Safety through data

Switzerland's public transport is a complex network, managed by various individual companies but overseen by the Bundesamt für Verkehr (Federal Office of Transport). To ensure safety, the BAV has been using SiMo, a homegrown tool to analyse incidents, for years. SiMo is powerful, but was designed with risk analysis experts in mind and wasn't easily accessible to people outside the BAV.

Our project aimed to bridge this gap. Working closely with the BAV, we set out to refine SiMo, keeping its robust analysis capabilities intact while making it more user-friendly for non-experts. The end goal was to extend its usage to the individual transport companies operating within the Swiss public transport network.

Bridging the skill divide

Over the years, the SiMo tool evolved organically, piling features on top of each other, resulting in a labyrinth of features and functions tailored to the very specific needs of a handful of internal users. As a result, the tool was powerful but almost impossible to understand for less experienced users, both inside and outside the BAV. 

Our mission was to make SiMo more user-friendly for new users without sacrificing the advanced functionalities needed by BAV’s expert users. We had to find the right balance between ease-of-use and sophistication.

Back to basics

Approaching the tool with fresh eyes, we started by decluttering the user interface and establishing an intuitive, easy-to-follow navigation. We implemented familiar UI patterns to give both expert and new users a sense of familiarity. A crucial improvement was the introduction of a dashboard, a feature that instantly communicates the tool's value by providing a quick snapshot of critical data. The core of the tool, its filtering system, was also overhauled to enable more efficient, precise data analysis. By balancing simplicity and functionality, we proposed a version of SiMo that works for all users, regardless of expertise.

Untangled complexity

Over the course of four intense weeks we essentially took the SiMo tool completely apart and reassembled it to better match its future user’s expectations and needs. What had over many years organically grown into a piece of software, bordering on the avant-garde, was reimagined as a tool that is straightforward, efficient and intentionally ordinary. Because when dealing with matters as high stakes as public safety, that’s exactly what you want your software to be.

Project facts

Team members