Design Thinking
This article has been written for the prework assignment of Ironhack — fulltime UX bootcamp in March 2022 and its aim is to practice the principles of Design Thinking.
Payment system for the Citymapper app
Cities are complicated — Citymapper makes them usable
What actually is Citymapper?
Citymapper is a real-time journey planner that helps you get quickly from point A to B by different kind of public transport (metro, bus, bike, including even walking and car sharing). It gives you the possibility to compare the routes having in mind different features such as time, cost and burned calories. It also gives you detailed information about changes in transport lines, possible delays and weather data. It will alert you when you are at your stop and it’s time to get off and on a rainy day it will show you the preferred route to stay out of the rain.
Another very useful feature it’s the possibility of saving a home or work address or any other useful address for your location.
Citymapper has already +50m users and it’s available in across eighty cities in the world. It is available free as an app for Android, iPhone/iPad and Apple Watch.
As you can see, there are many reasons that explain the success and the growth of the app. But is there anything that could be improved?
YES.
The Citymapper doesn’t let users to purchase the transport ticket directly in the app. Instead, they need to use a different application (which often results confusing and not clear) or buy a different amount of tickets that come in a paper or plastic card. The purchase process results annoying (queues, vending machines that don’t work, language barriers, to name a few) and because of that, the whole experience with Citymapper turns out less useful and attractive.
Design Thinking Challange
My design thinking challenge consists on creating a feature for Citymapper that solves the pain of having to purchase different transport tickets. To reach this aim I will integrate a payment system into the Citymapper so the user can pay for the ticket directly through the App. The user experience of purchasing will result easy, practical, time-saving and efficient.
To learn more about the design thinking process, you can read here.
The research
During my research for this challenge I visited Citymapper’s website and downloaded the application. I read different kinds of information from various sources (blogs, official websites, design magazines) and tried to use the app myself, comparing it with the competition.
In addition, I read user reviews and opinions (what did they like and what would they change) to learn more about their experience. My first step was to observe the situation and my audience in order to determine how best to proceed.
To do Design Thinking the best I could I followed the following principles:
1. Empathize
To start, I asked myself the following questions:
⦁ What problem am I solving?
Creating a ticketing system that lets the users pay for their tickets directly though the app.
⦁ Who is my audience?
Users of Smartphone and public transport (age between 20–55 aprox.)
⦁ Who is my client’s competition?
Google Maps, UrbanGo, Moovit, Transit, every other app for public transport.
⦁ What’s the feeling?
Easy to use, time-saving and intuitive. It should create good experience and satisfy all users needs.
The interview
To understand my audience, the most important tool was the interview. I interviewed five different people of different ages (between 20–55), lifestyles, and careers. I set up open ended questions and focused on listening without speaking excessively. All people I interviewed shared passion for traveling, especially to big cities.
Among others, I asked them the following questions:
⦁ Do you use any mobility apps? If yes, which ones?
⦁ Tell me more about your experience of using these apps?
⦁ Do you know Citymapper?
⦁ If aboved answered yes, what do you think about it? What would you change/improve about this app?
⦁ Tell me more about your process of buying transport tickets. How usually do you pay for your tickets when traveling abroad?
⦁ Did you have any bad experience related with this process?
⦁ What would be your ideal method of payment for the tickets?
⦁ What do you like the most about mobility apps? Could you tell me how the perfect one should look like for you?
2. Define
Result of the interview
After finishing interview with everyone, I developed summary interview notes which helped me get better idea of the situation.
All participants use mobility apps when traveling abroad. They share the preference of paying for the tickets with the credit card. They are not fans of physical tickets, because they result ¨not comfortable¨ and ¨easy to lose¨. Due to queues and sometimes language barriers, they dislike buying them from vending machines and passenger service points. The participants did not all know about Citymapper, but they all appreciated the option of paying directly for the transport ticket through the app.
What is the biggest problem?
“The user finds it difficult to purchase a transport ticket. The buying experience is time-consuming, annoying and not effective.
3. Ideate
After detecting the main problem and brainstorming different kind of ideas, I came to the conclusion that the possible solution is the integrating into the app a feature that allows the users buying tickets in an easy and fast way, providing clear and effective experience. But how to reach it?
Virtual Citymapper Wallet
This option consists on charging our digital wallet with a desired amount of money. When it comes to pay, the app will simply upload the money from our citymapper savings that the user will have to be controlling and recharging. Instead of the regular ticket, we will get a QR code.
Citymapper Pass
The virtual citymapper pass will let you pay directly through the app using a desired platform such as credit card, PayPal, Apple Wallet, Square. The user will get again a paperless and environmental friendly QR code to use as a ticket.
Prototype
To bring my idea to life, I made a simple prototype of the solution ¨Citymappaer pass¨ where you can see how to pay for the ticket while using the app. This option allows the user to purchase eco-friendly virtual tickets in a instant, flexible and trustable way.
Let’s finish
Throughout this challenge I have learned that more important than focusing on “a perfect solution” is focusing on our costumers needs above all else. I also learned that by observation, empathy, human-centric approach and proper brainstorming of our ideas we can come to some really creative solutions.
Practicing the principles of design thinking method introduced me to the UX-UI world and made me curious and motivated to keep discovering more!
Thanks for reading!
Feel free to leave any comments or thoughts!