Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab
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Busmiete.ch - Bus Booking Platform

Helping Users Quickly Find, Compare, and Book the Right Bus for Their Needs

Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab

Home - Befor

Home - After

My Role
UX Design, User Research, Usability Testing

The Team
4x UX/UI Design Students, 1x Mentor

Time Line
1 Week

Tools
Figma, Miro, Adobe Illustrator, Chat GPT

Deliverables
Competitor Analysis, Expert Review, Personas, Information Architecture, Site Map, User Flows, Prototyping (Low to Mid Fidelity), Usability Testing

The Spark

As part of a one-week Usability & UX course project, our team of four UX/UI design students analyzed Busmiete.ch, a Swiss bus rental platform, to uncover usability issues and improve the booking experience. My role covered UX design, user research, and usability testing from initial review to high-fidelity UI.

The Problem

Busmiete.ch’s booking process was confusing, time-consuming, and lacked transparency.

Users struggled to find and compare essential bus details.
Poor navigation left them unsure and disoriented during the booking process, forcing them to backtrack and repeat steps from the beginning—often leading to frustration and abandoned bookings.

The Solution

Our redesign introduced a clearer information architecture, automated search with filters, and a guided, step-by-step booking flow with improved visual hierarchy and consistent UI elements.

Impact: The final prototype offers a 75% faster, more transparent booking journey that builds trust and reduces user friction.

Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab

Product Selection - Before

❌  No search & filter – users had to browse the entire fleet manually.

❌  No progress bar or sticky menu – left users disoriented.

❌  No primary action color – weak visual hierarchy.

Product Selection - After 

✅ Search & filter tools – instantly find relevant buses.

✅ Progress bar & sticky menu – clear orientation and easy navigation.

✅ Primary CTA color – stronger focus on key actions.

Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab

Product Detail - Before 

❌  Unstructured text made it hard to find key bus details.

Product Detail - After 

✅ Clear hierarchy, icons, and grouped sections make essential info easy to scan.

Understanding the User


Understanding the User

Expert Review: Identifying Usability Barriers

To better understand the usability issues of Busmiete.ch, we conducted an expert review using three key methodologies: Usability Heuristics, Accessibility Evaluation, and a Cognitive Walkthrough.

By evaluating the platform through the lens of a typical user scenario, we aimed to uncover barriers that hinder the user journey and propose actionable improvements.

 

Task: Book a bus with driver for a group of 20 people with specific amenities.

Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab

Understanding the User

Key Hypotheses from the Expert Review

 

Based on the findings of our Expert Review, we identified the following hypotheses to address key usability issues and improve the platform’s overall user experience.

1. Enhancing Navigation will help users navigate the platform confidently and complete tasks with ease.

  • Inconsistent design elements, disappearing menus, and unclear navigation states undermine user confidence and control.

  • Without progress indicators or structured booking steps, users feel disoriented and frustrated, unsure of their position in the process.

  • A missing back button forces users to restart tasks entirely when revisiting previous steps, further adding to their frustration.

  • A defined color palette can guide users through the booking process and emphasize primary actions.

2. Improving Information Architecture will streamline decision-making and improve the overall user experience.

  • CTAs lack visibility due to inconsistent design and poor placement, often hidden below the fold. Oversized header images further distract users from key actions.

  • A poor information hierarchy makes it difficult for users to find essential details where and when they need them.

  • The absence of filtering and search options prevents users from finding relevant, personalized results efficiently.

  • Weak visual hierarchy disrupts decision-making. Using structured typography, icons, and bullet points will improve clarity and usability.

Understanding the User

User Interviews and Affinity Map

 

Building on the findings from the Expert Review, the next step was to analyze user feedback to validate earlier insights and ensure our solutions align with real user needs. Using qualitative data from five user interviews, we organized key observations into an Affinity Map.

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Finding common patterns and pain points using an affinity map

From the Affinity Map, we identified the following recurring pain points that highlight critical challenges faced by users.

  • Complicated and frustrating search process:

    • Lack of detailed information about bus features (e.g., amenities like WiFi, seating capacity).

    • Unclear or incomplete descriptions of vehicle condition.

    • Insufficient transparency around rental terms and conditions.

  • Cumbersome and unclear booking process:

    • Long, unclear forms requiring significant effort to complete.

    • Missing step-by-step guidance, leaving users unsure about the next steps in the booking process.

Understanding the User

User Persona

 

To bring our insights from user research to life and build empathy with our users, we crafted two personas based on our findings. Each persona reflects the frustrations, needs, and aspirations of key user groups.

 

Meet Günter and Anna, representing users striving for clarity, efficiency, and a stress-free bus booking experience.

Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab

Persona o1

Persona o2

Finding A Solution

 

 

Finding A Solution

Ideating: How Might We Statements

Using insights from user research, we crafted 'How Might We' questions to address key challenges and identify practical solutions. These questions laid the groundwork for brainstorming ideas that address user needs and enhance the overall booking experience:

How Might We ...

... ensure users can easily find and understand the information they need, such as bus features, vehicle conditions, and rental terms?

... ensure that users always know where they are and what to do next throughout the booking process?

... help users intuitively find, fill out, and submit the correct form to successfully complete the booking process?

Finding A Solution

Brainstorming: Generating and Evaluating Solutions

After defining the challenges through the HMW questions, we conducted a structured brainstorming session to generate a wide range of ideas. These ideas were then discussed, grouped (if similar or complementary), and prioritized through a voting process (4, 3, or 2 votes). This allowed us to focus on the most promising and impactful ideas for further exploration.

Sepideh Zehtab

HMW Categorization and Validation
Next, we grouped the prioritized ideas thematically and mapped them to their respective HMW questions. This alignment validated the relevance of each solution and ensured a strong connection between our ideation process and user-centered objectives.

Sepideh Zehtab

Finding A Solution

Competitive Research

To broaden our perspective and ensure a comprehensive approach, we conducted competitive research to explore how industry leaders address similar challenges. This process helped us uncover best practices, identify gaps, and align our solutions with user expectations and industry standards. Although we analyzed multiple competitors, Europcar.com was chosen as a representative example for this portfolio.

What We Learned from europcar:

Our analysis of Europcar.com validated many of our brainstorming ideas, confirming their alignment with industry best practices. It also offered additional inspiration and highlighted opportunities to further refine and enhance our proposed solutions.

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Finding A Solution

From Ideas to Structure: Information Architecture

During user research, we identified challenges in how users find and access information. Building on ideas from brainstorming and competitive research, we designed a clear and user-friendly information structure.

To achieve this, we conducted an open card-sorting session with four participants, carefully observing and analyzing their categorizations to find their’ mental models and preferences for structuring content.

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Final structure refined and consolidated from participant card-sorting insights.

These insights guided the final structure, organizing content into primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

Since both user and competitive research highlighted the dynamic search functionality as a key solution to address user pain points, we chose to spotlight its user flow separately. This demonstrates how the search adapts dynamically across pages, helping users quickly find relevant options tailored to their booking needs.

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Dynamic search adapts to user selections for an efficient and seamless booking experience     

From Information Architecture to Sitemap

Building on the Information Architecture, the sitemap translates the content structure into a navigation framework. This step ensures a logical flow and user-friendly navigation across all touchpoints.

Sepideh Zehtab
Sepideh Zehtab