Ironhack’s Prework: Javier Calvert / Challenge 1: Solving mobility challenges with Design Thinking.
Imagine a sunny summer day. You’ve been settling into your new city, Berlin, for a couple of weeks. You finally get the chance to take that yellow train down the street to go home. You get on, and there’s a metal box with dozens of ticket options. Even though it’s also written in English, you realise that there’s some information about how the public system works that you don’t know. You hesitantly decide on one, but when you go to pay, you realise that the machine doesn’t accept banknotes, only coins. You relax and decide to pay at the subway station, which is only two stops away. Suddenly “Fahrkarten, Bitte” and a fine of 60 €.
From 😃 to 😡 in a second.
This is what happened to me a few weeks after my arrival in Berlin, it was a thorn in the side of my pleasant arrival in the city. So the question is: How can we eradicate a problem, which the transport company may not have the necessary interest to solve? At first glance one might assume that this is because those who are new or visiting the city are simply in the minority. Well, that’s where an app can solve a problem much faster than waiting for the company’s bureaucracy to solve it.
As part of the pre-course of the Ironhack UX/UI Bootcamp, we have been assigned to analyse the app Citymapper, this is an app that… we’d better call Wikipedia:
Citymapper is a public transit app and mapping service which displays transport options, usually with live timing, between any two locations in a supported city. It integrates data for all urban modes of transport, including walking, cycling and driving, in addition to public transport. It is free of charge to users, and is supported by a mobile app on devices such as mobile phones, and by an Internet website.
Thanks Wikipedia. All good with Citymapper, but there is one feature that we are missing and it would be a great help: How do I buy the f***ing tickets?!
It was so avoidable. 😔
Sorry, flashbacks of the past.
Back to the topic: Why taking public transport in any city in the world can end up being a terrible experience? How can these situations tarnish a smooth journey and make us angry with the city that welcomes us?
According to the information I was able to gather in my interviews, cities like London have the problem of how much to pay solved, as they charge according to the station you enter and exit. But in cities like Berlin, where getting on and off can be a great advantage for smoother mobility, it can lead to confusing situations and end up involving us in unnecessary bureaucracy such as going to pay a fine.
The direct competition of Citymapper is generally GoogleMaps and the corresponding public transport app of each city you visit. But they are involved in the same problem.
Design Thinking, it’s your time to shine ✨
But first, what is Design Thinking?
Well, simply put, it is a user-centred design methodology, consisting of five specific steps (empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test), thus helping to reduce and especially avoid designing both physical and digital products that no one needs or only those who created them understand. That is why the mantra in Design Thinking is “I am not the user”, which leads us to investigate and gather valuable and more accurate information about our user. This way, designers and business owners alike can base their opinions on data and not simply on personal opinions. For the purpose of this assignment, the only thing we are not going to do is testing. So let’s get started!
Empathise
This is the part where we collect information through interviews, surveys, etc. It is like having a naked mannequin, then as we collect information we add attributes to it, it becomes a more real user that will even allow us to learn about problems and difficulties that exist outside our bubble and are real.
Some bad experiences gathered:
- He bought a short journey ticket, instead of a full journey ticket, as he didn’t understand why he had to pay extra for a ticket.
- The machine wouldn’t take banknotes, he ended up with a fine of 60€ (still hurts 😭).
- He didn’t know that with a ticket he could switch between different means of public transport, so he finished his journey walking instead of changing from U-Bahn to bus.
- Not knowing that the ticket is only valid in one direction and does not allow you to return, even if you missed the desired station. Almost ended in a fine.
- Not knowing at which station the area assigned to his ticket ended (from zone B to zone C). He ended up fined.
Some Pain Points expressed by my interviewees:
“What does each ticket mean?
“Where do I validate my ticket!”
“What are the possibilities and limitations of each ticket?”
“How do I calculate which one I should buy?”
“Why doesn’t the map at the ticket booth give me information about my doubts?”
And this sentence is my favourite and I think it sums up the point to be solved.
“I don’t want to have anxiety every time I travel, doubting if I bought the right ticket or if it is validated correctly”.
Define
That’s it, defining who my user is. After collecting all the data, we can sketch a user that summarises all the points collected above. This helps us to see and understand who that person is. So based on my interviewees I created a user with specific, more real qualities, also called user persona.
Say hi to Andrea, she is 35 years old, a new Berliner. Despite having been in the German capital for a few months, she doesn’t speak German very well and buying tickets is still a disaster as she doesn’t know which one to buy. What could be a relaxing moment to enjoy getting to know the city through the Tram window turns into a situation of constant anxiety due to possible fines. When she travels in Europe she prefers to spend more money on tickets so as not to give up her travelling spirit, she doesn’t want to be calculating which one is the most convenient. But she would really appreciate some useful information.
Ideate
Based on one or several archetypal users that we have created, each with their different needs, we generate ideas to improve their user experience. In my case, as I mentioned, I will do it with Andrea in mind.
Some ideas gathered:
I took several ideas from my interviewees, because of course, after going through such an experience, you usually get a lot of ideas all at once on how to improve the system.
- Google Maps + Local Transport App = Download map + GPS (in case you are without internet).
- Instruct the physical purchase of a ticket.
- Centralise all user data in a single app, regardless of the city you are in.
The app should be responsible for paying each public transport service in each city. - Allow customisation by user type, e.g. Tourist: relaxed, with more time, passing by interesting places; Local: straight to the point, fast.
- Allow users to report on e.g. transport stoppages or lines cut, instead of waiting for the app to take care of correcting or reporting that.
- Don’t use so many apps per city.
Brainstorming:
- Digital or cash purchase option. Provide you with QR code cards or instruct you on how to correctly purchase the necessary tickets for your journey.
- Don’t pay for the whole journey in one go, perhaps before taking the next ticket you want to walk around the area where you will take the next transport to your final destination.
- The app takes care of the payment to the local transport service, buy tickets quickly and easily.
- Welcome article to the city once you open the app. So they tell you what nobody tells you and how not to have a bad experience; phrases to read or hear like “Fahrkarten, Bitte” (😱) and what to do. Collect tips from users. Content related to the experience of travelling by public transport.
- Charge credit to the app so you don’t depend on your internet connection.
Finally, I discarded those ideas that would not solve the user’s problem when they are at the moment of purchase after having their trip ready in the app.
Prototype
A prototype is the simulation of a final product, the important thing is that it must be cheap to make and above all fast, because it needs to be tested with our user as many times as necessary, to cover those points that we may be ignoring or had not been mentioned before. Also to not generate an emotional bond with the prototype, so we will be more willing to discard it. It is not the same to throw away a drawing made in 5 minutes, than a digital version made during a week.
Here I share with you a flowchart that I created after mixing some ideas, this helped me to better visualize what would be the user flow, that is, each stage related to the process of our user to fulfill its task successfully in the app.
For the purposes of this assignment, I only focused on a single path.
For this case we will assume that the person is already logged in, has credit in the app or is connected to his credit card, and has already selected his trip from point A to B. Now the only thing left to do is to pay for their tickets. The user will choose to pay digitally, does not know how each ticket works, will accept the tickets recommended by the app and will validate it manually since the station where he starts his trip does not have a QR reader.
An amazing journey
This whole process helped me realize how applying a tool like Design Thinking can help us create solutions that have a real impact on the lives of users. They are solutions that are there, we just have to stop to listen and see the reality of the other.
If you’ve made it this far, let me thank you. This was part of the first Ironhack Bootcamp UX/UI pre-course challenge. See you in the next article!