Chicago commuters help create app for the city

A mass effort for mass transit: Designing Chicago, a project from Greater Good Studio, aims to find out what public transportation riders want in order to build the app they need.

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For instance, what if it could include a stop at a coffee shop in your daily route to work? Or included hyperlocal weather reports? What it if could enable you to remotely pay your fare?

Those possibilities are all proposed on Designing Chicago’s Kickstarter pitch for a new app for Chicago Transit Authority riders, but it’s worth noting that they’re all “coulds,” not “wills.” Before George Aye, co-creator of the project and co-founder of Greater Good Studio, can say what the features will be, he and his design team must find out what riders really need.

“If we were to just design an application on our own, then merely go through the traditional software development process…that would not produce a truly groundbreaking app,” he says.

Through Kickstarter, Aye and the team are seeking volunteers who can help dig out the key features and make something revolutionary.

The research

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