Design Thinking : Citymapper The Ultimate Transport APP
Ironhack’s Prework:[Shweta]_Challenge1
Case Study : Design thinking approach to solve transport issues in Paris while using Citymapper Application
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. If you live in the US or Western Europe or visited some main cities in these two regions, there are high chances that you have already used Citymapper.
It has already resolved one problem for its users which is urban mobility. It shows all the different modes of transport from walking, taking public transport to use of private transport.
But there is still one issue that it has not resolved for its users, and that is the purchase of multiple tickets while taking multiple types of transport
My goal here is to create a feature for this app that solves the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by different channels and for that I am going to use the Design thinking Approach
Design Thinking is an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding
1 Empathize
By answering these questions, I got a better point of view for the project.
I interviewed 5 different individuals who have used Paris transport for various different purposes. Some of them use it for daily commute to work, some are tourists and some use it occasionally. I asked them different questions related to the use of public transport in their own country or during international travel.
Questions:
- What mode of transport do you use?
- Do you use public transport?
- How many times in the week do you use public transport?
- How do you buy tickets?
- How do u decide how to go from AB when abroad?
- Tell me about the last time you took the public transport in a foreign country
- How was that experience
- What was the most difficult part of that
- Did you come up with some solution
2 Define
After 5 interviews, I got very different perspectives from every user. I discovered different pain points and issues that travelers would like to get resolved
- Most users hate it when they have to wait in line to buy tickets from the vending machines, it’s a time-consuming process. The total travel time increases if the user do not ticket before the start of his journey
- If users are taking a different type of transport they have to buy multiple tickets like RER, Metro, Bus
- Some users also said if they got carnet of tickets (that 10 tickets of the same type ) for one zone and they are traveling into another zone they need a separate ticket, which is very irritating
- As in Paris if you do not have a Navigo pass (transport card) then you have to carry physical tickets, which sometimes get lost or you always worry about losing your ticket
- For monthly pass users, if they forgot to recharge the pass at the end of the month then they have to wait in a huge line at 1st date of the month, due to which they are often late for their work
- As a tourist, if you have not done your research beforehand, then users are tired of downloading different types of applications and
- Some users often think it’s better to ask someone if the ticket that they are buying is correct or not. Maybe there is some cheaper option or day pass available.
- Another problem with the use of a physical ticket, one user said is that if the first machine where you validate the start of your journey is not working properly then it can not provide a proper timestamp then you have a problem validating the ticket at the end of your journey
To summarize my interviews and user pain points, I got below two main points
- Use of vending machines and physical ticket
- Increase in the travel time when using multiple means of transport due change of ticket in every transport
3 Ideate
In this part, I did a brainstorm of each activity that users have to do for going from one location to another. I tried to find out answers to their problems by using the pain points that I found out during the interview
I found out below possible solutions :
#Idea 1: In-app purchase of tickets
Here, Citymapper will provide options to directly buy and store the tickets
And tickets can be directly validated at the start of the journey. For this NFC technology will be used, provided all the Paris bus and metro stations are equipped with NFC technology
#Idea 2: Scan QR code
Here, all the buses, metros and RER will have their own QR code and you can scan and pay directly from APP
#Idea 3: Citymapper integration with other applications
Here, city mapper is integrated with other applications where users can directly purchase tickets
And the chosen idea is
4 Prototype
In-app purchase of tickets
Here, I tried to draw the additional screens in the Citymapper app, which will let the user buy all the types of tickets that are currently available in Paris metro/RER stations
Check Out my Quick prototype
- The user enters the Start and endpoint of his journey
- Citymapper suggests various ways to get to the destination
- There are two separate options to buy tickets
At first, he can buy his whole journey in one go
Or if he is not sure he can buy a step by step tickets
- If he decides to buy separate tickets, he can check other available options
This idea resolves the below issues for users:
- It prevents waiting time near the vending machines
- It eliminates the use of physical tickets
- Users can easily keep track of his tickets and money spent
- It creates a seamless experience for the user while taking transport
Of Course, this idea highly depends upon RATPS efficiency to provide NFC technology in the whole ile-de-france area
Testing :
As this is a study project, I did not get the opportunity to properly test my idea. But as this assignment is for Ironhack Bootcamp, I am very eager to see the solution provided by other students
Learnings:
This exercise was really interesting as it taught me, it is important to listen what each participant has to say in interview and not reach to conclusion directly.
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