Skål, fellow (commute) warrior
Interaction RITA (Real-Time Information for Transit Agencies) began as a demo application for the design technologies and services of Interactive Intelligence, later acquired by Genesys. Based on the (San Francisco) Bay Area Rapid Transit system, RITA provided a remarkably rich and sophisticated means for callers to obtain detailed, real-time information regarding:
Departure times for the next 3 trains for any itinerary within the BART system.
One-way trip fare for any itinerary within the BART system.
Complete transfer details and instructions for any itinerary within the BART system.
(Simulated) Clipper fare card balances, adding funds to the card, low-balance warnings, and instructions for adding fares at a BART station.
Landmarks as destinations: ask RITA for instructions on reaching a famous San Francisco landmark, and she'll provide complete instructions -- even if that destination is not directly served by BART!
This feature included several "Easter Eggs" with humourous responses, as well as real, usable instruction for such locations as Fishermen's Wharf, the Castro District, sports stadiums, and the Moscone Convention Center.
This feature was wildly popular among users, and it became something of a challenge to find all of the undisclosed Easter Eggs within RITA.
Station information for any station within the system, including nearby locations of interest.
Administrative information such as Lost & Found, BART Police, and even how to apply for jobs with BART.
"Closest station" information (proposed) to make use of GPS information on a caller's smartphone to determine the closest BART station, and display the route on the caller's Maps application.
Proactive SMS text alerts of service delays or scheduled changes to a user's stored favourite itineraries.
RITA was remarkable in a variety of technical ways, as well: built entirely in vXML, the code was lightweight , platform-agnostic, and completely "portable". Beyond this, the application relied on real-world, real-time BART API calls for schedule information, so the information provided went far beyond a simple "canned demo" to provide truly useful features as well as truly informative demonstrations of the underlying technology. RITA was, in fact, so unusually sophisticated that it drew the attention of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, and negotiations had begun to bring RITA into commercial deployment, when Interactive Intelligence was acquired and the project shut down.
Like the Viking Warrior shown here, I had to go into this project prepared to “do it all, do whatever it takes”. I originated the concept, determined the scope of the project, secured funding for it, designed it, and oversaw its subsequent versions. While it was far from a “1-Man Show”, it was very much one man’s vision, that seemed to resonate with enough other people to attract a great deal of approving attention.
The project
Interactive Intelligence was looking for a slick, sophisticated, and robust demo application to show off the company's strong design capabilities and flexible, lightweight, portable vXML coding. More than that, though, they were looking for something that also showcase the company's technical prowess at using this lightweight code to make thorough, reliable, useful API calls and quickly deliver accurate and up-to-date information.
This suggested to me the possibility of a transit-information application, since I was living in the Bay Area at the time and had become very aware that there was no single "one-stop shopping" source for this kind of information, especially for use in a hands-free context. While there were applications for MUNI (San Francisco's bus / light rail system), for BART, and for the myriad other transit agencies that serve the area, they all...
...relied on the user to be able to interact by touch, and offered no hands-free experience.
...used published schedules rather than real-time GPS updates to central servers, from the vehicles themselves. (This could result in wildly inaccurate departure information.)
...failed to include any proactive notification features or alerts.
...required the user to switch among apps if s/he wanted information from more than one agency.
This was the impetus and the genesis, then, of Interaction RITA: to bring all of this information and functionality into a single hands-free experience (that could than be supplemented with additional modalities) that used real-time information to serve a variety of transit agencies with a single call.
The modalities
It was important that RITA be designed primarily as a voice-forward application. The BART system is intended primarily as a commuter system (although our user research revealed that it was also heavily used by tourists), so we could safely assume that they would be mobile, carrying cell phones, and not in a position to engage n any “hands-on” input. Still, since we had plans to implement GPS assistance in the station-locator portion, we also had to design for sync’d visual and aural information — even though the user input was strictly by voice. We also needed to design RITA’s API calls to not only sync, in real-time, with the BART system, but with the operating system on user’s phones, in order to access and display real-time GPS info, and provide directions.
The strategy
The team felt it was important to always focus on how the application would be used, not just by the end-user callers but by the salespeople using it for demo purposes, as well as by the transit agencies we hoped to sell to, and the broader-based prospective client base who could see for themselves how powerful technology could be put to use to make their own customers' lives easier.
RITA's features were design and developed in a phased approach that gradually added not just more features, but more complex and proactive AI-powered features, as follows:
Schedules and "Next Trains" departure information
This would also provide good showcasing for our vXML rapid coding and deployment, as well as the robust API calling features, and real-time information updates
Fares (but not yet with simulated "Add Value" fare card functionality)
Transfers
This also enabled us to show RITA's ability to adapt according to time of day. The BART system's routes change, depending on the day of the week and the time of day. RITA took this all in stride, and with Schedules and Fares already firmly in place, these on-the-fly adaptations and modifications to routes could be seamlessly accommodated.
"Easter Eggs" and directions to destinations not directly served by BART
Station information, including nearby points of interest
Administrative (non-travel-related) information such as Lost & Found or BART Police
GPS "closest station" information and other feature enhancements
For each phase, both the design documentation (including the call flow diagrams, branding and persona definitions, and sample dialogues) and the corresponding ancillary documentation (including a brochure and a handbook for the sales team, ) was updated to include all the information salespeople would need to know, to demo the new functionality, as well as fun "Try it for yourself!" usage scenarios for users to walk through -- without even needing to know anything at all about the San Francisco Bay Area!
The outcome
RITA was an unqualified success! As a demo application, RITA was estimated to have driven roughly $1.2 million in new business to Interactive Intelligence. Beyond this, the application had caught the eye — and ear! — of the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency itself, as well as several other transit agencies nationwide, and negotiations were underway to “productize” RITA for BART, and additional agencies in Boston, Atlanta, and Miami.