Metro Kiosk
Project 1 Ironhack : Buy a ticket online
How in one week we redesigning the interface of the RATP’s ticket-buying terminal ?
Project in collaboration with Magali Confiant, Marion Guitton and Quentin Massonneau.
This project was based on developing our ability to place the user at the centre of our research process (user research).
The challenge was to find a solution to solve a problem identified when the user interacts with the buying terminal (user experience) .
First, we have defined the objective of this project : Redesign the terminals of the Parisian metro’s public transport company, the RATP, in order to improved the purchasing process for a user.
UX Strategy space by space… in a very short time …
THE PROBLEM SPACE
The first step in this project was to understand WHO ? is the user of RATP terminals.
Understanding needs, objectives and motivations of users allows us to target a current problem they are encountering and find the right solution for them.
HOW ? WHEN?
Then we determined the most appropriate User research methods for collecting the necessary raw data : Observation, Immersion & Interaction during the user experience with the terminal.
Observations helped us to understand the purchasing process in the context of the metro.
Thank’s to the immersion we have refined our research by putting ourselves in the users’ shoes and interacting with the terminal. This allowed us to better understand what users do and why.
And it was the time of interactions with user : in order to identify the pain points and feeling’s users, we went on to interview them directly in one to one during the purchase of a metro ticket.
Here our results summarized of our guerilla’s prospection
We analysed and drew conclusions from the raw data collected during user/terminal interaction.
Thanks to all these data we have established our user’s profile and the process transport tickets buying at the RATP terminal.
Persona
A user, 30–35 years old, who is active but has no interest in owning a monthly navigo pass because he occasionally travels by metro BUT he knows how to buy a ticket via the terminal. This is why he usually buys a single T+ metro’s ticket.
User journey map’s persona
This journey map has made it possible to identify our user’s main point of pain (even if several pain points were identified thanks to interview’s), which has been greatly amplified with the current health context of the COVID19 pandemic.
Indeed, all interactions with the touch terminal is for him disgusting which increases towards anger at the time of payment when he notices that contactless payment is not offered. So
We remained to focus our story board the subject of hygiene because of its current importance.
But also in the possibility of a rapid implementation of solutions to limit direct user-machine contact.
The problem : no more contact with the machine
Starting from the verbatim of our user
“In the current context all contacts are problematic”
and the anxious feeling of the metro accentuated by the health crisis, we oriented our problem on the need to suppress the user’s contact with the terminal during the purchasing process.
So, we thought about how to achieve this.
THE SOLUTION SPACE
After quicly benchmarking and looked the payment terminals abroad and in France (as in LYON). A study of the current technologies related to hygiene has been made.
For 8 minutes we exchanged as many ideas as possible (good ideas, bad, useful, fun, ingenious or surprising ideas).
And among all our ideas we selected the solution which seemed the most relevant to us.
Hybrid, quick and hygienic solution : A mobile payment application and a contactless cash point.
We have designed an application that allows the user to buy tickets or load a Navigo pass directly online. Then, thanks to a terminal, the user will be able to pick up their bought ticket or load their Navigo pass by scanning their own personal QR code provided by the application.
THE DESIGN SPACE
App prototype
Withdrawal terminal prototype
This user-centred approach is made up of many tools, many methodologies and is based on the notion of iteration, repeating over and over again each phase of the process.
However, the aim of this fast and intens project was not to present a finished product but to stay focus on the user.
This design process also made it possible to propose creative solutions in a short and efficient time.
Our warrior team took on this first fast project in a good and very understanding group dynamic.
Unfortunately we did not have time to iterate during this project but we can imagine to review the concept to design the application to address the other problems identified during our interviews and (ex: the banknote area …)
We can also imagine making this terminal easy to use for blind people or offering an alternative to the QR CODE if you do not have your phone in front of the collection terminal.
What surprised me the most ?
- That user-centred research is a true design guide.
- Finding an innovative concept and prototype it in a short time, it’s possible.
- Meeting users in context is not so scary. I had a lot of apprehension in approaching unknown people but to my great surprise they were available and concerned. Without users and user’s experience, no challenge can be met.
To be continued…
Thank’s for reading and 👏 me.
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