Design Thinking Challenge: A Public Transit Case Study
Context
UrbanGo is a public transit and mapping startup based in Silicon Valley. Their mission is to solve the problems of urban mobility by offering the quickest and cheapest public and private transport routes to their users. In this mobile app, the users select a starting point and a destination, and the app provides different multimodal routes with the estimated time and the cost of them.
However, there is one key feature missing: there needs to be a way to solve the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by different channels.
The problem
There is one pain point for many users: the different amount of public transport tickets the users have to purchase.
Although the current product of UrbanGo already solves some of the main problems of the urban mobility, there is one pain point for many users: the different amount of public transport tickets the users have to purchase.
Public transport tickets come in paper or plastic cards. Very often buying different public transport tickets is necessary to go from point A to B. And the process of buying these tickets can be very annoying (queues, vending machines that don’t work, etc.).
Finally, things like pricing or purchasing the correct ticket can become a real pain when you are abroad.
The Project
This case study is broken down to 4 out of 5 steps of the Design Thinking process: Empathize, Define, Ideate, and Prototype. The last step, Test, was not done for this case study.
Empathize
Who are our users, competitors, and what exactly do we want to figure out.
Objective: Find the main pain-points of public transportation when purchasing and using tickets.
Audience: Anyone who takes public transportation locally and abroad.
Direct Competitors — competitors that offer the same product/services:
- Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and route planning for traveling by foot, car, air (in beta) and public transportation. In 2020, Google Maps was being used by over 1 billion people every month around the world.
- CityMapper is a public transit app and mapping service which displays transport options, usually with live timing, between any two locations in a supported city. It integrates data for all urban modes of transport, including walking, cycling and driving, in addition to public transport.
Analogous Competitors — competitors that affect the experience of UrbanGo in the Silicon Valley:
- Caltrain: Typically used for long commutes on the peninsula, primarily between San Francisco and San Jose. There are bullet train and express options.
- BART: The BART rail system is useful for East Bay commuters.
- VTA Light Rail and Bus: The VTA Light Rail is primarily used in the South Bay.
- Muni Metro: the Muni Metro system is focused in San Francisco.
- Private shuttles: Company shuttles are also common to complement public transportation. Google has one of the largest private bus networks in the area.
Define
Narrowing down the problems with public transportation and tickets.
Findings
A total of 5 different users were interviewed for user research, all of whom are in their late twenties, regularly take public transportation, and are based in Paris. They are also frequent travellers who often need to learn to navigate new cities.
Affinity Map
Comments and remarks were arranged in an affinity map on Notion (shown below).
All the users being from Paris, the pain-points of having multiple tickets had already been removed; Paris has an all-in-one card system, Navigo, that is based on a monthly/annual subscription. This card can be used everywhere in the city and the Greater Paris region for mutliple modes of transport — the metro, bus, train and even bikes. Because of the pandemic, Paris has taken even greater measures to allow commuters to charge their cards in the comfort of their own home, with either a scanning device (that has to be purchased) or with your phone via NFC. You can even charge a defined number of e-tickets onto the card if you do not need a monthly or annual subscription. Navigo is a great example as to how a universal ticketing system can be implemented with UrbanGo.
This card can be used everywhere in the city and the Greater Paris region for mutliple modes of transport — the metro, bus, train and even bikes. Because of the pandemic, Paris has taken even greater measures to allow commuters to charge their cards in the comfort of their own home…
Three main pain-points emerged from the affinty map exploration:
- Not knowing where to purchase tickets and how to use them: The greatest problem for the users is not just purchasing tickets, but also know where and how to use these tickets when being in an unfamiliar city.
- The ticket machine/gate can bug: Physical tickets come with physical problems. Due to old ticket machines and gates, tickets can get stuck.
- Waiting is painful in a fast-paced city: When being on the go, waiting in line can be very bothersome and disruptive to one’s daily routine.
