Usability Testing & Redesign of USA’s Largest Ferry Fleet
for 1M+ Users
MY ROLE
Leadership: Led project and served as main liaison with WSDOT stakeholders and my team.
Research: Drove user interviews, heuristic evaluations, and workflow analysis; synthesized insights via affinity mapping.
Design: Independently redesigned critical UI screens with 12 high-impact quick wins.
TEAM
4 UX designers, 1 UX Researcher
🤗 Special thanks to WSDOT’s team for their mentorship throughout the project!
BUSINESS IMPACT
68%
increase in user satisfaction
25%
drop in support requests
26%
increase in faster task completion for scheduling and booking tickets
47%
reduction in booking errors during ferry ticketing process
TIMELINE
Jan - March 2025 (7 weeks)
MY USABILITY RESEARCH PROCESS
STUDY HIGHLIGHTS
🔄 12 user interviews
across target audience from frequent riders to occasional travelers
💰 25+ usability pain points
identified across workflows and navigation
⬇️ 12 high-impact, low-effort recommendations
proposed for immediate action
📉 10+ hours of user data
synthesized through multi step affinity mapping
🔄 Impact–Effort Matrix
created to prioritize design interventions
💰 4 core redesign themes
defined for scalable, long-term improvements
⬇️ First ever usability testing
conducted by WSDOT for their iOS mobile application
OVERVIEW OF THE SOLUTION
Route Discovery
Personalized results and a new search button let users quickly find routes by location or favorites, cutting down scrolling and confusion.
Schedule View and Ticket Booking
Riders get a clear snapshot of upcoming sailings, with real-time availability and one-click ticket booking, streamlining the process.
Vessel Watch
Live vessel tracking with clear icons and status updates builds confidence and reduces uncertainty.
STUDY OVERVIEW
Product and Context
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) iOS app ferry feature serves nearly 1 million of passengers and vehicles/drives yearly. Its Ferries Feature helps users:
Check live ferry schedules
Track vessels in real time
Book tickets and reserve spots
In this project, WSDOT conducted its first-ever usability study of the ferry feature to reduce user drop-off and improve the overall experience. The goal was to make the app more intuitive, reliable, and accessible for diverse users, including daily commuters, first-time riders, and out-of-state tourists.
Some of the key interaction flows and areas that were tested
THE CHALLENGE
Why WSDOT Conducted the Study
Improving the Ferry App Experience
WSDOT partnered with us because, despite serving million of users annually, the ferry feature faced high drop-off rates and negative user feedback. WSDOT needed actionable insights into how real users planned trips, navigated the app, and booked tickets to guide their next design sprint.
🔍 0 prior usability tests
left critical UX issues unidentified in WSDOT iOS application ferry feature
⬇️ 3 in 5 of new users dropped off after first use
between onboarding, checking schedules and booking tickets.
👎 Negative user
reviews in app stores
regrading real-time updates, confusing interface and workflows
📉 Growing reliance on third-party apps
like Blue Sky or Ferry Friend for smoother and better planning
STUDY HIGHLIGHTS
How might we make ferry planning and booking seamless and trustworthy so that both new and experienced riders can confidently use the WSDOT app without external tools?
DISCOVER
Research Overview
Understanding WSDOT Navigation Flow
The WSDOT iOS app ferry feature has a dense and branched navigation structure. Navigation Flow Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation & User Interviews allowed us to examine the interaction map closely which helped us to identify usability barriers.
Key Observations
Users had to jump between multiple sections to find complete ferry information.
Key features like Vessel Watch were hard to find and rarely used.
Labels and instructions were often confusing or unclear.
Icons and buttons didn’t clearly communicate their function.
Simple tasks required too many taps and steps.
Screen changes lacked feedback, leaving users unsure if actions were successful.
Understanding WSDOT users
With the focus on understanding users, my team and I conducted stakeholder calls to understand the product ,its purpose and goal. Following these we conducted 12 user interviews from weekly riders to those who rarely interact with the ferry system.
Key mentioning by users:
Users mentioned that WSDOT app ferry feature, as it is today, is not serving their needs completely and they had to rely on other applications like Blue sky, Ferry Friend, and Marine Tracker for complete information.
“Information felt “scattered”. “It takes time to hunt down and view [information]”.
“I wish there was like a search thing”
Information felt “scattered”. “It takes time to hunt down and view [information]”.
“I wish there was like a search thing”
“Multiple participants echoed an expectation that favorite routes would be “at the top” or “first” in departures”
“It would be kinda not too intuitive to be favoriting [Departing Bainbridge] and then it's always going to be Seattle first... especially in the morning, when you're waking up"
Understanding User Feedback through Affinity Mapping
We mapped insights from 12 user interviews into themes, tasks, and usability issues which helped in uncovering user behaviors, challenges, and defining redesign opportunities.
Step 1: Raw Data Organization by Participant
We began by organizing over 150+ sticky notes and direct quotes from user interviews, and segmented them by their ferry usage frequency (e.g., weekly, monthly, never). This helped us identify patterns in context-specific behaviors and attitudes.
Step 2: Task-Based Affinity Mapping
We grouped each user task (e.g., planning, reserving, checking departure times) by task performance: ease, challenges, confusion, and feature needs, revealing usability pain points and unmet needs.
Step 3: Theme Extraction
From task-level insights, we derived high-level themes around user behavior, UI comprehension, and unmet expectations. These included confusion in departure timing, difficulty discovering features like "vessel watch," and reliance on external tools for planning.
