ASTP — Helping children get to school safely.
The NSW Department of Education's Assisted School Travel Program (ASTP) provides tailored transportation to and from school for 10,500 eligible students in NSW with disabilities. Recognising the program's pivotal role in meeting their needs, we aimed to enhance it through digital means, improving operational efficiency and ensuring safety. Our team facilitated the development of a mobile app and web-based dashboard, leveraging expertise to guarantee project success and create a high-quality, enterprise-scale digital solution.
Industries
Transport
Education
Year
2022
Services
UX & UI Design
Design Systems
Client
NSW Education
The Brief
Before the app, drivers relied on paper run cards to track who they'd picked up and dropped off, with no way to confirm in real time or flag an issue as it happened. For a program built entirely around student safety, that gap mattered. NSW Education needed a digital system that made confirming each student's journey simple and quick once the driver had safely stopped, without adding friction.
The Approach
I worked as UI designer on the project, alongside a UX designer and reporting to a creative director, helping shape both the interaction design and the visual language. To meet the needs of drivers, teachers, and parents, we conducted research to define personas and user stories, then ran a 6-week UX workshop with the NSW Education team to shape the app's objectives and user journeys. For drivers specifically, the priority was designing pick-up and drop-off as a single, unmistakable "Onboard" action, quick enough to confirm the moment they'd stopped at each destination, moving through each student on the run in sequence.
The Outcome
The end result is a suite of elegantly designed mobile apps enabling drivers to view their runs, confirm pick-ups and drop-offs in real time, and report incidents directly from the app. The ASTP Mobile App for Drivers is now live and has been mandatory for all primary and relief drivers since January 2024, replacing the old paper-based run cards and giving administrators a comprehensive dashboard for efficient incident oversight statewide. Learn more on the NSW Department of Education's website.