Making public transport easier by getting rid of the physical metrocard — UX case study
Last week I published my first post on Medium. I realised I really like to write out the challenges and my thought process. It challenges me to write in an explanatory way, making it more understandable for the reader.
The second Weekly Product Design Exercise came in just a few minutes ago, with the following exercise:
“The NYC metrocard system has remained unchanged for decades. The cost of the metrocard machine infrastructure, the lost time of waiting in line to buy a metrocard, touching a dirty machine to do it, the potential of losing the metrocard, and the ease of gaming the system by swiping your card for others has cost the city millions of dollars and leaves much to be desired from the user experience.
Design a new system that allows a daily user who uses the metro everyday or an-out-of-town visitor who will use the metro just once to get access to the metro, on time, without having a physical NYC metrocard on hand.”
I have never rode the NYC metro, so I changed it to the metrocard system in the Netherlands, using the OV-chipkaart. The OV-chipkaart is not only for the metro, but also trains, trams and busses. But for the sake of this exercise, I will focus on the metro system.
The exercise focuses on two kinds of users, the frequent traveller and the out of town visitor. The frequent traveller uses a metro card subscription. The out of town visitor wants to buy a ticket.
A few questions that pops in mind:
- How do you buy a card?
- Can you buy a card beforehand?
- How do visitors know what card to buy?
- Who exactly is the target group?
- Why do they travel by metro?
Before the corona virus, I used to travel a lot using the public transport. I know the struggles and I also don’t like the fact that you have to carry a card around to travel. I’m clumsy and I feel panicky when I can find my card checking in or out. A few of my questions above are around the process of buying a metrocard, so I want to do some research about it.
For the frequent traveller, there are a few options:
- Personal metrocard. The personal metrocard is for the traveller who wants to have a personalised card, based on your preferences. You can choose your subscription, get discount and add different products like the OV-bike.
- Anonymous metrocard. The anonymous card is not connected to a person, so you it is ideal for a family since you can share the card. The downfall is that you can’t add subscriptions or personalise it. It also cost 7,50 and take a few days until you get it delivered and activate.
- Business metrocard. The business metrocard is for businesses who want to let their staff use the metro instead of a car. It’s not connected to a person, but to a company.
For the cards, it’s possible to buy it online beforehand. It’s important to know that it takes a few days until you can use the card since you receive the physical card by mail. To use the card, you have to activate it first. The only way possible is to go to a metrocard machine to ‘pick up’ your subscription or adding money.
The options for a visitor are:
- 24-hour card. This card is only available in Amsterdam and only gives you access to travel within this city. It’s useful for all means of transport, so busses, trains, metros and trams.
- Disposable card. The disposable card is for one time use or for a short period. The visitor can choose for how long they want to travel and based on this choice, you will receive the card you can use for this period.
- Anonymous metrocard. The anonymous card is not connected to a person, so you it is ideal for a family since you can share the card. The downfall is that you can’t add subscriptions or personalise it. It also cost 7,50 and take a few days until you get it delivered and activate.
All the cards except the anonymous one are available to buy at the machines.
To understand which card to buy, you have to search on the website of OV-chipkaart. For frequent travellers it’s pretty easy. The downfall is that there are lot of options. So, if you want to buy a personal metrocard, you can get a subscription for the daily traject you take, weekend card, a subscription for a bike, if you travel through the whole city, there is another option for you. It’s a bit of a challenge to find out the right subscription and can feel overwhelming.
For the visitor the information is more limited. They advice you to go to a machine to buy the right ticket, which means you still have to find it out yourself. You have to stand in the line, wait until it’s your turn and then choose the right option.
To sum it up:
- Frequent traveller has to choose the right subscription, which can be overwhelming and confusing
- Visitor can’t find the right information online and have to find it out by themselves when buying the ticket at the machine
User research
The challenge focuses on two kind of travellers: the frequent one and the visitor. Before I take a better look at the target group, I wrote out some assumptions:
Daily user
- The daily user uses the metro to go to work and go back
- The daily user has a fixed route he takes everyday and checks in and out almost at the same time, every day
- The daily user takes the metro during rush hour, which means it’s always packed and the chance of having a seat is small
- The daily user finds travelling by metro calming, relaxing a bit before and after work
Visitor
- Uses the metro once in a while
- Doesn’t feel relaxed or calm travelling by metro because of the crowd
- The visitors uses the metro to get to the city quickly
- The visitor wants to travel to various places in a short amount of time
Using Twitter I looked for the pain points the users are facing when buying a card of travelling with the metro. I chose to look at twitter, because it’s a platform where users can quickly ask their question and see updates about current problems.
