Alocaway, local transportation partner
A journey makes an application product for traveling.
Disclaimer: this is a personal project that is the result of a product design course (DDD Class 2020) organized by dunia dalam desain. We consist of 20 participants and our mentors are product design practitioners at Gojek, Tokopedia, and Tiket.com.
Introduction
Hello! My name is Galang Dayu Nugraha, UI/UX enthusiast who just shifted from the graphic design field to UI/UX Designer. Now I work at a fintech startup, Amartha.
Long story short, I was accepted as one of the DDD Class participants. I am very happy and enthusiastic because I want to find a lot of knowledge and learn from our experienced mentors.
The theme that I get is traveling. The goal is to increase the growth of domestic tourism. Meanwhile, Indonesia has many beautiful places to visit. This will be very interesting.
In making a product, we need a framework to produce appropriate products. This time I will use the design thinking framework. Consists of empathy, define, ideation, prototype, and test.
Stage 1 — Empathise
At this stage, we will do 3 main things; Planning the Research; Creating the Research Guideline; and Conducting the Research. This initial process is the stage where we find out exactly what the problem of our theme is, the problem of a traveler.
The usefulness of empathy:
- We will make products based on our user needs. Do not let our product just be a good product but only become junk because it is not used by the user.
- Understand our user goals, motivations, pain points, and blockers.
- We can prioritize them.
There are several ways we find out the problem. That can be done with IDI (in-depth-interview), FGD, or surveys. Because I did not understand at all what the top travelers problem and wanted to know deeply, I chose the IDI method to 5 travelers. Before doing IDI, I also had to compile a deck of questions to explore the real problem faced by these travelers.
Planning the Research
Defining the Objective
Our objective here is finding out or exploring the motivations/pain points/barriers. We try to deep dive on a certain issue and find out the root cause. And this is my research objective:
Understanding traveller’s thought about traveling.
Scoping
Scoping helps me to understand the target population. My several scopes are:
Who/What: Traveler who was traveling 2–3 times a year
When: Anytime
Where: Jakarta
Defining Research Question
The research questions are the main questions that must be answered at the end of your research. My main research questions:
- What is the most traveler’s problem when doing traveling?
- What is the important things for traveler when doing traveling?
- What things which travelers like or don’t like, goals, and ideas when doing traveling?
- What does a traveler do to make traveling easier?
- What are the biggest challenges for a traveler when doing traveling?
Listing the Hypothesis
Assumptions are dangerous. If it is not validated, then turn them into the hypothesis. — DDD Class 2020
Here’s my hypothesis:
- The traveler has problems to manage itinerary for traveling
- The traveler finds it difficult to understand the local language
- Traveler can’t understand local knowledge about transportation, tours, guides, culinary, lodging, etc.
- The traveler feels budget is an important thing when doing traveling
- The traveler feels hard to have permission to travel
Defining the Research Sub-Questions
From the main questions which have made, we reduce them to sub-questions to find the real problem.
What is the most traveler’s problem when doing traveling?
Sub-questions:
- What is the first thing done when a traveler will start traveling?
- What variables are listed to prepare?
- How are the variables ordered?
- How does each of these variables affect the traveler to go traveling?
Creating the Research Guidelines
After compiling a research plan, then I made a research guideline that contains how we started the IDI. For example, introduction, then getting into questions, and closing.
There is no standard format in this guideline. We can make it according to our version. The important thing is we can gather a lot of the right information.
Conducting the Research
This is the time I dive to look for the root cause. By the way, I got good knowledge from DDD Class. I tried to apply it when extracting answers from respondents. And, this is how to dig the right answers to the respondent.
From the guide above, we will understand what the traveler likes and dislikes. We will also understand the purpose of traveling. And the most important thing is we can get additional ideas from them to make traveling easier.
Note: Before I understand this concept of empathy, I always start with my ideas that are not necessarily valid. At first, I thought the problem of most travelers was not having a better understanding of making an itinerary for traveling. So the solution is to make apps that provide an itinerary for a traveler. And it turns out, after IDI (in-depth-interview) to several travelers, their problems are not at all related to the itinerary! I realized that I had to start from a problem experienced by the user that we were going to help.
Stage 2 — Define
Affinity Diagram
From the results of IDI, there will be many points from respondents’ answers that will become observations. Then, the inventions are classified according to their similarity.
From the insight we get, then we make the design mandates. Design mandates are our own ideas to solve the problem from the insights. We don’t have to solve everything, but we can also choose and prioritize what can be resolved. And this is the design mandates from a few insights above:
- Create a platform of information about local knowledge
(operating hours, transport access, HTM, etc.) tourist attractions - Give traveler a place to save according to their purpose
(goal saving for traveling) - Giving tourist category labels (culture, nature, etc.) to tourist attractions
to fit the traveler’s goals - Providing trusted information about local transportation
- Establish partnerships with local transportation services
- Provides information on local transportation access for travelers
- Provides a simple local language guide as a guide for travelers
- Showing weather prediction as a preventive measure for the failure of a traveler’s itinerary
From this design mandates, we can choose which ones are feasible to do. I chose to make an application that includes local knowledge and local transportation. Why? Because from the IDI results, the points about local transport problems are the most numerous. And I also see that no one has focused on solving this problem.
So, I already know about what products will be developed. That is about providing something “local” that can help a traveler explore tourist attractions.
Stage 3 — Ideation
At this stage, we will do 5 main things:
1. Napkin Sketch
2. Concept Model
3. User Job & User Journey
4. Wireframe
5. UX Writing
Napkin Sketch
In the initial phase of this ideation, we will first make a napkin sketch to describe briefly what kind of product we will make.
