Transit Stats App
Public transit, made personal
As a daily Chicago CTA rider, I wanted to track my own transit data accurately, but nothing existed to do it. So I built Transit Stats, the first app designed to turn public transit rides into meaningful personal analytics. From concept to App Store launch in four months, I designed the brand, all the UI/UX, and website while writing the backend code as well as the frontend code with the help of AI tools.
- Role
- Founder, Product Designer
- Years
- 2025-2026
- Scope
- Strategy, UI/UX Design, 0 to 1
Challenge
Public transit generates an enormous amount of data, yet almost none of it ever reaches the rider. As a daily CTA rider, I had no way to track my trips, measure my environmental impact, know if my monthly pass was worth it, or understand my habits over time. I wanted to take Chicago’s overlooked transit data and make it personal, useful, and fun.
Impact
1,500+
Users Acquired
100+ Premium Users
Paying for Pro
400+
Daily Active Users
4.7/5 Rating
On the App Store
Data
0
Rides Taken
0
Miles Traveled
0
Hours Recorded
Who I Designed For
I designed with two types of users in mind. The daily commuter takes the same routes every day and wants to understand their habits, which I learned from friends who commute to work on the CTA. The city explorer is the persona I fit into, always riding somewhere new and wanting to see that impact. Every feature in the app serves one or both of them.
User Type 1
The Daily Commuter
Rides the same lines from the same stops on a regular basis
Wants to understand their habits: time, distance, and most-used lines
Wants their daily commute to add up to something visible
Interested in baseline stats, leaderboard, and environmental impact
User Type 2
The City Explorer
Always going new places, riding new routes and visiting new stops
Treats the transit map like a checklist to complete
Wants credit for every new stop and line they reach
Interested in total coverage, achievements, and leaderboards
User Type 1
The Daily Commuter
Rides the same lines from the same stops on a regular basis
Wants to understand their habits: time, distance, and most-used lines
Wants their daily commute to add up to something visible
Interested in baseline stats, leaderboard, and environmental impact
User Type 2
The City Explorer
Always going new places, riding new routes and visiting new stops
Treats the transit map like a checklist to complete
Wants credit for every new stop and line they reach
Interested in total coverage, achievements, and leaderboards
Feature Mapping
I organized my own ideas as well as feedback and thoughts from friends into core feature categories, then detailed the capabilities within each one, grounded in what I wanted as a daily CTA rider and what my friends in Chicago wanted from the app.
Inspiration & Discovery
Before designing anything, I pulled together a moodboard. It included app UI I admired, anything related to transportation and maps, and anything else I thought looked cool. It served as a creative starting point and a source of inspiration.
The Working File
One of many Figma pages that look like this. This is how I designed the details of every UX flow and feature in the app.
Design Process
The app design evolved from early sketches to two rounds of wireframes before reaching the final polished UI. This progression shows the refinement and thinking that shaped Transit Stats from concept to launch-ready product.
Initial Sketches
1st Wireframe
2nd Wireframe
Final Design
Key Design Decisions Based on Feedback
These are some of the key decisions I made on the tracking and leaderboard pages, based on feedback from the friends I had testing the app, as well as my own testing and everyday use as a daily CTA user.
Track Ride Entry Point
Most prominent element on the app’s dashboard
Emphasis on the live tracking feature to encourage use
Quick Info at a Glance
Current ride streak is immediately presented to the user
Brief overview of weekly transit stats
Notable CTA outages/alerts surfaced in a digestible format
Personalization
User is immediately shown their rank/percentile on the leaderboard
Ability to change metric and time period and still see personal rank
Social Features
One-click share feature in a key moment to encourage organic growth
Key Experiences
Key Experiences
Dashboard
The dashboard covers your streak, weekly stats at a glance, alerts for CTA outages, environmental impact, and unique facts about the CTA.
Live Tracking
One tap starts a live ride. Smart GPS and geohashing detect your line and stops while battery-optimized tracking logs distance and time.
Coverage Map & Ride History
Every trip is logged and filterable by transit type, while a personal coverage map reveals the stops you’ve visited across the entire network.
Stats & Achievements
Stats break down distance, time, trips, and CO₂ saved across weekly, monthly, and yearly views, while achievements celebrate every milestone.
Leaderboard
City-wide leaderboards rank riders by trips, distance, and emissions saved, filterable by time period, giving riders a reason to keep coming back.
Website
The marketing site had to explain the app clearly and simply as well as turn visitors into downloads. I designed and built it to carry the brand identity through every piece of the site.
Branding, Marketing, & Advertising
I designed the brand and marketing presence, from the logo, palette, and typography to advertising built to drive downloads.
Technical Workflow Using AI
This is the technical workflow behind the making of the app. I wrote the backend code as well as the frontend code with the help of AI tools, taking Transit Stats from concept to App Store launch in four months as a solo designer.
Surprise Appearance on the Chicago News
Transit Stats caught the attention of local media, earning a spot on Fox 32 Chicago. I sat down on-air to talk about the app, the story behind it, and what it means for the city’s transit riders.
User Feedback
Feedback from users sharing their experience after the app launched.
Ridiculous overkill for neurotic transit nerds. I love it.
matthewmagellan
Transit Stats User
Woah this is so sick. I have to say, as a UI designer the app is really well built, easy to use, and super fast! Awesome job on the backend.
Confident-Rabbit-876
Transit Stats User
