Designing Campus Mobility-as-a-Service with International Students: Journey Priorities and Design Trade-Offs in Suburban Melbourne

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) can make transport options easier to compare, but its value depends on the journeys people actually need to make. This qualitative study examines how international student drivers judged a proposed campus MaaS service for a suburban university in Melbourne, Australia. Ten Chinese-background international students took part in a first participatory workshop stage; seven returned for a second workshop using interface cards and journey scenarios, and five completed follow-up prototype interviews. Workshop discussions, artefacts and design revisions were analysed thematically. Students tied useful support to specific destinations, class schedules and local transport knowledge, and preferred practical journey planning to configuration-heavy personalisation. Their views on rewards and peer features differed, ranging from tangible incentives to progress feedback, and few wanted compulsory social participation. The resulting design prioritised end-to-end journey support and kept further features optional. The findings suggest that campus mobility planning should distinguish information that helps students interpret a journey from the service and infrastructure changes needed to make it workable. The prototype was not deployed, so the study does not assess mode shift or emissions. It offers a situated account of design priorities and their limits in a suburban transport setting.