BEST is the largest organized bus transport network among major Indian cities that caters to roughly 5-6 million commuters everyday. BEST is one of the oldest organisations of the country and since then has been relentlessly serving all segments of the population. Today, even though digital has deeply penetrated our lives, this lifeline still operated on manual methods of communication. BEST last year took up this mammoth task of creating a Bus Information System that leverages the power of mobility and digital tech to deliver real time information of Buses.

Getting to Design something which has potential to change the behavior of people at such scale is rare. It has ability to change the way people look at public transport in the city which is a huge infrastructural change that had never been undertaken in the online medium.

BEST commissioned Fractal Ink to study the existing state of information systems in the city and come up with an effective mobile app which will keep people better informed about the system.

The brief was simple, how can we bring convenience to the users by capturing real time data from the bus and delivering it to the commuters. The biggest challenge was to build a roadmap which can slowly get entrenched into the system and in peoples day to day lives.

There were two fold challenges that were glaringly visible, one, BEST today caters to the lowest strata of commuters to traverse through the city at minimum costs and in time, how to develop a design and communication system which can cut across all segments of population and second, how to change the mindset within an organization to run such a system that is bound to change the way they current operate internally.

We were surprised by the sheer reactions we got. Right from crowding, to ill information at the bus stops, from condition of the buses to inconsistencies in information available through various sources online.

Therre were other system level problems which bus drivers and conductors faced. Like lost property management, peoples misbehavior, working conditions in such weather and crowd, response from the system during emergencies.

Unlike many design disciplines, Digital communication design is a living organism. It has the allowance for people to learn and also gives system an allowance to improve based on behavior.

Deep rooted User centric processes in design helped us solve real problems and not just digitization of information. The real reflections from people and system helped us build an online system which makes a real difference in their lives. Early feedback mechanisms and testing showed us the power that real time information has in the way people decide things in their lives.

BEST new information system was build with latest AI tech which gives design an edge over others to improve itself with time. It improves communication and personalizes it as per the individual using it. Whether it is to help person wake up before her/his stop because of the sleepy nature or build alarms for forgetful behavior.

BEST Pravas is an app that is designed to breathe fresh life into the lifeline of Mumbai.

Designed for users across a spectrum of education levels and economics, the app is simple and intuitive.

We did not only designed the app but build a whole design system, so that in the coming times its scalable and adaptable to any situation.