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Designing a multi-platform shuttle system for real-time coordination and adoption
Project Manager & Designer
1 month
Transportation
Multi-platform
MVP
A private community of ~200 people relied on a daily shuttle as their primary mode of transportation. Riders had no way to see where the shuttle was, drivers relied on memory and manual texts, and admin staff were overwhelmed coordinating everything by phone. This created frequent delays, missed pickups, and a heavy operational burden across all three groups.
Role
I led strategy, alignment, and end-to-end design to unblock the project and deliver a viable system within one month.
As project manager:
Aligned stakeholders on goals, scope, and constraints
Prioritized a feasible MVP for a one-month build window
Unified decisions across design, engineering, and operations
Ensured alignment across stakeholders to compress a 6-month stall into 43 days
As product designer:
Defined core workflows for riders, drivers, and admin
Designed the multi-platform experience
Supported development and QA through launch
Delivered a cohesive system balancing safety, clarity, and real-time coordination
The Problem
Fragmented communication (calls, texts, manual updates) caused missed pickups, delays, and heavy operational strain due to zero shared visibility across riders, drivers, and admin.
Riders lacked real-time visibility.
Drivers needed a simple, safe workflow while on the road.
Admin needed centralized information to coordinate operations.
The Solution
A unified, multi-user system for riders, drivers, and admin that provides shared real-time visibility, streamlines coordination, and supports a predictable, safety-aligned workflow for daily operations.
Impact
The system is live and now powers day-to-day transportation with greater clarity, predictability, and operational efficiency.
43 days
Turnaround time
80 %
Users adopting system
30 min
Reduction in rider wait time
8/10
Average ease-of-use rating
I began by leading a strategy workshop to reset the foundation
Before I joined, the team had been exploring the shuttle concept for six months without meaningful progress. The initiative wasn’t moving forward because goals, expectations, and operational needs weren’t aligned.
To unblock the project, I brought stakeholders and operations partners together to clarify objectives, constraints, and user needs. This alignment created immediate momentum and provided a clear direction for execution.
Strategy Workshop
The alignment work revealed the core issue: communication was fundamentally broken
Once we clarified users, goals, and operational realities, it became clear that the shuttle concept itself wasn’t the obstacle. The real problem was the communication infrastructure supporting it. Riders depended on calls and texts, drivers received inconsistent updates, and admin staff lacked centralized visibility to coordinate the system.
This fragmented ecosystem led to delays, missed connections, and an unsustainable operational burden.
How might we create a unified, reliable shuttle system that gives riders clarity, supports driver workflow, and provides admin staff with real-time visibility?
Understanding real user behavior and day-to-day operations
I conducted interviews with riders, drivers, and admin staff to understand how they coordinated transportation in practice. These conversations surfaced the disconnects between groups, the amount of manual work required, and how much information lived in people’s heads.
Rider
“I never really knew where the shuttle was or when it would actually show up.”
No visibility of shuttle location or way to communicate with drivers
Driver
“I’m trying to remember where everyone is supposed to be — it’s all in my head.”
No direct contact with riders
Admin
“Everyone texts me for everything. I’m the middleman for every update.”
No visibility of shuttle location or riders
Identifying key use cases and real-world edge cases
Coordinating a shuttle service involves unpredictable, real-world behavior. Through conversations with riders, drivers, and admin, I mapped not only the standard request flow but also the moments where things most often broke down. These edge cases revealed where clarity, timing, and decision-making were most vulnerable — and ultimately shaped the requirements for a more resilient system.
What if driver's stuck in traffic?
What if rider's plans change?
What if there's conflicting information?
Prioritizing the most critical jobs to be done
Given the project’s short timeline and small team, we needed to be intentional about what to build first. To avoid over-scoping, I facilitated a prioritization exercise with stakeholders and operations partners to distinguish must-have jobs from nice-to-have jobs for riders, drivers, and admin.
