Ironhack, challenge n°1 : buying public transport tickets through UrbanGo
In order to understand and apply Design Thinking, I got an assignment from Ironhack to help UrbanGo develop a new feature for their mobile application. Their purpose is to help people moving within big cities like Paris. They provide the best alternatives, itineraries (by foot, subway, bus, etc.) and their prices. But what they don’t indicate yet, is how to buy tickets for each destination and each public transport. For now, the process of buying tickets can be difficult and inconvenient. But what if UrbanGo could implement a solution to make this process actually enjoyable for their users ? That’s the solution I tried to find for them.
- Emphasize
First, I established that my target was a rather young audience, between 20 and 40 years old. I considered people who are used to travel, because this is when they will be more likely to use a transport application : in a place they don’t know, even more if they don’t speak the langage. They are used to public transportation and to mobile applications. I tried to understand their habits, when they were more likely to use transport applications and how they bought their transport tickets. I left the conversation opened and tried to understand too what were the problems they sometimes encounter in their experience. The interviews confirmed me some ideas I already had when I did personal introspection at the beginning but also led to new ideas.
2. Define
None of the people I interviewed are buying their tickets online on this kind of app for short trips within a city, whereas they traveled a lot. Most of them actually lived in other countries, in Europe, Asia and South America but they buy directly on ticket offices or in the buses for example.
They don’t do it online because it feels safer for some of them to ask directly to someone who has all the information. But doing so doesn’t mean that they don’t face difficulties : it can be a loss of time if there are many people waiting in the office. Paper tickets can also be a problem because it is easy to lose.
In some countries they were able to check directly online but it was difficult to do so because there is no english or french language. Applications clearly lacked of clarity, there were too many options and not centralized: you have to do a lot of researches directly on internet to understand which ticket you have to take. Also in some countries they don’t feel comfortable to show their phone in public.
The main problem we are facing is that people in France are used to going directly to machines or ticket offices to buy their transport tickets, and they never do it on an application and it is for a short journey. It is not at all part of their habits.
3. Ideate
I made a list of key points the new feature/application will have to respect in order to be as efficient as possible and to be quickly adopted by the users, to change their habits:
Simple. I think this is the most important part. As one of the problems encountered is the complexity of the different transports abroad, this new feature should solve this lack of clarity.
Time saving. Talking directly to someone at a ticket office can be useful, but most of the time our user won’t be the only one having this idea. Sometimes queues can be long, it can be annoying, UrbanGo application should solve this issue by providind a quick way to buy tickets and to find it. Moreover, paper tickets are easy to lose, whereas not a QR Code on your phone.
Safe. In some countries, it is quite dangerous to take out your wallet from your bag to pay for a ticket, knowing that the transaction can last few minutes. In our situation, the user will just have to grab quickly his phone, open the QR Code and thats it. Moreover, from a health point of view, few people also highlighted the fact that it is better to avoid manipulating paper due to the Coronavirus.
Environmentally friendly. Using QR Codes will avoid using so much paper with the tickets, it is an important argument that will make people adopt our system.
4. Prototype
Here we can see the journey the user will take if he wants to buy additional tickets when he goes somewhere. He can access directly to his tickets from the home page but has chosen to add more tickets on his way to somewhere.
I asked myself if I should put the “buy a ticket” feature on the main page to show users that they can directly access to this, before they even think about it, or if I should add it only once they have figured out which path they want to take. Finally, I think it’s best if they can see directly on their profile or on the main page which tickets they have left, and also check it once they buy one. Users should be able to have access to an explanation about each type of ticket, to be sure that they are buying the right one. The QR Code would be the simplest way to have access to the tickets, if all infrastructures are well equiped. That way, no more paper tickets!
5. Feedback
This challenge made me realize how interviews are key to the process to really understand our users and to discover problems we did not think about. But it is hard sometimes to lead the conversation in the way we want, to have the information we want. That is why a well prepared interview guide is very important. I think this is a high time consuming step too, and we need to organize properly our planning for this type of project.
Moreover, I think that this kind of application is one of the hardest to deal with, given the number of transport facilities and the high number of information the user has to comprehend. It was difficult for me to imagine a simple way to access to the tickets. I understand now why Ironhack called it a Challenge!
