Ironhack’s Prework Challenge I: Design Thinking
The task :
Find a quick and user-friendly implementation in the app of your Client CITYMAPPER to handle different ticket payments for different public transport providers. Use the tools of DESIGN THINKING
The Client:
CITYMAPPER is an application that bundles and optimises navigation and travel options based on real-time information from different public transport providers. With their motto „MAKING CITIES USABLE“ they clearly hit the nerve for many users.
citymapper about itself: “We’re motivated by solving hard fundamental everyday problems that improve the quality of people’s lives. We like simplifying complexity, reinventing user experience, working with data, shipping fast, and humanising a serious space”
The competitors:
The market in this field is as diverse as it is sometimes confusing. There are many competitors out there, coming from different ankles of perspective like classic map apps as google maps or apple maps, the providers of public transport themselves or even direct competitors like moovit. A closer look at the apps quickly reveals that the combination of navigation and direct ticket purchase could be a unique selling point.
DESIGN THINKING is a problem solving process to improve the user experience of my product
To find out more about the Need of this feature it is crucial a user-centred position.
Or in the words of Design Thinking EMPATHISE:
It all starts with user research.
Living in Hamburg, in my own experience, one of the cities in Germany with a well-functioning public transport infrastructure, public transport is part of my everyday commute and using the smartphone to get information, to navigate around the city and to pay for everyday items has become the new normal.
But “I AM NOT MY USER”, so
- WHO is gonna use my product/feature?
- WHERE and WHEN it will be used?
- What are the EXPECTATIONS of my user?
public transport, as the word say, should be for everyone and at every time accessible. Therefor I chose my interview partners to be a divers group of people in order to capture the different perspectives and demands on public transport. A second thought was to focus on experiences with using public transport as tourist or business traveler more than on commuting user to find out about accessibility of public transport without any knowledge of the local infrastructure. commuters are often using the same travel option every day and as regular users they also have payment arrangements or subscriptions directly with the transport provider.
The next challenging step would be finding for suitable participants for my research. Even I had no experience in interviewing people, I knew that it would be not easy to get the desired answers without influencing the result through suggestion. In order to prepare for the interviews and not to load myself into a dead end, I visualised the process and wrote down some key questions.
But over time I really enjoyed the open interview style. The interviews grew more and more independent from the original questions.The stories I got to know were as individual as their storytellers. My youngest interviewee was 25 years old and I even managed to question my neighbour aged 79.
To find some similarities, I put the answers in this chart.
Nevertheless, I was able to summarise the main pain points into four criteria:
- lack of security
- lack of flexibility
- lack of transparency
- lack of accessibility
The next step was to concretise and to DEFINE the problem statement:
Of course, the points listed have a different weighting for each individual. However, by asking more specific questions, I was able to find out that the offer of an app that provides a transparent overview of the entire public transport services and the pricing significantly increases the motivation to use public transport for almost all participants. At the time of the interview, none of the interviewees used the client’s app, but some used navigation apps that also provide information about the public transport network. Especially in this situation, the separation of planning a route and buying a ticket proved to be a problem. Integrating the payment process as the final step in the app seems the logical consequence here. This process should the best compromise between the desire for high flexibility, economy efficiency and accessibility.
At this point, it was time to IDEATE
During my interviews I really embraced taking notes by sketching.
So I put together some rough sketches with my ideas about how the payment implementation in citymappers should work. Keeping some statements from the interviews in mind, the implementation must above all allow fast and native operations. Security issues should be clarified in advance. Access to the valid ticket has to be instant.
my user research pointed out there are mainly three different payment methods:
- purchasing by credit card
- purchasing by third party payment provider as paypal
- purchasing by purse function
all three ended up in a digital ticket to which you have easy access via a QR code in your digital wallet.
In the following flowchart I tried to figure out what the most convenient way would be.
The in App purse seamed to be the best compromise, it combines fast and flexible usability and inclusivity, even minors can also use the app to buy tickets with this pre-paid feature. So I have chosen this feature to enter the next level and finally make a first PROTOTYPE.
To focus on the to-be-tested feature I started the first smartphone screen with travel option already chosen. I have also assumed that the user has already set up the app for his or her needs.
Conclusion:
I have learned so many new things in the last few days during the first challenge, but most of all that I am still at the very beginning of my project to become a UX/UI designer. Looking forward to dive deeper.
Thank you for taking the time to read my article.
