Citymapper, is it the new way to simplify access to public transport ?
Today, I joined Ironhack as a UX-UI Design student. I will share with you my approach to Design Thinking on a problem related to public transport.
What is the citymapper application ?
Citymapper is an essential application to easily find your itinerary. This application offers several transport possibilities to meet the user’s expectations. It is very easy to navigate on citymapper to reach your destination. But this could be improved since it has some limits…
Currently, it is easy to find your route thanks to this type of application but it does not facilitate the purchase of transport tickets. Every countries and cities have its own transportation system.
How to navigate when you want to buy travel tickets ?
1. Establish a context
It was very important for me to establish a context by asking myself about important questions. This methodology allows me to practice empathy and to find the best solution.
After this step, it was important to obtain opinions from different users using transport. This technique allows to know their own experiences and to identify the constraints when the people want to buy tickets for public transports. Several questions were obvious to me like : “When you arrive in a new country, do you use public transport? If so, which kind of public transport do you use (bus, metro, bike…) ?”, “When arriving in a new country, what kind of payment do you like to use to pay for transport?”, “What type of activity do you take transport for?”, “Have you ever had problems with your transport tickets ?”, “How long do you take to get your tickets?”, “Do you use UrbanGo or Citymapper or others application to take the transport ?”…
These questions help me to identify problems that users may have such as: “It’s always difficult for me to adapt myself to the new journey for buying tickets. For example, finding a tickets distributor, buying the right ticket and also validating this ticket. Sometimes I lose a lot of time just to understand how it works !”, “Different applications, distributors and validators with their interfaces make you lose a lot of time”, “I think it could be nice, that way you don’t have to use the tickets machines, especially because those can be confusing sometimes for travelers in foreign countries. For example in Austria there was only German option as language on the vending machines.”, “Buy the ticket on an app would be very nice, but watch out your phone battery.” …
Quickly creating scenarios of the constraints that travelers may have allowed me to better visualize problems and respond to them in a more efficient way afterwards.
It is not always easy to wonder the right questions and find the right order. Sometimes, we realize that we have missing information or that we do not specify the questions sufficiently. It is a complicated exercise.
2. Establish a problem
Thanks to the various information I had, I found the main problem that I had to answer strategically.
How to facilitate accessibility to transport tickets ?
3. Ideation
Time for brainstorming. I decided to write down all my ideas on paper. There are no bad ideas but you have to learn how to question them correctly. What are the positives ones? What is not working?
I found four main concepts came out of this brainstorming:
- An universal travel pass connected to the Citymapper app. This pass would allow adaptation to all countries. All our trips booked on the app would be transmitted directly to the map. No need to have battery on the phone.
- Book your trips directly on the app and validate with a QR code/NFC in different stations.
- Recharge your account on the app with the number of trips and validate on the app.
- Recharge trips tickets on your application, scan and print directly at the terminals.
4. Prototype
For me, the best solution is to create a universal pass that connects to the app. To test this solution, I decided to visualize the different functionalities to develop thanks to a first quickly prototype. This methodology allowed me to find the steps to develop for the rest of the project and to better understand where the problems are to be solved.
When you create your account, you enter your bank details and you have the possibility to order this card which works in most countries. Depending on your geolocation, we will not offer the same ticket operation, but you just have to choose the good itinerary that suits you with the price in your language. Your trip reservation will automatically be added to your universal pass. Citymapper would have a partnership with public transport establishments in several countries. Another advantage is that you don’t need to have your cell phone on you while taking the metro, for example, which we know is known to be a spot for stealers.
To conclude, adding this feature to the Citymapper application would make it easier to navigate in a language that you understand, save time buying tickets, choose the best itinerary at the right price without any error and adapted depending on the country.
5. Conclusion
This exercise allowed me to practice empathy through a methodology closer to users. It enables them to better figure out their expectations and answer to them with solutions that may be more innovative. You should not only rely on your own opinions to make a good project, but also interact with the people concerned to enrich your knowledge and bring added value. We have to wonder about the concepts we have fund and test your chosen concept, to improve the project and develop it better. It is important not to hesitate to question certain steps and show it to its users to developp your idea.
So now, what’s the next step ? I am ready to learn more !