I wrote down the most common problems in bullet points:
- Wanting to connect their phone with their card to check in
- Wanting to connect their debit card with the metrocard
- Not understanding the differences between subscriptions
- What you can and can’t do with all kinds of subscriptions
- Customer service is unavailable most of the time because they’re busy
- Need to contact customer service to cancel a subscription
- Forgot to check out and not knowing what to do now
- Need to go to a machine to update their card [subscription, adding money, buying card]
Customers are frustrated with the customer service at OV-chipkaart, because it takes a while until they get an answer. Most of the time, customer service tells them to send them a private message, which means it will take another few hours until they get their answers. The F.A.Q. page on the website is not enough for the customer to solve the problem. Because of the lack of proper communication, travellers are getting irritated even before checking in. With this information, I created a persona for the daily user and the visitor.
Desk research
McKinsey & Company wrote a report about the urban transportation systems of 24 global cities, which I used as part of my desk research. Residents are optimistic about issues that developed quickly in recent years. One of them is the ticketing system. It’s getting easier to buy a ticket for the public transport, which satisfies the resident. A key pain point for large cities are the ticket price increases. The price has been increasing every year because of the number of people using transport, economical reasons and the negative environmental impact it has. Public transport affordability is a sensitive issue for most residents in all cities. People are not satisfied by the current situation or the changes in recent years.
The report has also studied the development of transport systems, looking at the importance of different aspects of the transport systems from two sources: experts and residents. As you can see, safety ranks as the highest importance for residents and experts. Public transport efficiency and affordability are also important things they both care about.
Global trends like growing smartphone penetration and development of ecosystems aimed at meeting of ultimate client needs will impact the urban mobility. Moscow, for example, has improved its ticketing system by launching a unified chip card. Alternative payment methods, including the credit card are also what changed the way of ticketing, since you don’t have to stand in line to buy a ticket, anxious that you’ll miss your metro. You see that cities are experimenting to find a way to make the ticketing experience easier and less frustrating by combining functions. The same goes for electronic services, in particular mobile apps. By supporting the residents in every interaction with the transport system, they can easier transport from point A to B.
I found two strong competitors for the ov-chipkaart from other countries:
Octopus card — Hong Kong
The octopus card has been called the greatest transport payment system which can also be used in convenience stores, restaurants and other places. They also offer one-day passes for tourists to shop, eat and discover the local culture. Instead of just selling a card, they connect a whole experience to it, which makes it versatile.
Oyster card — London
One of the benefits of the oyster card is the cap. This limits how much you pay for all your journeys in one day or week. So, you can make as many journeys as you like and when all your fares add up to a certain amount, they won’t charge you more. For tourists it’s ideal since you can travel a lot without paying much.
To sum it up:
- Public transport efficiency and affordability are important factors regarding travelling
- Alternative paying methods score high by residents
- Mobile applications make interaction with transport easier
Trend analysis
To understand what kind of transportation trends are growing right now, I did a trend analysis to find out.
- Ticketless public transit. In the UK, transit riders can use the Ticketless mobile-ticketing platform to move from one point to another with minimal friction. In the United States are also several cities moving towards a mobile and integrated ticketing.
- Improving the transit experience. Transit leaders are focused on building integrated digital platforms, offering diverse payment channels and improving the use of data to better understand their customers in an effort to improve their transit experience.
Going ticketless is one thing which can be solved in various ways, but this change has to be something positive. The transport experience will be less stressful or draining, but how can we also understand the customer and solve the other pain points?
Going ticketless and put this in a mobile phone has many benefits in my eyes. A lot of people have go to the same places around the same time every morning. By removing the pain of checking in, going through a gate and waiting in line, you save costs for transport authorities. You don’t have to invest in ticket machines since almost everyone has a smartphone with them when going somewhere. How can one person check in and out without having to carry a card? The use of iBeacon! These can detect your presence and bill you accordingly. This way, you will never stress about forgetting to check in and out or not having enough money on your card.
