Ironhack’s prework: Challenge 1 — Design thinking

Camila Jensen Arevalo
Nov 6 · 4 min read

The first challenge in the Ironhack prework, was a UX-design challenge. In this challenge I was asked to solve a problem for the app UrbanGo by using the design thinking method.

UrbanGo is a public transit and mapping app, which offers the quickest and cheapest option for their users, whether it’s public or private.

The problem

Even tho the app offers the cheapest and quickest transport, their users are having one problem. The purchase of tickets. Normally the users have to buy the tickets in machines and they come in paper or plastic cards. Unfortunately in many occasions when the users have to get from point A to point B, they have to buy different tickets, which can get very annoying, expensive and takes a long time.

My challenge was to create a future in the app, where the users could buy their tickets and solve the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by different channels and to make the process of buying tickets more flexible, comfortable and easy.

Empathy

This stage allows you to understand who you are designing for and whats the users needs are. To better understand the users and what matters to them, I interviewed five people who uses public transport on a daily basis.

But before I started the interview, I asked myself these questions:

  • What problem are you solving? — The purchase of different tickets of the public transport.
  • Who is your audience? — Everyone that uses public transport.
  • Who is your clients competition? — Some of them are Apple Wallet, Android Wallet, Google maps, and other transport apps that allows you to buy tickets in the app.
  • What’s the tone/feeling? — Easy to use, consistent, flexible and safe.

Interviews

The outcome that I wanted from these interviews was to understand the user and see what their needs where. Basically walk in their shoes.

I came up with seven questions that I asked to five different people in different cities and with different ages.

How do you purchase tickets? | What kind of tickets do you buy? | What’s the difference between using public transport in your own city and abroad? | Is there anything you would like to know when using public transport abroad? | Do you use apps to purchase transport tickets today? If yes, how’s that experience?| 1 ticket for your whole journey, how does that sound? | What are you having the most struggle with when it comes to the public transport?

Define

After the interview I gathered all the information and made a conclusion.

The ones that had an e-ticket was happy about it and likes it. While the ones that didn’t have an e-ticket and had to buy a physical one, wasn’t as amused and wanted the opportunity to buy a ticket online or on a app. All of them agreed that buying a ticket on a app is a lot easier, safer and quicker.

Most of them bought monthly tickets because they use public transport on a daily basis and it seemed cheaper buying a monthly ticket.

One thing I noticed was that none of the five people was in need of information about pricing of tickets or types of public transport in their city. While all of them wanted more basic information about tickets and different transport alternatives when abroad. Because sometimes it can be confusing with all of the options.

Those that already had an app-ticket could usually travel with the same ticket from point A to point B. On the contrary, the ones that had to buy tickets at the machine usually had to have one for every transport they used.

The conclusion is that it feels good to have the ticket in the phone and not on paper, it saves you time, and money, because you don’t have to buy more than one ticket for the journey.

Ideate

Focusing on the user’s viewpoint I defined the problem and now it was time to let the mind be free and come up with ideas on how to solve this problem. The method that I used was mindmap.

Prototype

After completing all of the following steps that the design thinking method includes, I made a prototype. This prototype illustrates my idea and how I would solve the user’s problem with the UrbanGo app.

Lesson learned

Looking back on this challenge I realize not just the importance of the design thinking method and how useful it is, but also how fundamental this method is to a UX-designer. To split the task into smaller tasks and try to solve one at the time, starting with understanding your user.

I also understand how significant interviews are, it allows you to put yourself in the user’s shoes and get another point of view.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade