Sound Transit
Driving scalable impact in the country's largest transit expansion system
Timeline
June 2025 - Present
My role
UX Design Intern
Team
PM, UXR, Content Editor, Engineer
Context
Sound Transit is the fastest growing transit system in the US
At Sound Transit, I embraced the challenge of designing for millions of riders across the Puget Sound region. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, I used data to guide design decisions while keeping the rider’s perspective at the heart of every solution—striving to make transit more inclusive and impactful.
41M+
riders served in 2024
70+
stations expansion planned by 2044
60%+
downtown Seattle workers used for commute
Key achievements
My summer at Sound Transit shaping scalable impact in internal collaboration and passenger experience
Select project to view
Developed and build the first internal research repository used across the entire agency, driving cross-functional team collaboration and generated new workflow with improved efficiency.
Visualized the product roadmap for a cross-agency data centralization tool, integrating AI implementation steps, prototypes, and testing insights—significantly improving internal communication and alignment.
Uncovered and resolved usability and accessibility flaws for the agency’s new navigation app serving 150,000+ daily passengers.
Led redesign of the transit art program web and mobile page, driving improved usability and contributing to increased user engagement, securing launch approval, and driving future product roadmap.
(01)
Research Repository Design
From centralized storage to AI-powered insights—scaling research impact across Sound Transit.
Summary
As the sole UX designer, I conducted research and led the design of the organization's first research repository. I collaborated with researchers, engineers, and librarians, to align on product objectives. By leading co-create workshops with stakeholders, I conducted rapid iteration and ensure that designs balance user needs with business objectives and technical feasibility. Finally, I showcased the product roadmap with strong storytelling, laying foundation for the short and long term implementation.
Problem
The organization lacked a centralized way of organizing research data, resulting in excessive communication cost and low efficiency.
Outcome
I established the organization's first research repository, housing all research data and increasing reusability of research data by 70%.
Research
During the agency’s rapid expansion, centralizing research data became a critical organization-wide need
To gain context of the problem space and user's perspective, I initiated meetings with the researchers, engineers, and document librarians to understand the existing experience with communicating and storing research data. Through which I identified the following key insights:
1
Data silos and poor cross-functional access
"I can't find the research insights that (external team) is requesting!"
2
Need of flexible organization based on research document type
"I need to present my findings differently every time."
3
Struggle to connect with previous research or find related documents
"I remember doing this research before, but I don't know which ..."
I visualized the current user flow of communicating research data to external teams
Problem statement
How might we centralize research data to improve accessibility of rider insights and enhance cross-agency collaboration?
Design objectives
Maximize information utilization between cross-functional teams
Centralize all distinct research projects in one place
Support continuous discovery of recurrent themes across research projects
Reduce disposable insights and maximize impact of research data
Co-create Workshop
First step of building consensus is gaining clarity
I organized 1 round of brainstorming and 2 rounds of card sorting workshop to clarify how researchers perceive data organization. Through which I uncovered the following critical insights:
1
Researchers sort themes differently based on their personal engagement with projects
2
Multiple themes often apply to the same research data
3
Researchers lack understanding on each other's individual projects
Testing and iteration
Creation of the agency's first taxonomy—shared language used across the agency
I approached the development of a shared taxonomy as an iterative process, requiring multiple rounds of refinement. First, I organized an internal review to gather feedback and align on structure. Then, I conducted a second round of prototype testing to validate real use cases through the SharePoint implementation.
Internal review of taxonomy structure
I facilitated the internal review so that researchers were able to gain consensus on the overall structure and resolve conflicting opinions.
Prototype testing of real use cases
Researchers experience the use case of the shared taxonomy and metadata by each uploading 3 representative works of their choice on to the repository.
I prototyped the research repository with the Sharepoint library and created the founding metadata library used by the research team
Key iterations
Expand structure and terms in taxonomy
Based on feedback, I broadened the taxonomy to include additional categories and terms, ensuring it could flexibly capture a wider range of research projects
Research ownership clarification
I added distinctions between internal and external research roles, making it easier to identify ownership and improve accountability in documentation
Research topic theme brainstorming and organization
I facilitated workshops to brainstorm and group themes, creating a more intuitive structure that supports easier navigation and knowledge sharing
Roadmap
Laying strong foundation for an iterative roadmap
I laid the foundation for the agency’s first research repository by mapping out a clear short-, mid-, and long-term development roadmap. This staged approach not only delivered immediate efficiency gains but also positioned the repository as a scalable, future-ready knowledge hub for Sound Transit.
I presented a new workflow for internal communication by leveraging the research repository
Impact
Accelerate information sharing of transit research that impact millions!
Presenting my projects to 50+ employees at the agency was a rewarding experience!
Accelerated Discovery
Centralized storage and metadata helps researchers find relevant documents faster and discover non-obvious connections between different research topics
Consistent Organization
Shared taxonomy system ensures consistent tagging across disciplines while maintaining flexibility for domain-specific needs
Streamlined Onboarding
New team members can quickly navigate and understand the research landscape through clear document organization
Learnings
Be curious, collaborative, and creative!
