This article is an exercise designed for students of IronHack Bootcamp UX/UI to learn how to solve a problem through the Design Thinking process.
The Client
Based in Silicon Valley, UrbanGO is a popular public transit and mapping startup. Their main goal is to solve the problems of urban mobility by offering the quickest and cheapest public and private transport routes to their users.
The app already provides a mobile application where all users select where they can start until their final destination. Based on that information, UrbanGO will give the users different routes with the estimated time and cost of all of them.
So far, the overall experience is very smooth and easy, but the app lacks one super important feature on the entire process: the difficulty faced by users when they have to purchase diverse public transport tickets by different channels.
The challenge here is to redesign UrbanGO in order to solve this very considerable common problem of buying and handling a number of various tickets for a multi-staged trip.
1 — Empathize
To get a better understanding of costumers’ preferences in the context of urban mobility and the most common means to get around, I formulated a few questions for my five candidates to help me find out how they can have a better user experience.
1 — How often do you use public transport and where do you buy your tickets?
2 — When abroad, is public transport you main way to move around?
3 — What is the easiest way for you to pay for your tickets?
4 — How many tickets do you usually have to buy when commuting whether traveling or on holidays?
5 — Which type of ticket do you prefer? Digital or paper?
2 — Define
After obtaining all the answers and analyzing them, the main concern for most of my interviewees wasn’t the app usability. Even though the whole interface was clear to use, the problem was not completely solved: to make the process of buying different amount of tickets faster and easier in order to save time. The tickets issue was still a headache for the best part of them. As a big competitor to UrbanGo, Google Maps was mentioned several times but still with both apps, they haven’t had a problem going around the city.
Prototype
My intention to simplify the whole process was very straightforward. The different amounts/types of tickets were converted into one QR Code which can be used throughout different machines around the cities. A paper ticket is an option as well since many people like to keep small souvenirs of their trips such as metro cards or theater entrances. On the very first page of the app you have the option to choose whether you are using it on a daily bases or when you are abroad. After specifying which type of trip you are taking, the app automatically gives you the quickest options based on each city’s availability of public transportation. Taking for granted the fact that the credit card is already registered on the app, the payment is smoothly credited to your account. For those who did not have a credit card, there is an option to pay with cash at the counters. The QR Code is generated and can also be used for discounts on cultural events in different cities.
Conclusion
What I learned from this exercise is that design thinking is all about “thinking outside the box”. It is also about creating solutions, finding alternative strategies and redefining problems that can be solved to help both business and personal improvements. Those results help us to improve our way to invent better problem-solving methods.
