This master's project explores how design can solve rural mobility. ViaVia is a community-based ride-sharing concept for residents in rural Zeeland. Community members help each other travel through flexible ride requests, without fixed routes.
| Team | 1 Product designer 1 UX designer |
| My Role | UX Researcher & Product Designer — Led research activities and helped shape the product from concept to high-fidelity design through iterative, evidence-based design. |
| Duration | 8 weeks |
Field research showed rural mobility isn't limited by a lack of cars. It's limited by a lack of trusted connections.
An important insight through wireframing emerged: rural travel patterns were too fragmented for traditional ride matching.
Testing with 5 participants aged 65+, surfaced several interface challenges, but one insight stood out:
ViaVia connects residents requesting rides with volunteer drivers from their local community and rewards participation through a community credit system inspired by time-banking, encouraging long-term engagement.
The concept combines:
Rather than functioning as a ride-hailing service, ViaVia is built around reciprocity and community support.
The final prototype included three core flows:
The project also revealed a broader opportunity, extending the credit system beyond transportation to support volunteering, caregiving, skill-sharing, and other forms of local contribution.
What started as a mobility concept became a vision for strengthening community resilience through reciprocity and local exchange.