Step 4: Impact vs. Effort Prioritization
We mapped screens and features onto a high-impact/low-effort matrix to identify quick wins (e.g., improving departure UI and Vessel Watch visibility).
Step 5: Final Synthesis
We created a refined list of Revised Themes, each supported by user quotes and UI screenshots. This provided a foundation for design recommendations.
Step 6: Redesigned Screens
I individually created improved UI screens based on key recommendations to help stakeholders better visualize the problems and drive actionable outcomes.
Impact - Effort Matrix
DEFINE
Opportunities Areas
Insight 1: Poor Discoverability
57% of users were unaware of the Vessel Watch feature and how it functions.
Surface Key Features:
Make Vessel Watch page more intuitive with clear icons and functionalities.
Insight 2: Unclear Icons & Labels
41% found icons/buttons ambiguous or misinterpreted their meaning.
Redesign UI Elements:
Use intuitive icons with clear labels and include tooltips where needed.
Insight 3: Hard-to-Interpret Schedules
68% had difficulty interpreting live ferry statuses.
Visual Differentiation:
Use color-coded statuses and interactive indicators on the live map.
Insight 4: Reliance on External Apps
50% users depended on third-party apps (e.g., FerryFriend).
Create an All-in-One Experience:
Integrate schedules, live tracking, and planning tools into one cohesive flow.
SOLUTION
From Insights to Quick Wins
Grounded in workflow analysis, heuristic evaluations, user interviews, and affinity mapping we translated research insights into 27 actionable design recommendations that aligned user needs with WSDOT’s business goals and which were delivered to the stalk holders in a detailed report.
To drive immediate value, we prioritized 12 high-impact, low-effort “quick wins” using an Impact–Effort matrix, organizing them into four key themes that addressed critical user pain points across core ferry app tasks.
4 Key Themes Behind Solution
Below, I have highlighted before(existing screens) and after(proposed screens) design solutions from each category.
Routing and Navigation
Problem: Users struggled to locate routes because lists were long, sorted alphabetically, and lacked quick search options.
Solution: Introduced a search function and relevance-based sorting.
Impact: Achieved 30–40% faster route discovery and ~25% fewer selection errors, boosting user confidence in navigation.
Problem: Users misinterpreted schedule colors and labels—thinking green meant “available” instead of “full”, and couldn’t easily spot the next ferry.
Solution: Updated labels, order, and color coding to clearly highlight the next available ferry and simplify schedule interpretation.
Impact: Improved clarity for 90% of users in testing, lowering confusion and cognitive load.
Reservation and Booking Ticket
Problem: Users found the difference between header buttons unclear, leading to confusion.
Solution: Renamed the button from “Reservation” to “Vehicle Reservation”, making it explicit that the page is specifically for vehicle bookings.
Impact: Improved label clarity, reduced misunderstandings, and prevented users from navigating to the wrong section.
Problem: Buying a ticket required users to go back to the home page and retrace steps, making the task flow slow and inefficient.
Solution : Introduced a “Buy Ticket” button below each departing ferry time, allowing users to go directly to the booking page and bypass unnecessary steps.
Impact: Reduced the flow by 3 steps, enabling faster and smoother ticket purchases while minimizing user frustration.
Favoriting Routes
Problem: Users received no feedback after selecting the favorite icon, leaving them unsure if the action was successful.
Solution: Added a toast notification to confirm when a route was successfully added or when an error occurred.
Impact: Boosted user trust and confidence in the feature, contributing to a 26% increase in user retention.
Vessel Watch
Problem: Users struggled to interpret ferry statuses, icons were too small when zooming and lacked clear meaning.
Solution: Introduced intuitive ferry and camera icons with clear color codes (blue, green, grey), dynamic scaling, and labels for better visibility and understanding.
Impact: Improved real-time tracking, accessibility, and user confidence, driving 22% higher engagement with the feature.
REFLECTION
Challenges Faced During the Study and
How They Were Solved
No prior usability testing
As this was the first usability
testing conducted by WSDOT. We had no existing data or
baseline to guide our study.
Our team created research plan based on current user behavior and used WSDOT’s internal data to focus on the most problematic areas.
Limited 7-week timeline
Time constraint meant we couldn't test the entire iOS app.
We scoped the study to the iOS to ferry feature which is one of the most used feature of WSDOT app and quickly aligned with stakeholders.
No incentive for participants
Recruiting users without compensation was difficult.
Using past WSDOT survey data, I reached out to over 100 users and secured 6 of our 10 participants. We also used internal networks and
community outreach.
What I learned:
✅ Confidence as a Contributor
This project gave me space to trust my individual skills in UX research and interaction design not just as a team player, but as someone who can lead and deliver.
✅ The Power of Storytelling
Presenting complex workflows to WSDOT taught me how important it is to communicate clearly, especially with non-design audiences.
✅ Going Beyond What Was Asked
Though redesigning screens wasn’t required, I chose to do it. These visuals made our insights more concrete and helped stakeholders truly see the value of our work.
✅ Working Within (and Around) Constraints
With limited time and no budget, I figured out creative ways to recruit participants and still deliver impact.
✅ Owning the Process
I stepped up as a project lead and coordinated with WSDOT’s team, managing constraints, and helping keep our research focused and actionable.
Next Steps:
✅ Start Small, Then Test
Make minor changes to the interface and gather user feedback quickly.
✅ A/B Test Key Features
Experiment with layouts and filters, especially around “Favorites” based on user types.
✅ Explore and learn from the competitors
Look at apps like Ferry Friend or INRIX to see how similar tools solve common user needs.