Designing for a 90-Second Attention Window
A premium commuter sees the product for about 90 seconds a day. That single number rewrites how every screen, every label, and every brand cue gets designed.
A premium commuter opens the app to book, opens it again to board, glances at it to confirm. Total time on surface is around 90 seconds.
That number changes everything. There is no room for onboarding, no time to explain a new icon, no patience for a state you have to interpret. The interface has to give you the next action without asking you to read.
Design moves that survive this constraint:
- A single, obvious primary action per screen.
- Status communicated by colour and position before words.
- Numbers (route, seat, time) bigger than they would feel right in a portfolio.
- Every secondary control one tap deeper, not on the main surface.
The brand has to do its work in those 90 seconds too. Tone of voice, type system, motion, accent colour — they all need to register on first glance because the second glance never comes.
Most B2C work assumes the user wants to spend time inside the product. Mobility products have to assume the opposite.