Urban mobility: a study case.
The first challenge of UX/ UI designer specialization at Ironhack was to assist UrbanGo — a startup from Silicon Valley — in finding the solution for their mobile app by using the principles of Design Thinking.
For moving within urban areas, the app (Image 1) solves some of the main problems: when the user selects a Starting point and a Destination, the app provides multimodal routes with the estimated time and cost.
What does the client need?
Offer the cheapest and the fastest way for their users, besides they would like to implement a feature that solves the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by various channels — and to make the process stress-free (user centered).
1. EMPATHIZE — what the user need
To better understand what matters and what the user group needs, was interviewed five people age between 28–38. These people often use public transport both locally and when abroad. The interviews was important to understand behauviours, culture, experiences, feelings and thinkings about when users using public transport in your day.
How do they purchase tickets? What kind of tickets do they take: one ride only or several rides — 24h ticket, a weekly card or a monthly subscription? What is the difference when they use transport locally and when they travel abroad? What are their experiences when purchasing the ticket? What are their experiences with public transport use? Are they using additional ways of public transportation (for example sharing options such as bike, scooter, motorbike, car) besides standard public transport (buses, trains, subways, boats)? Are there any apps for urban mobility they’re using and what are the pros and cons of using them?
2. DEFINE
For choose the bests insights was used the principles of human centered design, and also was created the archetype, Katie (persona).
KATIE, 37 years old, London.
Katie, 37, a Product Designer from London, just arrived in Lisboa for live. Sometimes, she need travel for a meeting job, because she works remotetly. Usually, when she travels either for work or for pleasure, she uses public transport to get to anywhere.
In the last travel to the Russia, she noticed the vending machine and tried to buy a ticket, but she doesn’t speak Russian, and she couldn’t change the language on the machine. A nice old lady helped her. Then she realised she doesn’t have enough coins and there’s no place to insert a bill.
The situation reminded her at the weekend in Argentina, when she had to wait 25 minutes in line to buy from a salesperson, as there was no self-service machine. When trying to pay by credit card, she realized that it was not possible. Just money, and small notes. She changed money at the pizzeria in the street, near of the station. When she finally got the ticket, she put it in a safe pocket. Last month, when he was in Venice, she missed that very expensive bus — boat ticket when going from one boat to another and almost paid a fine.
To get to her hotel in Russia, she checked Google Maps, wich bus to take and where to change to the subway. At first she had doubts when looking at the map, because dont know where it was right side of the street to take the bus. She almost missed her station cause she didn’t understand the annoucements in Russian and the bus driver skipped a couple of stops.
FEELINGS
» Scared that she will lose the ticket again;
» Frustrated when she cannot understand how to buy a ticket and the type of ticket;
» Annoyed when the app doesn’t show the current status of the line, and she already waiting much longer than needed;
“ I just need an app wich will provide me with updated information and that it is certain that i ll get from point a to point b without much waiting. “
The interviews provides some informations for make a insights cards and thinking about many things:
» Users have a problem using the app when that doesn’t provide precise instructions on how to make the conexion to the next transport (or change station). They feel frustrated;
» Users have a problem when the application stipulates a walking deadline and that is not the real one;
» Users feels annoyed when the app is not reliable in providing them with the updated service information such as public transport delays or traffic jam, for example;
» Users don’t fell good using the vending machines, with a many random lights, in a different language. Some machines don’t take bills or credit cards, some countries don’t have a machine, besides a machines with damaged screen and without human solutions around;
» Users don’t feel safe and comfortable saving many tickets for a longer time;
3. IDEATE
The app should provide the general feelings of reliability in the all journey and safety.
It feels secure to have the update service informa-tion just look on the phone.
» Katie is not angry anymore while waiting for a bus. The app beeps or vibrates and informs her with notifications if there is a delay. Have a new area with Traffic infos — she can see in your route or by general traffic
» Now she can leave all your tickets in one place and on an object that needs to be on every day. Now she will hardly lose.
It feels good to have being able to buy it just with fews clicks instead of facing queues.
» When Katie types the starting point and a destination, she can choose the transport mode, and the app lists the best possible route options with time and prices.
» UrbanGo connects with the main public transport providers and develops an option to buy the tickets for the whole route in a new area called PAY. Katie likes that she has the option to buy the tickets in advance and activate them when needed. In addition, the app notifies you when the voucher expires.
» If there are no tickets in her valid tickets list, she can buy a new one. Katie has the option to add credit to the account and purchase different types of tickets: 24h ticket, a 3 days ticket, a weekly ticket and monthly ticket. These tickets, when activated, are displayed on the screen as a voucher with a QR code. There is a section with the valid vouchers.
It feels convenient to to filter the search results by your preferences.
» Changing the type of biking level or the walking speed, the time of the route it is more real.
It feels safe to know which direction to take to get to the right station.
» When Katie wants to change trains, she takes a look at her app. It shows her a map or a image from Google Satelite, and directions to the next stop. Sometimes, with images, it is more easy to recognize the new place.
» Before she got the app, she would probably get lost , but now the app beeps if he starts moving in the right direction.
PROTOTYPE
LESSONS LEARNED
One of the lessons learned was that it is necessary to reflect the questions well to understand the user. Listening carefully to the people who will potentially use the application, provides many insights for the project.
Classifying the responses obtained in the interviews and organizing them into categories, facilitates a clear view of the problem and simplifies other steps in the process.
You need to take a careful look at the people who will be using the app and that sometimes includes the type of device they use. In one of the solutions thought, the payment method would be made through the use of contactless. However, in the middle of the process, it was possible to realize that not all telephone systems support this technology.