Rider
Must have
See shuttle location in real time
Request a ride
Nice to have
See updated ETA
Driver
Must have
See incoming ride requests
Update activity status
Nice to have
View upcoming requests
Admin
Must have
See shuttle location in real time
Nice to have
Track sign-ups
Track total active time
Mapping how information needed to move across the system
I mapped the information flow between riders, drivers, and admin to clarify who needed what information, when, and why. This shaped the foundation for scalable coordination and real-time visibility across all three platforms.
Information Flow Diagram (simplified)
1
Three user groups with competing goals
Riders needed clarity and predictable timing.
Drivers needed minimal interaction to stay focused and safe.
Admin needed full visibility to coordinate operations.
Designing for these groups meant supporting each user’s unique goals without creating friction elsewhere — a balancing act that shaped every workflow decision.
2
Safety first
Drivers operate while on the road, which meant:
interactions must be minimal
information must be clearly visible
no multi-step flows
no decision-making that could distract
This constraint fundamentally shaped the interaction model, workflow sequencing, and overall system design.
3
Real-world unpredictability
Traffic delays, last-minute rider changes, and uneven request volume were daily realities — not edge cases. The system needed to function reliably even as conditions shifted minute-to-minute, requiring flexible workflows rather than rigid, linear paths.
Co-designing & co-building to speed up the iteration process
With only one month to launch multiple products, a traditional handoff workflow wasn’t realistic. Instead of working in isolated phases, I shifted the team to a co-design / co-build model with engineering — sketching, prototyping, validating, and building in real time.
This approach:
eliminated long feedback loops
ensured design decisions were grounded in technical realities
kept design and development moving in parallel
aligned the team quickly and consistently
The result was a cohesive multi-platform system delivered at speed, with clarity and shared ownership across design and engineering.
Where we started
What we explored
Where we ended
In just 43 days, the team transformed a stalled concept into a fully functioning multi-app ecosystem.
To bring clarity, safety, and predictability to daily transportation, we designed and built a coordinated system across riders, drivers, and admin. Each experience was purpose-built to meet unique user needs while functioning as a tightly connected, real-time workflow.
Admin
Track shuttle’s location in real time
Monitor ride requests and completions
View ride logs and timestamps
Track rider sign-ups and usage frequency
Rider
See shuttle’s live location
View active route
Request a ride
Track pickup status and arrival
Driver
Mark active
See real-time ride requests
Accept and complete requests
Navigate directly to pickup points
The new shuttle ecosystem measurably improved reliability and efficiency.
The new system introduced clarity, predictability, and real-time coordination across riders, drivers, and admin.
80 %
User Adoption
30 min
Reduced Rider Wait Time
8/10
Average Ease-of-Use
Operational Improvements
The new workflow created measurable day-to-day efficiencies:
Riders no longer depended on verbal updates or guesswork
Drivers followed a predictable, safety-aligned sequence of tasks
Admin shifted from constant manual updates to light-touch oversight
This reduced cognitive load, increased consistency, and improved on-time coordination.
Scalable Foundation for Future Growth
With real-time location and logged trips, the business can now:
Estimate mileage more accurately
Understand fuel usage and operating costs
Identify true demand patterns (peak times, low-usage periods)
Make informed operational decisions
Designing this multi-app system highlighted the importance of aligning operational realities with user needs, especially under tight timelines. With a scalable foundation now in place, the next phase would focus on strengthening automation, improving predictability, and deepening operational insight.
Clarity unlocks meaningful progress
By surfacing the true operational bottlenecks and aligning everyone around a shared problem definition, we were able to cut through months of ambiguity. Clear goals and constraints created the alignment needed for fast, confident decision-making.
Co-design accelerates execution
Partnering directly with engineering allowed us to validate feasibility early, reduce rework, and move design and development in parallel. Shared ownership ensured we delivered not just quickly, but cohesively across all platforms.
Close communication keeps complexity manageable
With three user groups and real-time constraints, consistent communication was critical. Regular checkpoints and open channels across design, engineering, and operations enabled us to adapt quickly as details evolved and maintain system-level coherence.