Concept
Looking at the research and discoveries, I move on to the next phrase, which is the concept. Using user insights I created job stories. These will keep me stay on track and focus on the user needs.
Job stories
In my last post, I wrote user stories to use while brainstorming for concepts, but I stumbled upon an article about replacing user stories with job stories. Job stories are all about context and causality and is more critical and informative.
- When I am on my way to work, I want to know how much time I have until my metro departs, so I that I know if I have to hurry to catch the metro
- When I want to change my subscription, I want to know what my options and pro’s and cons are, so that I can choose the right subscription and maybe save some money
- When I go visit a city, I want to know how to travel without being too lost, so I feel safe and confident travelling by my own
- When I go visit a city, I want to buy the right ticket at the moment or beforehand, so I don’t spend too much money on a ticket or buy the wrong ticket
- When the traveller uses the metro, we want them to travel without having to use a physical card, so that we can reduce crowds waiting in line to check in
Brainstorm
I can come up with ideas and brainstorm the best by using pen and paper, because I don’t feel the pressure to do it perfectly and I can scribble down anything. Out of all the ideas, I chose the best ones to combine to create one concept.
The concept is a mobile application where the user connects their personal or business metro card with the app. This way, the user can check in and out without a physical metro card. The metros will have virtual beacons which will detect their smartphones and let them know they’re checked in by sending a notification. This gives the user feedback about the actions and make sure they checked in and out. The virtual beacons use the magnetometer in the phone, which acts as a compass and triangulates the customer’s position using wi-fi and radio frequencies.
This is the main function of the application looking at the design challenge. But since their card is connected to the application, you can personalise your preferences, like:
- Talking with a chatbot to change your subscription/ask questions/buy tickets
- Check for updates or delays regarding your journey
- Tips and updates for visitors
- Show the route from the station to the right platform
After sketching out the wireframes, I started to collect images for a mood board. Using a mood board helped me to create a certain style. I found it important that it felt safe, approachable and context focused, so I chose to use light colours and one or two darker tones for elements which had to attract the attention, like buttons.
Final designs
“When the traveller uses the metro, we want them to travel without having to use a physical card, so that we can reduce crowds waiting in line to check in”
Instead of carrying around a card, the user will have their card in their app. This way, you don’t have the fear of losing your card, plus, having access to information about your card or changing things has become easier.
“When I am on my way to work, I want to know how much time I have until my metro departs, so I that I know if I have to hurry to catch the metro”
To know when your metro will depart, you simply fill in your start and end point, date and time. This will show you the data of the metros which will depart after the time you selected.
Make things easier for your user. Giving the user heads up about a change and what to do next will make the journey more pleasant, taking away the pain point.
“When I want to change my subscription, I want to know what my options and pro’s and cons are, so that I can choose the right subscription and maybe save some money”
Having a chatbot in the application will make it easier for the user to ask quick questions or take action. Showing the pro’s and con’s of a subscription makes it easier for the user to make the right change.
“When I go visit a city, I want to buy the right ticket at the moment or beforehand, so I don’t spend too much money on a ticket or buy the wrong ticket”
Instead of standing in front of a card machine, feeling pressured to choose quickly because of the line behind you, it’s possible to check the tickets beforehand and having them saved in your mobile. Receive updates regarding your ticket and check your journey before travelling.
To prevent errors as much as possible, I used the progressive disclosure pattern. By breaking down a big goal — such as buying a ticket — into smaller chunks, the chances or errors or feeling overwhelmed will happen less frequently.
“When I go visit a city, I want to know how to travel without being too lost, so I feel safe and confident travelling by my own”
An out-of-town visitor, who will probably use the metro just once or someone who doesn’t travel a lot using public transport might want to be helped.
There might be a chance you have to transfer to another metro, which means you have to walk from A to B. This can be stressful if you don’t know where to go to and you only have a few minutes. Tackling the problem before the user realises it will make the journey smoother.
Looking back
I found this challenge pretty hard. Partly because I went a bit overboard with the concept. The main challenge was to create a way for users to travel without a physical card, which I solved by creating an app and using virtual beacons, but I found other user problems and needs that could be involved in this challenge as well, what made this challenge bigger. I have to learn to keep the scope small and keep the focus on the main problem.
