Transport Mapping Tool Suite
I led the Design and Product Management for WhereIsMyTransport’s innovative Mapping Tool Suite and empowered our teams to digitise transport networks in over 50 cities.
Our teams needed intricate workflows to manage large transport data volumes efficiently. Rapid delivery cycles and feedback loops with real users fuelled our success in creating datasets used by Google Maps and other high-impact clients. Our work improved the lives of millions of passengers.
1. Overview
The Challenge: Data Scarcity
Accurate public transport information is scarce in emerging markets like Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, hindering decision-making for commuters, city planners and investment organisations.
Unlike formalised systems, common in London or New York, these regions have notoriously hard-to-digitise networks leaving competitors’ software inadequate.
The Solution: Bespoke Mapping Tool Suite
I led the Design and Product Management of a powerful, integrated Public Transport Mapping Tool Suite.
COLLECTOR: a simple mobile mapping app for in-field data collection
PHOENIX: a powerful cloud-based platform for processing and managing transport network data
Our products focused on mapping informally-run public transport systems in the world’s most challenging cities positioning us to digitise regions our competitors found difficult.
Over six years, I innovated continuously and guided my product team to improve mapping efficiency and maintain high-quality data and user-friendly experiences.
Collector
Simplify local surveyors’ field collection with our location-aware Android app
Precise route mapping: Leverage GPS to record accurate route paths and stop locations
Comprehensive surveys: Record route fares, operating times and accessibility information plus station and stop locations and amenities
Localised experience: Available in over 6 languages
User-friendly: Clean design with minimal jargon
Realtime collaboration: Data integrates seamlessly between Collector and Phoenix
Phoenix
Supercharge collaboration, between in-city mapping teams and office-based data processors, with our cloud-based data platform
Review field data: Sort and review data from Collector app in real time
Capture any transport networks: Combine informally-run modes mapped with Collector with formal modes captured from timetables and maps
Streamline editing: Automations and bulk editing help process large data volumes
Robust quality assurance: Custom errors and warnings ensure data integrity
Unite distributed teams: Simplified workflows of intercontinental teams working in parallel
The Impact
2x
Faster mapping project timelines
3x
More projects running in parallel
20%
Smaller teams needed
Google, GIZ and The World Bank
Among other major clients
2. Deep Dive
Key features: Mapping dynamic transport systems
Scaling production with customisations
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Every transport network is unique yet tailoring the Tool Suite for each city and client was impractical and delayed project lead times.
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I designed flexibility into the Tool Suite allowing mapping to be highly customisable.
Data Collection Managers were empowered to customise each city in Phoenix:
Show/Hide common transport info fields
Add custom transport information fields
Set up unique vehicle types and features for advanced datasets
Changes reflected in Collector on-demand
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Our teams could capture each city's diversity without needing developers to make code changes and redeploy. This reduced projects’ lead time by weeks allowing us to scale production.
Inspiring ownership through visibility
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Miscommunication between data processors in-field and back at the office (distributed across continents) would cause duplicated effort in Phoenix and delay project milestones.
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Guiding principles for development were high visibility of data state and comprehensive edit history.
I developed a model for managing the “state” of each data. This:
created visibility of the editing phase and task progress
clarify task ownership
empowered managers to quantify work in each state
I designed multiple ways for users to access the system’s history
all edits tracked: who, what and when
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Backed by metrics of data in each state, managers could coordinate resources effectively and improve efficiency.
The clarity of data states empowered Data Processors to collaborate with confidence. The full edit history reinforced this sense of responsibility.
Simplifying workflows with automations
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Editing thousands of routes and tens of thousands of stops during data processing was time-consuming and error-prone yet essential for generating high-quality client deliverables.
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Collaborating with my team and users, I developed numerous methods to reduce manual editing.
Automations and bulk editing in Phoenix allowed data processors to easily:
update any route or stop information field for thousands of entries at once
create hundreds of trips by pasting time-table information
assign stops to the correct geographic zone based on boundary lines
I envisioned new Collector and Phoenix workflows to continuously refresh stale data points
The engineers perfected algorithms to auto-clean raw GPS points by “snapping“ them to the road network in Phoenix
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Introducing these other enhancements made managing transport networks for megacities significantly more efficient and less error-prone. This boosted morale while reducing project timelines.
Design Process
Involving real users from around the globe was crucial to our success.
I built strong relationships with Data Processors through interviews, observations, and surveys while creating feedback loops for feature prioritisation. Initially, I conducted this research solo, later joined by part-time researchers.
Balancing multiple communication channels took effort, but leveraging our internal users’ insights paid off as it deepened empathy and boosed user satisfaction.
♥️
Empathise
Contextual inquiry
Pain-point surveys
Co-design workshops
📝
Design
Paper prototypes
Wireframes
Hi-fi designs
🧠
Understand
Industry-standard transport data structures
Competitor analysis
Domain research
📢
Feedback loops
Usability and acceptance testing
Prioritise feature requests
Continuously iterate
My Role and Team: Designer to Lead Product Manager
During Phoenix’s 6-year development, I grew from Product Designer to Lead Product Manager, showcasing my adaptability and leadership.
Product Designer
I led the ground-up service and UX design of a new data processing platform. Collaborating with 3 developers, we launched Phoenix v1, replacing legacy offline products and streamlining in-field collection.
Product Manager
By balancing business needs with user requests, I led a Scrum team to develop advanced data processing features. To maintain high UX standards without a dedicated designer, I revamped our UI Kit.
Lead Product Manager
I drove strategic direction and fostered collaboration with engineers, designers, product managers and researchers. By creating a unified vision, I inspired a Tool Suite evolution that significantly expanded the data points we digitised.
3. Wrapping Up
Project Outcomes
52 cities mapped: Successfully mapped public transport systems in 52 cities in emerging markets worldwide.
Wide Impact: Our work positively impacted millions of passengers through various channels.
High-profile clients: Major players, including Google, licensed our datasets to power their maps. The World Bank, GIZ, TUMI and other development organisations, used our datasets to plan more connected cities. WhereIsMyTransport’s own app, Rumbo, guided passengers in Mexico City, Lima and Bangkok.
Learnings
Leading the Transport Mapping Tool Suite product was an incredible journey that pushed me to adapt and grow as a designer and leader. From user-centred design to strategic product management, the skills I've developed have equipped me to tackle complex projects, manage diverse stakeholders and drive innovation.
The design process reinforced the value of ongoing user involvement and strong cross-functional team collaboration to deliver impactful results.
I'm excited to bring this experience to future projects and lead impactful, user-centric solutions to important problems.
Kudos to all engineers, designers, PMs, researchers and data specialists who helped make the Tool Suite a reality. It truly was a collaborative effort.
A special thank you to designers Kiki Martins and Anand Nagrik who joined the team when I was Product Managing. Anand created the iconic Collector splash screen and pattern. Kiki created the map pins pictured in Phoenix and Collector. Kiki also chose the colours and Font Awesome Icons to represent the data states.
The rest of the designs showcase my latest design skills and have been subtly updated to create a cohesive case study.