Design Thinking with CityMapper
Challenge 1 Ironhack
This first Ironhack challenge consists in adding a feature to City Mapper that user’s need.
The client
CityMapper is a mobile urban travel application created in 2011 and based in London that offers, in real time, the best itinerary between a starting point and a destination. It provides an estimate of the time, cost and even calories spent on trip while offering the most efficient combination of transports.
It covers public transport, taxis, VTC, self-service car to scooter and even walking.
This application already solves some of the main urban’s mobility problems thanks to efficient solutions.
So what’s problem to solve to make mobility easy for users ?
CityMapper’s observations : Actually the pain point for many users: buying several public transport tickets with different amounts, by different channels to get from point A to point B.
This is especially true when travelling abroad with lunguistic and cultural barriers.
The first trip to a city is often a challenging task. Especially when, without landmarks, you have to take public transport.
Searching for routes and buying transport tickets on the spot is a process that can be time consuming, boring and frustrating.
Buying the right ticket for the right transport with the good fare, long queues at the ticket machine, refused payment methods, out of service ticket machines, unavailable transport, local contingencies such as demonstrations or strikes, are all obstacles that will make the purchasing process complex.
Objective : Create a new functionality on CityMapper’s app to solve the problem of purchasing different public transport tickets through different channels, especially abroad.
The Project
Determine the most suitable, efficient and user-friendly solution using the design thinking’s principles (Methodology in 5 steps).
EMPATHY
Target: People travelling abroad.
Questioning and Listening the target : 5 users have been questioned (3 between 25–35 years, 2 retired)
Preparing an interview guide : it is made up of open-ended questions to ensure that the interviews run smoothly.
Non-exhaustive list of questions :
- Do you travel often?
- Do you use an application for your journeys?
- What are your primary concerns when you travel abroad? your worries?
- How do you prepare your journeys when you travel abroad?
- What types of transportation do you prefer when travelling abroad?
- What are the systematic problems you encounter when travelling abroad?
- What difficulties do you encounter when buying tickets?
- Do you find it easy to find information on public transport abroad?
- What do you expect from a mobile urban mobility application?
During the interviews additional questions were added to this list :
- Why do you not use public transport abroad?
- Why do you prefer to use public transport, cycling and walking instead of taxis, car rental and VTC?
- Have you ever had problems with online shopping?
- Do you find easy the use of mobile navigation applications ?
DEFINE
Summarizing the interviews made it possible to extract a set of informations on the users and their needs.
Informations on users : Two types of users emerged from the interviews.
User A : Between 25 and 35 years old who travels regularly for business or tourism.Use public transport because it is more financially attractive. Use public transports or walking, trotting and cycling in an environmentally friendly way to reduce their CO2 footprint.Use TP for convenience and speed
User B : Retired users who travels very regularly. Do not use public transports much because of concerns about peace and quiet. Would like to use alternative’s transports but too restrictive. Prefer taxis, vtc or walking for their urban trips. Like to print out their travel documents and paper tickets.
Common characteristics : Use mobile navigation applications to get around and find their way (e.g. GOOGLE MAPS). Prefer to prepare trips before arriving in a new location. Prefer to buy their ticket online and to find the best rate. Wish to carry out without constraint, via the same application, the elaboration of a route and the purchase of necessary’s tickets for the journey.
Common difficulties : Lack of information and clarity on the spot. Understanding the different transport systems (different operations and costs). Finding or buying tickets on the spot. Buying tickets in advance but on different platforms. Buying the right ticket for the right transport and avoid tickets. Losing time at the ticket machine or ticket counter to buy a ticket. Breaking distributors. Box office closed. Bank cards that don’t work. Cancelled or disrupted transports. Fear of getting lost or being late. Network concerns in some countries, fear of not having access to the route and digital tickets. Not being able to multistage/muti-transport on a route.
Special wishes:
- To be able to indicate transport preferences (fastest, least CO2 emitting, most economical, safest, etc.).
- Have access to a travel history summarising itineraries and tickets.
Finding :
- User profile A. who uses public transport to travel abroad even if the task is difficult.
- User profile B. who uses public transport little or not at all because the task is difficult.
The sum up of this interview highlights the issue focus on : How to facilitate the purchase of public transport tickets abroad ?
IDEATE
After having identifies benefits and limits of each possibilities the smartest solution selected is : ONE ROUTE = ONE TICKET = WALLET + QR CODE
This solution offers the user the simplest and quickest payment solution with the choice of the method for reloading the fund wallet.
The choice between digital and paper ticket and unique ticket for all compagnies, paid on the app by founds wallet.
The application directly proposes the total price of a journey, taking into account the best possible fares per transport and discounts applicable according to the user’s profile.
By a pop-up the user can see price’s details of each ticket before buying the single trip ticket.
Bonus for special wishes :)
The CO2 emission of a trip is displayed next to its price and his time (indicate transport preferences is a good idea that will be developed in another functionality).
A travel history (summarizing itineraries + tickets) will be available via the main and ticket pages.
PROTYPE before TESTING
Closing learning remarks
The design reflection process is a personal methodology that is organised step by step and is disorganised because it is possible to go back several times.
In empathy phase asking the right question at the right time and listening is essential. Indeed, different people will bring different challenges. The foundation must be solid and for this it is necessary to focus on the target, to grasp its expectations, needs and feelings and then create a coherent solution. Understanding your target without identifying yourself is important.
In definition phase we have understand the user’s needs and we try to define the problem to be solved. This problem will guide the work in ideation phase.
What is exciting about ideation is that you have to produce as many ideas as possible. However, this phase of hypercreativity is more effective with a team. The most complicated phase was this one because I went away from the target several times.
Ideation is therefore an important phase in the construction of prototypes. This phase on paper was quite funny even if not very ecological :( because I used a lot of paper to achieve a satisfactory result …even if it could be improved.
Thank’s for reading and 👏 me.
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