These three pain-points lead us to our problem statements:
- Users of public transportation need to find a way to purchase transportation tickets more efficiently because it is not always clear how/where to purchase tickets in an unfamiliar city.
- Users of public transportation need to find a way to purchase transportation tickets more efficiently because machines often do not work well, both to purchase the ticket itself and to feed the ticket at the gate.
- Users of public transportation need a way to purchase tickets more efficiently because waiting in line to purchase a ticket is also a loss of time when you are on the go.
Ideate
To generate some ideas, a brainstorm was done on Sketchboard:
Solutions were narrowed down to three different categories:
- The most rational — a transportation guide. First things first — with so many modes of transport in the Silicon Valley, how do you know which ticket is the right one to buy? How and where can you use the ticket? Information is scattered on the internet and asking at the information booth may not be the most convenient option. The app should come with a first-timer’s guide on how to navigate the area.
- The most likely to delight — the new card standard. Having a physical card that can be used in lieu of different types of tickets and be a great transition to having a more universal ticketing system. This card can hold different e-tickets that correspond to different transport systems in the Silicon Valley. Physical cards are used around the world and are already familiar to many people.
- The most unexpected — the e-card that does it all. With today’s technology, everything can be done digitally. Instead of relying on physical tickets, an e-card can be used. The e-card can be scanned at the gate with a QR code or by simply using the phone’s NFC. This card can be charged by purchasing e-tickets through the app.
The chosen solution
The chosen solution combines both the Rational choice and the Most likely to delight. The Rational choice can be easily implemented and added within the flow of a new account creation and card registration within UrbanGo.
The most unexpected solution, although possible, would not be as easily adopted by everyone. There are many variables to take into account such as the technological savviness of a user, phones having NFC or not, and simply the habits of everyday commuters. With physical tickets being the norm, the next step would be to have a physical card; an e-card may be biting off more than we can chew.
Some assumptions
In order for a physical card to be feasible, we will make the following assumptions:
- UrbanGo and the city government(s) have agreed upon a contactless smart card that is connected to the application.
- The transport systems, including those privately owned, have agreed to transition to e-tickets.
- The physical card can be scanned at the gate of each transportation line with installation of contactless smart card scanners.
Prototype
A LoFi preview of our solution.
The new feature
UrbanGo’s new main feature will be “Card registration and management”. Adding an online card management system to the application eliminates the issue of managing multiple physical tickets from different modes of transport, having to wait in line to buy tickets, and potentially encountering ticket machine bugs. The application can be connected to a contactless smart card that holds multiple e-tickets. The card and e-tickets can either purchased through the app or at a kiosk. By entering your card number, the application will update its lines and maps to the location in which the card is applicable to (in this case, the Silicon Valley). For users unfamiliar with transit systems, maps of each line and help guides are also provided in the application.
This feature would require different screens such as:
- new card registration
- guides on how to use your new card and navigate the area
- new card purchase
- e-ticket purchase
- e-ticket tracker
Card registration and management screens
Orange arrows indicate the user flow. Forms highlighted in orange are clickable.
Thoughts
This case study was done as the first challenge of Ironhack’s Pre-work. From this assignment, I learned several things:
Two heads are better than one. The more I worked on the assignment alone, the more I realized how much value there was to working on a project as a team. Having more than one perspective leads to bigger and better ideas, and it is extremely helpful to be able to bounce ideas around between team members and get feedback.
Do not break the flow. The best ideas came when I was in the state of flow; having distractions in my environment disrupted my thinking process and my progress. Setting up my environment with as little distractions as possible allowed me to finish my assignment successfully.
Your energy affects other people’s energies. My most successful user interviews were a result of me being natural and being okay with not being perfect. Although we want to be professional when conducting interviews, being “over-professional” can lead to the users feeling uncomfortable and therefore less willing to share their insights. If you feel at ease, the interviewees will also feel more at ease.
Do you remember doing your first UX case study? What did you learn?
