TripperBus carries more than 200,000 customers between Washington DC and New York. I designed how they search, book, pay and manage every trip.
TripperBus is an award-winning intercity bus service running daily between New York, Brooklyn, Washington DC, Arlington and Bethesda, with Standard and Elite coaches and its own TrueTripper rewards program.
I redesigned the whole experience: search and results, checkout, confirmation, the rider dashboard and the marketing pages, for mobile and desktop.
Design process
The challenge
An intercity bus trip has two directions, flexible dates, Standard and Elite coaches, stops, fees, promo codes and rewards. Riders, many of them on their phones, need to get through all of it without confusion.
Design goals
Time, price, coach type and amenities on every card.
When a day is sold out, suggest other routes instead of an empty page.
A live summary shows fees, surcharges and discounts before paying.
Accounts are optional, with a rewards nudge to sign up.
Reservations, edits, cancellations and saved cards in one dashboard.
How might we
make booking a bus between DC and NYC as quick and clear as booking a ride, on any device?
Who we designed for
Proto-personas based on who TripperBus serves: occasional travellers and loyal frequent riders.
Occasional rider
Books a few trips a year, mostly on mobile
Visiting friends or family between DC and New York. Wants to find a seat, see the real price and pay quickly.
Needs
Pain points
TrueTripper member
Travels most weeks
Rides often and expects the site to remember them, reward them and let them change plans easily.
Needs
Pain points
User flows
Two connected journeys: booking a trip, and managing it afterwards in the rider dashboard.
01 Book a trip
02 Manage it
Visual system
TripperBus has a loud, confident orange. I kept it for actions, prices and progress, and let a charcoal and soft-grey base do the rest so trip details stay easy to scan.
Type hierarchy
6:00pm → 10:00pm
Bethesda, MD → New York, NY
$45 /seat · Standard bus · Wi-Fi, power, restroom
Big times and prices first, then the route, then the fine print.
Components
Final product
Following one rider from searching a route to holding a ticket, across mobile and desktop.
01 Search
One-way or round trip, seats and dates in one panel. Results open on a date strip, so riders can hop between days without searching again.
02 Trip cards
Departure, arrival, price, Standard or Elite coach and on-board amenities. Route details expand inline with every stop.
03 Stops & maps
City-street stops are hard to describe. Each stop has written directions, nearby metro lines and a map view.
04 Guest or member
Riders can log in to save time and earn points, or continue as a guest. The TrueTripper prompt sells the benefit without blocking checkout.
05 Checkout
Customer info, passenger and payment open one after another. Completed steps collapse with an edit link, and the summary stays pinned.
06 Review & pay
Gift cards, promo codes, account credit and points sit above the card form. Riders see the discount apply before they buy.
07 Confirmation
Order details, both trips and the grand total, with one tap to download the ticket or the receipt.
08 Rider dashboard
The dashboard opens with what riders check most: points, credit, upcoming trips and tickets on hold.
09 Manage trips
Trip details bring the itinerary, stops, points earned and receipt together, with Edit and Cancel one tap away.
New riders have no saved cards and no trips yet. Every empty state explains what’s going on and offers the next action.
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