My sketch above illustrates a traveler who has a lot of local transportation references. He is free to choose what he wants. This is useful for simplify the description of my apps and to make it easy to understand the usage of this application.
Concept Model
Concept models are diagrams that represent how a system works. Each part can relate to the other parts.
This concept model is what I think as the most difficult process. Because I have to understand the connection between one part and another. Above, I sort out the most important parts are the user, location, local transport, and local partner. From this big parts, we connect with each other to form a sustainable system.
Note: In this part, I always change from the beginning for one reason or the others. Don’t take too long time here. Just do it, we will know the thing which needs to be changed.
User Job and User Journey
User Job and User Journey is about what the user is trying to do, not the screens. — DDD Class 2020
Yup! So here we make a trip for the user so they can find something they look for. We are assigned to help them to head to their expectations.
The first thing to do is creating a user jobs (jobs to be done), then just create a user journey. Here is a list of the main user jobs along with the examples of the user journey.
Wireframe
The wireframe is the easiest and cheapest development. This will help before working deeper into hi-fi design.
UX Writing
Uwu! I’m really happy about this part. Here I make a brand voice for the application that I made. I was told to think about the personalities of the application. I have to think if an application becomes a human, then what personalities will they have? Make the true personalities as well as the wrong personalities for an application.
This is a brand voice from Alocaway. Sticky notes pink is the true personalities while yellow sticky notes are the wrong personalities. The true personalities are supplemented by the wrong personalities so we understand how we say about our brand to our user and how we don’t say to our user.
Smart, but not “Mr. Know-It-All”
I want Alocaway smart to tell you about the location of tourism. The information does not only come from us, but also from the reviews of people who have visited tourist sites.
Trusted, but not forced
I want to ask, have you ever been offered even local transportation services when you arrived at the station/terminal/airport?
I was annoyed by the offerings. We don’t even know/don’t know them. Of course, we want to find a trusted one so the price and the service is good.
Well, alocaway will give you a choice of transportation partners where you are also free to choose according to your preferences. What car do you want to ride or just choose an angkot or even want to rent a motorbike and go anywhere you want? It’s up to you! Please choose whatever you want.
Friendly, but not tacky
The friendliness is inspired by the friendliness of the local people who have very different characteristics from the urban people. Local people, especially rural people, tend to be more polite and helpful (not true for all, only most of them).
I put this in a pop up notification that starts with the word “permisi” (excuse me) as a sign of our politeness to the user. Then, followed by a few questions to make sure the internet is active and ask to try again later. That’s it and not tacky in responding to something.
Solutive, but not complicated
We offer convenience to make travelers get the best local transportation easily. You can book and don’t have to worry about getting a “surprise price” from a local transport service provider with an unknown track record.
If you cancel your trip for some reason, then just submit a refund or reschedule the time. Simple, right?
Stage 4 — Prototype
At this stage, we will do 2 main things:
1. User Interface
2. Prototype & Interaction
User Interface
I will start with the name from this application: Alocaway. Derived from the word a local way, a local trip for a traveler. I want every traveler who uses this application can explore every local place in Indonesia.
How to explore it? By renting local transportation in the place. Do you want to use the driver or drive yourself? Just set it.
I use the logo of a bus icon because the bus is everywhere in many regions in Indonesia. In addition to reaching very wide, the bus can also bring many people to their destination. Hopefully, Alocaway can benefit many people too.
I use a soft blue color because it reflects the sea and sky. A sky is a place without limits to explore. I want the traveler is free to going anywhere without limits to every corner in Indonesia.
While the sea is contained with water and all of its creatures as a source of life. Like the sea, Alocaway also wants to be a source of life for local people to get jobs so that prosperity is created evenly in Indonesia.
So, this is the user interface design:
Prototype & Interaction
I made a prototype with Figma and a little interaction with Principle. Prototyping on Figma is very easy and good. Principle is also very good for making simple motion gifs on the successful part of the transaction. The results can be visible to anyone with a prototype share link.
Click the link below to see the prototype and interaction.
bit.ly/alocaway
Stage 5 — Test
Usability Testing (UT)
UT is useful for testing whether our application is already in prototype form that is understood by the user. It helps to validate our ideation results, whether it is okay or not.
You can do Direct UT by directing people and see how their experiences when they use the apps. Or you can also use Remote UT with a tool called Maze. This is also quite effective for gather insight from people.
I did Direct UT to people in the office and friends of the community. The advantage of direct UT is that we can see how their facial expressions and their movements when using the application in this prototype directly. To strengthen the testing of this application, I also did Remote UT via Maze. These tools are very helpful for giving MVP journey feedback and some responses regarding the design.
So far, according to the user, this application is quite good, but one thing become pain point in the “add voucher” section:
Bonus Stage — Improvement
At the end of the DDD Class, there was a final presentation and I got some feedback. One of the feedbacks is the problem of the user’s current location to detect the availability of local transportation.
So the homepage now is an improved version of the previous one that does not have these features. The function is that transportation service choices that emerge are really available at these locations. If there is no motorcycle or bicycle in the user’s current location, the options of those rides will not be displayed.
Closing
So, that’s all about the process from the beginning to the end of a product designer. This project was completed in 3 months, from January to March 2020. So much knowledge and learning that I gained. Everything is very valuable and I also get a new mentors and friends.
Thank you for visiting! Hopefully the process I wrote above can be a reference material for anyone who reads it. You can also leave feedback and comments so we can discuss and grow better. Thankyou!