Bus Transportation App Puts Users First

After growing up in Pune, India, Tanay Govardhan remembers the difficulty residents and tourists faced when using public bus transportation.

“There was no app or timetable; you don’t know if there’s traffic or when the bus will come,” says Govardhan, who is expected to graduate in May with a Master of Fine Arts in Digital Art and Design (now Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design and Media Innovation) from the School of Architecture and Design. “You just have to wait.”

Govardhan wanted to change that.

He had considerable experience in graphic design after working on more than 30 projects during an on-campus internship as an assistant graphic designer for New York Tech’s Information Technology Services department. So, for his senior thesis, Govardhan decided to tackle a public service project: creating a mobile app for bus riders in Pune.

Currently he is building the prototype on Figma, a collaborative web tool for interface design. But there’s more to app design than simply creating a fancy logo—Govardhan had to make a host of decisions about user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) to create an effective product. With approximately 7.5 million people, Pune is one of the most populous cities in India, and Govardhan needed to know what people wanted and looked for in a transportation app.

“I needed to hear from the people who use the bus in day-to-day life in Pune,” he says. To do this research, he created a survey to collect feedback from bus riders. “I got a good response to my survey, and I now know what the users need, what they want to change, and the problems they are facing right now.”

To implement his research into the project, Govardhan is building each screen of the app to create an effective user interface, allowing users to personalize their app experience. They will be able to add their frequently used bus routes to their favorites list, input payment information, and choose either Hindi or English as their primary language setting, among other features. And, of course, the app will notify users about when their bus will arrive and depart, and other timetable information.

His project fits directly into India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to urban renewal and retrofitting technology to create dozens of smart cities across the country, including Pune. In fact, Govardhan’s project is so forward-thinking that the city of Pune also has plans to create its own bus transportation app.

Although Govardhan’s app is many years away from being in use (in addition to design, it would also need software engineers for coding), he is proud of his work—and so is his mentor, Rozina Vavetsi, M.Sc., associate professor in the Department of Digital Art and Design.

“This project required extensive research and a deep dive into human-centered design principles to create a seamless commuter experience,” Vavetsi says. “Through multiple iterations in branding and UX/UI design, I have watched Tanay become more methodical, research-driven, and detail-oriented. His approach to problem-solving has become sharper, his design thinking more structured, and his ability to balance functionality with aesthetics more effective.”

Govardhan credits the university with giving him the foundational skills to complete the project.

“The best part of being at New York Tech was that my M.F.A. degree included four electives, including UI/UX,” he says. “UI/UX is trendy in the job market, and now I’ll have more experience when it comes to jobs—not just graphic design, but also UI/UX. I’m still exploring new ideas in my field.”

By Ashley Festa