all the screens/pages and then putting them in InVision, I think I have accomplished my vision of the new MTA LIRR app of making it a more modern and accessible app that can be used by everyone who needs information about the LIRR. 

Link: https://invis.io/NAREWAQWKFC