New feature solution for Citymapper
Design Thinking Challenge for UX/UI bootcamp
Using the Design Thinking knowledge from the pre-course the first challenge for the UX/UI bootcamp was to come up with a solution for creating a new feature for the already existing app, Citymapper.
Citymapper is a free of charge public transport service app for cities which makes urban mobility less complicated offering multimodal routing. By integrating all urban modes of transport (walking, cycling, scooters and driving) complementing public transport with private modes including cabs, makes getting from A to B in every way possible. The service for instantly comparing the travel options in real-time across all transport modes improves moving between any two locations in the supported city.
In order to achieve comprehensiveness, the app is pulling data from open transport sources and local transit authorities which can be very messy so their goal is, as they say: “Cities are complicated — we make them usable”.
Citymapper was the app that was assigned to us to create a new feature for the first challenge. For creating a solution first and foremost is to have problem(s) to solve, knowing what you are supposed to solve by finding out the “best problem” for solving. The best way to find the best problem is to know who your users are and ask them. That will also help to understand better the needs they have and what their problems are.
Taking in consideration the services the app gives we can conclude that dynamic people who use smart technology and often travel for work, school or pleasure and probably they still don’t have their own means of transport are using the app. Those would be people in the average age of around 20–45 who want efficiency, reliability and versatility. They normally use Google Maps, Moovit, maybe apps like Transit, Rome2Rio and some other apps depending on the need.
Focusing on the user’s needs from the interview I made to 5 people I can point out some of the following problems that the users having the most complications with: downloading different apps and having many for different transports; the process of buying different public transport tickets; different combination options to choose regarding the frequency of the travelling rhythm; purchasing the correct ticket;
Apparently the pain point problem that we were given as a task was common for most of the users and that’s the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by different channels.
I came up with some solutions that were discarded because by this point Citymapper is a pretty comprehensive app.
Like for example the idea of existing some kind of universal pre-paid card that works with all modes of transports I dismissed immediately because they already have the Citymapper Pass that is a subscription to all mobility with a card integrated to the app.
My possible solution to ease the pain it could be if the user had the option to buy a ticket pack for the preferred route (all tickets for all the transport of the route at once) and,
additionally to edit the ticket pack, and select individually which tickets he/she needs to buy (some tickets that the user already has like T-10 for example).
The tickets will be saved in the app.
The results of the interviews show how important the interview is proving that you are not your users, bare on mind their viewpoint and the creativity should always rely on the users.
Besides all great benefits, I learned a new app that I didn’t know before and guess what. ..I’ve started using it. ;)