Understanding
Public Transport
Challenges in Cyprus
The research:
To identify key pain points experienced by public transport users in Cyprus and evaluate existing transport-related apps.
Population for the interviews :
We interviewed professionals who recently moved to Cyprus (mostly in the IT sector) and needed to use public transport regardless of their prior lifestyle or income.
The problem:
The quality of public transportation plays a crucial role in determining the livability of a city or country. When buses are unreliable, confusing, or hard to access, people stop using them, leading to more traffic, higher costs, and frustrated communities.
This challenge is especially urgent in countries like Cyprus, which welcome international professionals who often arrive without a car. These users need public transport to be a dependable everyday tool — not a barrier. Yet today, unclear schedules, poor app design, and lack of real-time updates make the system difficult to trust and use.
This research explores what is broken in the current public transportation experience — and what needs to change to rebuild confidence and usability from the ground up.
The goal:
Identify key pain points of public transport users and provide insights to guide the development of the app.
Understanding the users
I started the research with the assumption that majority of people find the bus routes and it’s schedule not convenient and confusing. This assumption was confirmed by stories shared during interviews people are so tired of unreliability of the bus system that they don’t even expect advanced or complex features Users urgently want core functionality to work reliably, but several expressed openness to advanced features once reliability is restored.While we can’t fix everything in this project, we documented all pain points to help shape a long-term roadmap.
1
Inaccurate or Missing Real-Time Information
It was mentioned by all responders, sometimes bus don’t show up at all, or it can be 20 min late. There are no notifications when a bus is delayed, no source of any information
Ira, 36, Limassol, Cyprus
2
Poor Route Planning and Navigation Tools
No app allows users to search from point A to point B. You must already know which bus to take before checking the app, users typically remember the buses they see in the city and then try to find them in apps
Personas
Kristina, 29, suburb of Limassol, Cyprus
Alexey, 35, Limassol, Cyprus
Alex, 32, Limassol, Cyprus
3
Unintuitive Interfaces / Missing Visuals
No visual route maps or live icons. No indication of which bus goes where. Users don’t know which direction a bus will go or whether a stop is even active.
Let’s build a transport experience people can finally trust.
4
Missing or Outdated Features in Apps
There’s no functionality like “stops near me,” no payment integration, and the ride cost is unclear—plus it's cash-only. No location tracker or visibility of amount of stops before yours
Needs & Opportunities
Route planning by address (not just stop names).
Real-time tracking with a visual bus approach.
Alerts for delays and route changes.
See all buses heading to a specific location (such as a store or landmark).
Display of trip cost and remaining seats before boarding.
Show an alternative route, even if it’s not as convenient
Needs & Opportunities
Must-Have:
Reliable real-time schedule
Push notifications about route changes or holidays change
Nearby stop detection
Electronic ticketing
Full route view (all stops, timing, trip duration)
Improve:
More accurate bus tracking
Easier map + stop search. In existing apps, it’s not possible to zoom in and search, nor are there names of bus stops
Smart route comparison with filters (fastest, no transfer, safer)
“Nice to Have”:
Photo of destination stops
Gamification with friendly UI (e.g., cute bus icons, animations)
User reviews and comments, “popular routes”
Safety filters (most commonly used by women, best-lit streets, etc.)
Needs & Opportunities
A→B automatic route building
Live location on the map
Fast app loading (<2s)
Clear UI for multiple route visualization (no visual overlap)
Trusted and accurate time data
Voice assistant to notify proximity: e.g., “Bus is 3 minutes away, 150m from you”
Needs & Opportunities
Map view with visualized routes
Real-time bus locations and time until arrival
List of all buses serving a stop with directions
Ability to click a stop and view all relevant data
From-my-location feature that shows which buses are coming and when
Ability to choose “more interesting” routes
Friendly visuals and UI clarity
Sync between the schedule and real-time visibility
Support for transfer planning and “Plan My Trip” starting from the current location
Add stop-by-stop journey view + progress indicator
Build loyalty with reliability alerts and a history of accurate arrivals
International Personas
Competitive Audit Report
According to interwia as well as research online (app store rewiew) I analized Google Maps and Moovit as direct competiters in a filled of public transport apps, and here is my findings
How do competitors position themselves in the market?
Google Maps is everyone's source of information. Nowadays, Google has positioned itself as the source of information about places in the cities and a rating system for users. Bus routes are not the main priority for the company, but one of the main priorities for their users.
Moovit is an attempt to make routes that work with transport systems in the cities. They incorporate functionality to make a better connection between people in the city and the public transport system.
Competitors’ strengths
Google Maps:
Integrates driving, walking, cycling, public transport, ride-shares, and even business info — all in one platform.
Powered by Google’s AI, real-time traffic data, and satellite imagery. Available nearly everywhere. Basically the app you already have. Show you not only the places but photos, menus, ratings and contact info, so users find the place they want to go and then just follow the directions to get there.
Moovit:
Purpose-built for navigating buses, trains, metros, etc., with detailed route planning, real-time arrivals, and service alerts about your time to get out of the bus and if it’s coming. Strong focus on accessible navigation, including features for people with disabilities, for example, user can change the settings if they need more time to walk somewhere.
Competitors’ weaknesses
Google Maps
While it supports transit directions, it often lacks real-time updates, platform info, or service disruptions, especially outside major cities. Also, the navigation can be challenging, and when users are on the route, the app can reset and show you an empty map. So then users need to rebuild the pathway, which can be complicated because first, you might be without a connection, and second, you are at a different point, so to rebuild the path you already following might be challanging. Out of all the interwievs no user understood what trigers the app to reload the page. Hard to navigate between different route options. Difficult to go backwards to see other options.
Moovit
Moovit is built only for public transport, with no support for driving routes, bike navigation, or offline full-map browsing. There is no map on the main page; you need to remember or know the address to find the route, and sometimes it's easier to just point to the location on the map. Also there are way too many pop ups. The app itself is pretty heavy, and it takes a while for it to load. And users do not always have this time when they are on the go. Some parts of the app are not in the chosen language but in the language of the country. Moovit depends on support from local services and their information. They sometimes present themselves as a community service, but they actually, unlike Google, take all the information only from local services and not from users. There is a lot of ads, basically everytime the app is active it starts from the add and if a person need to check the bus, or how many stops left it manes the flow wery problematic.
Gaps
The biggest gap in the market is accurate information about public transport, about the bus right now will it come or not?
The second biggest gap is managing your route sometimes users want to take part of the trip from one suggested route and another from the seconds option and there is no option like that. Also often people need to see more then one option at the same time, like if a person choose the option that they find the most sutable but they still want to see other so they can choose and change on a go.
Opportunities
We need to create a system that gives users the correct information about transport, as our research shows that it’s the biggest issue for all our respondents across the globe. So one of the option is to give user the power to confirm that the bus was here, and take information not only from the GPS of the bus but users themselves, also let people know when the info is not confirm and if it’s critical for them they need to change the route.
Goal Statment
Our public transport app will let users know the most accurate information about the buses around, and the schedule for public transport. which will affect Public transport users, especially the one who have just come to the country and learn their way around by providing the correct information showing the buses and help them build the route from A to B. We will measure effectiveness by how often users use the app
