UX Design Challenge #1: UrbanGo

The Company

UrbanGo is a public transit and mapping startup based in Silicon Valley. Their goal is to solve the problems of urban mobility by offering the quickest and cheapest public and private transport routes to their users.

UrbanGo already developed a mobile application for its users. In this mobile app, the users select a starting point and a destination, and the app provides different multimodal routes with the estimated time and the cost of them.

The Task

Create a feature for this app that solves the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by different channels. International usability would be desirable.

Introspect

Our app shares many features with Google Maps and NL apps such as 9292, which help find the ideal route using public transport. However, other apps do not support in ticket purchases and this is the area we will be targeting:

How to simplify the ticket purchase for the journey- completing the process of search, selection, customisation and purchase of tickets from various portals and vendors, directly from our app.

1. Audience

Regular users of public transport

Tourists/travellers

Students

Business travellers

2. Competition

1. Google Maps

The doyenne of transit maps, uses GPS to show various transport methods available for searched route, including driving, public transport, biking, taxi and walking.

1. Transit/Moovit/Citymapper

These are transit focused apps, which allow users to search transport routes, create transit routes and follow public transport in real time. Some of them also allow Uber/Lyft links or bike sharing options.

3. Ride hailing apps Uber/Lyft/Cabify, etc

Apps like these have significantly reduced the pain points of using taxi services, decreasing costs and search/wait times and increasing reliability and ease of payment.

4. Local transit apps

Most cities have now launched local transit apps, which allow users to search transit routes, nearest station, buy tickets, add on fares and follow transit options in real time. However, download and registration is required for them individually and language restrictions apply.

The Interviews

I made a list of questions I want to ask users, to gauge how they chose their travel methods, what are the issues they faced and what changes would they like to see.

1. Where and how often do you travel?
2. Why do you mostly travel- work, holiday, events, hobby?
3. How many travellers- alone, couple, group, family?
4. How do you travel in a new city- planned destinations, exploration, point A2B repeat?
5. How do you decide what mode to use- convenience, speed, cost, ease of use?
6. Who do you rely on for information- google, blogs, physical maps, local guide, phone apps?
7. What method(s) do you use for buying tickets- phone, vending machines, multiday pass, on board tickets?
8. What issues did you face? What annoyed you the most?
9. What would you like to change/include?

The Major Pain points

1. Journey costs- even when a single card is used across multiple modes of transport, the final journey costs are not known in advance.
2. Purchasing tickets/recharging- how to purchase tickets/recharge card when options not available- machine breakdown, wallet forgotten at home, no cash available, keeping charge of change, sometimes in unfamiliar currency.
3. Acclimatisation issues in new city- language, various vendors, uncertainty regarding time needed, distances covered, routes possible, delays, safety issues, last-in-day options available, etc.
4. How to pay and track for multiple travellers- students, families, business groups.
5. Would like options to customise route for unique situations- wheelchair/stroller friendly, overloading, pet friendly, luggage racks available.

Idea Generation

1. Multi-day card for all transit options for travellers/tourists
2. Linkages to buy tickets for each mode of transport from in app
3. Virtual card in app for purchasing tickets through various modes- online, enroute, vending machines
4. Ticketless travel; insurance subscription from UrbanGo to pay fine if caught.
5. Purchase and print tickets directly from app for any transit option.

Focus Area

For our feature, we decided to focus on creating a one-stop spot for users to research, customise and purchase tickets, using their account credit. They will then be able to use the tickets stored in the app for the journey.

Tone of app

Traveling should be a quick, painless, businesslike option, with intuitive gestures and easily found customisation options.

Prototyping

Prototype for Add-on to book tickets on UrbanGo app

Learnings

1. Resist the urge to add endless options to each page.
2. It’s much easier to draw out the process with paper and pen, breaking it into individual steps.
3. Prototyping is a really quick way to draw the path a user will follow in reality, while not spending too much time on the result.
4. It is impossible (for me, at all events) to draw decent graphics without a bulleted journal.