The amazing research and innovation team that I get to spend time with throughout the summer!
Proactivity drives impact
Reaching out for 20+ coffee chats taught me that meaningful change starts with taking initiative to listen, connect, and build trust
Curiosity is the fastest way of learning
Asking questions and seeking mentors beyond the agency reminded me that curiosity not only accelerates learning but also opens doors I didn’t know existed
Intuitiveness is the ultimate shared language
I realized that when a design feels effortless to use, it bridges backgrounds, roles, and expertise better than any explanation I could give
(02)
Transit Art Program Webpage Redesign
Summary
I led the redesign of the web and mobile site for Sound Transit's art program to boost digital presence and engagement of all artworks along the entire Puget Sound transit system. I reconstructed the information architecture, increased navigation accessibility, and introduced new subpages. I worked with the content editorial team to ensure content viability across all artwork types, and delivered detailed design specs for seamless engineering implementation. The redesigns will be shipped in S3!
Problem
Over the last 2 years, the art program experienced decreased engagement in website navigation time, active users, and views.
Outcome
I shipped redesigns of the STart page, created the Artwork Gallery and Interactive Map feature, which improved the information architecture and site engagement rate.
What is the STart program?
The STart program engages local artistry with everyday transit experience.
User Goals
I want to learn about the artworks and artists featured along the transit system. Also, understand how one can participate in the program.
Business Goals
We want to Increase audience engagement with the art program, promote the digital resource, and boost user view and session time on the official website.
How much do you know about the art that you pass by everyday?
Statistics showed that the art page isn’t reaching or retaining users…
After the redesign kick off meeting with the digital team, I utilized Google Analytics to identify key metrics that showcased the current site's performance.
-65.04%
Average engagement time/active user
0.03%
of total site active users
<0.01%
of total site views
Problem statement
How might we increase user interaction with the STart program through an improved digital experience?
Research
Users find it hard to engage with the art program both physically and digitally
I conducted field studies and semi-structured interviews along 10 stations, experiencing first hand on users pain points with low engagement and low discoverability of the art program information.
👀
"Wait, so what is this artwork about…?"
Low visibility of on-site artwork information rarely catches the audience’s attention.
❓
"I didn't know this website exists…"
Audiences expressed curiosity about the artworks but were unaware of the dedicated web page.
Usability testing
The current webpage is overly dense and challenging to navigate
I conducted usability testing with 3 potential target audiences—a novice user, a general audience, and a potential artist. Revealing the key usability issues of the current website.
Low discoverability on important features
Critical information such as artwork gallery and news subscription are scattered in the side bar, making it hard to discover for novice users.
Unclear navigation for distinct target audiences
Resources for artists and general audiences are combined in the document section, making it difficult to find essential information.
Conflicting and dense writing contents
The site appears to be very text heavy, which includes repetitive CTAs and unrelated descriptions such as the file size and update date.
Final design
The new homepage experience
Program overview
A new layout of the art program overview with 3 dedicated sections and CTA of the main features: Artwork gallery, Public art map, Open calls—offering a quick, at-a-glance summary for users.
Artwork gallery
Interactive art map
Open calls for artists
Frequently asked question
Highlight of answers to frequently asked questions about the program. Keywords in this section also helps increase discoverability of the site's SEO during search.
Target audience resources
Clearly defined resources for two distinct audiences, helping each quickly find the most relevant information.
Key redesign aspects
Information hierarchy reorganization
I reorganized the layout so that critical information appears first and key content is clearly highlighted.
Enhance readability with condensed text information and accessible UI components
I worked together with the editorial team to refine content and created accessible UI components, improving both readability and navigability.
Before and After
Making art exciting and intuitive to explore.
Before
After
Final design
Introducing new features to boost user engagement
I introduced and implemented three features—Art Gallery, Artwork information page, and Interactive Art Map—that improved interactivity and boosted user engagement.
Artwork gallery
A new gallery view of all featured artworks. Allowing users to filter by location, station, and artist to discover artwork information.
Before
After
Artwork information page
A new gallery view of all featured artworks. Allowing users to filter by location, station, and artist to discover artwork information.
Interactive art map
A new gallery view of all featured artworks. Allowing users to filter by location, station, and artist to discover artwork information.
Accessible mobile versions
I created both web and mobile versions for the webpage. Working with the design style guide and revised 10+ components into accessible assets used across the whole agency's design.
I ensured that every feature is accessible for mobile version to fulfill the mobile-first approach of the design.
I created new web and mobile design components for the agency's figma design style guide.
Impact
Enhancing transit experience for millions.
The new art page will be shipped at the end of 2025!
Leading the redesign of the art page, which has faced low engagement for the past seven years, has been an incredible journey. I'm proud to introduce the new digital presence of our art program and create a more vibrant, engaging transit experience for our passengers!
