IRONHACK Challenge 1 Design Thinking [Citymapper]

As a beginner in UX/UI Design training, Ironhack asked me to do my first challenge “Create a feature for this app that solves the pain of having to purchase difficult public transport tickets by different channels” using Design thinking. I will apply this issue on Citymapper.

An urban travel mobile application providing information in real time about the traffic in the subway, bus, train and on the road. In France this app is used by parisian people especially. It is adapted to every kind of services, cars, public transport, bike. When you search for a destination from point A to point B, the application will suggest various means of travels (suggested travel, alternatives, easy to access, from cheap to pricey).

Who ?

I decided to interview several young people using Citymapper, 4 are living in Paris and 3 in the south of France (but have already travelled several times to Paris). All of these people are in phase with technology and constantly connected to their phone and agree on the fact that when they are in Paris, the app is the easiest to use and most on point on schedules and routes. During strikes in December or the quarantine in March, and many other daily incidents, it allowed them to not waste any time!

But… buying a ticket can be a perilous exercise! Obligation to go in a station to buy it and print it, difficulties to understand the vending machine (especially for visitors coming from outside of Paris, tickets machines are different in each city). We live in a world full of a permanent technological evolution and yet it’s not possible to get a ticket through a phone. Scandalous for the Z generation, I think…

Problem ⚠️

The main problem for people in Paris is the need to get to a station to buy a ticket (lazy people you will say… maybe !) whereas for people who came just sometimes in the city, the major issue is to understand the machine and get the right ticket. Nowadays, thanks to apps coming from the Apple store or Google Play, we can move (Uber), eat (Uber eat), plan meeting (Treatwell), buy online (Amazon), refund our friends (Lydia), all of that using our phone as the only tool of transaction. I will focus on the last application Lydia to find a solution for these people!

Solution process on the app 👍

I imagined on citymapper a new specific section used to buy virtual tickets. Merging this travel app with Lydia could be a solution of our problems. Lydia is an application which allows users to enter their credit card data once and then use it to pay online or transfer money to other users. There are many prominent app allowing their user to pay online, Lydia is one of the most well known, and the one I will use here, surely the same logic can be used with others. Example of an user path for this new section of the app:

1. Enter your destination
2. Select the mean of travel
3. Click on top right on the logo “buy a ticket”
4. Select the number of tickets for the number of people travelling
5. Select the button “For you” -> see below to understand this step
6. Several ways of payment will be offered to the user: direct payment by entering your credit card, use your Lydia account to pay or enter your ID travel annual card (no payment needed). With this option of Lydia, no need to enter anything, Citymapper will use the bank account data you have previously filled in the Lydia app.
7. Your ticket will then be displayed with a QR code attached and summary of your travel by text on your phone.
8. Another section would be added on the application to observe the list of your previously purchased tickets and those still valid. See picture number 4 (click on the button “RESUME” to get access to your purchase listing).

But I was still not satisfied for the interviewed people visiting Paris area. All interviewees told me that they often ask their friends for help when they are travelling to a city they don’t know well. Our buddies are often here to save us! And how many times have they asked you “which lines I should take ?” “Can you send me the name of your station?” “Dude I am lost in your city!” 😁

Let’s imagine a more advanced mutual aid!

It would be possible to share free ticket to your friend, you would only need to update Citymapper and know the phone number of your friend. People offering ticket could be both people having annual subscription on urban transport and people who haven’t.

1. Enter your destination
2. Select the travel
3. Click on the right on the logo “buy a ticket”
4. Select the number of tickets of your choice
5. Instead of selecting “for you” you select “to share”
6. Type the phone number of your friend
7. Payments options will be the same as proposed above
8. Your friend receives his ticket with QR code and summary of his travel through text on his phone

Learnings

Using prototype to find solution is a new thing for me. With Design thinking, we can go deeper in our mind, visualize the solution. It makes it easier for me to notice my mistakes, missing information, etc. Getting out of your comfort zone is always interesting! It reminds me of puzzle video games, I have often played in the past, in which you have to search for several ways to find the key and sometimes to use various ways of thinking.

Prototyping is a challenge but also a pleasure because I love to draw and I like to focus on every little bits of details to make my drawing the finest. This time I simply focused more on the problem/solution rather than the pencil stroke.

This is only one part of the lesson and I’m looking forward to learning more!

Feel free to comment, give me your opinion! Thank you for your attention!