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Context
Intro to the problem space
For riders with visual disabilities, navigation is one of the biggest barriers to public transit.
Bus apps, station signage, and route information are largely designed around sighted users. Scholarly literature and rider interviews confirm the pattern in practice: untrained bus drivers fill the accessibility gaps the system was supposed to close.
CapMetro serves 21 million riders annually in Austin. It claims ADA compliance but offers no documentation of how. This redesign focuses on screen-reader and magnification compatibility, with broader improvements to navigation and information access.
How might we make CapMetro more accessible for people with visual impairments by reducing cognitive load, applying universal design principles, and supporting customization?
Phase 1
Competitive research
I analyzed 6 of 9 applications related to bus services and indoor / outdoor navigation, many already used by the people I later interviewed.
Strengths
- Real-time information
- Linguistic diversity
- Customization for accessibility
- Human assistance
- AI-enabled object identification
- Reserved seating for disabilities
Weaknesses
- Lack of detailed directions
- No verbal guidance for upcoming streets
- Phone must stay out on the go
- Switching between apps
- Incompatibility with screen readers / VUI
- Over-reliance on drivers
Opportunities
- Haptic and in-ear feedback
- Customizable accessibility features
- Offline functionality
- Real-time AI / human assistance
- Detailed directional info
- Notifications for missed stops
Phase 2
User research
Recruitment & method
I recruited people with visual disabilities living in Austin via the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities and UT Disability & Access, using a screen-reader compatible screener survey. Two ~30-minute remote interviews followed.
Affinity diagram
Emergent themes
Takeaway 1
Missing stops
Drivers don't reliably announce stops. Smaller stops are skipped; backtracking is hard.
Takeaway 2
App sign-in
Sign-in failures locked one interviewee out of ticket purchases for months. Login should not gate basic features.
Takeaway 3
Real-time information
Transfer-stop info is unreliable, leading to missed buses and long waits.
Takeaway 4
Scanning passes
Locating in-bus card readers is hard; participants suggested a QR-code alternative.
Takeaway 5
Internet unavailability
Without connectivity, only basic SMS updates remain — insufficient for full navigation.
Takeaway 6
Safety
Walking with phone or cane visible creates fear of being targeted; route info shouldn't be public.
Assistive tech in use
Participants combined multiple tools to work around CapMetro's gaps:
- BlindSquare — GPS for blind, deafblind and partially sighted users
- Google Maps — general GPS support
- Lazarillo — indoor navigation
- Transit — outdoor navigation
- AIRA — trained visual interpreters on demand
- BeMyEyes / BeMyAI — sighted volunteers and AI object recognition
Persona
Allison Gray, a 43-year-old teacher with legal blindness, anchored our design decisions. She's resourceful, well-travelled, and asks for help when needed, but is deeply motivated to travel independently.
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Phase 3
Solution design
Tailoring the scope
We mapped which pain points could be realistically addressed through a digital redesign and ranked them by impact, then ideated solutions.
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The solution set
- Tooltips for accessibility settings, customizable to user preferences and supportive of learning curves.
- Screen-reader compatibility via reorganized information and improved focus order across inputs, buttons, navigation and maps.
- GPS tracking + audio directions across the full route — to and from the bus stop, not just on board.
- Descriptive verbiage in place of inaccessible visual cues.
- Backtracking to recover from missed announcements without stress.
- In-ear haptic feedback so users don't need to keep checking their device.
- QR codes on physical tickets to bypass hard-to-locate scanners.
Ideation & sketching
Sketches explored clearer iconography and labelling, plus a reorganized main menu and navigation flow. We deliberately introduced accessibility features as personalized tooltips so the experience for all other users stayed familiar.
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Phase 4
Hi-fi prototype
WCAG-aligned design system
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Navigation bar
Icons and labels rewritten for clarity; two tabs combined to improve hierarchy.
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Linking a physical card
Scan-to-link a physical pass, in line with universal design principles.
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Settings
Settings re-grouped and converted to dropdowns to optimize the screen-reader experience.
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Reflection
Lessons learned
Lesson 1
Assistive tech is already advanced
User interviews helped me learn how advanced some of the assistive technologies employed by our participants were. These findings further facilitated my competitor research and redesign process.
Lesson 2
Stay vigilant about live updates
Despite CapMetro's new app roll-out maintaining design consistency, it was crucial to remain vigilant about updates when working on existing services.
Lesson 3
Hierarchy over visual cohesion
We tried to remain within the restrictions of CapMetro's visual design to ensure cohesiveness, unless information hierarchy was being affected due to low contrast, poor content strategy and small font sizes.
What's next
Future steps
Usability testing
Since our redesign was primarily driven by generative research, it would be useful to conduct usability testing to understand whether the redesign solves the intended pain points.
Ground realities
It is important to investigate how the user experience is impacted on the ground with real world constraints and variables involved with outdoor navigation. This would help us in evaluating whether our digital solutions match the physical environment and CapMetro infrastructure in detail.
Accessibility audit
Convening a thorough accessibility audit will allow us to understand how intersecting disabilities may affect transit (e.g. physical or auditory impairments).
Internet unavailability
I would like to explore ways of enhancing offline navigation functionality in case of Internet unavailability. Currently, CapMetro only has text message updates related to potential bus delays, route issues and if a bus is on time.