Ironhack’s Prework: Lucie_Dewaleyne_Challenge1.

Introduction :

This is my first post on medium and my first challenge in the UX UI world !

In this article we are going to use “Citymapper” as a reference in order to complete the challenge. Citymapper is a transport app that provides you withthe best and easiest way to go from one place to another in a big city. The app works in various cities and the developer’s goal is to expand Citymapper to all cities in the world. As public transport is the most used mobility’s type, Citymapper is one of the best ways to solve issues like congestion and to gain time. However using public transport implies to buy tickets in vending machines or at a dedicated shop. The necessity to buy a ticket appears to be a problem for many users of public transport.

Definition of the problem:

After conducting some interviews, I found out that the main problem seems less the fact that a ticket is required than the process of buying it. First of all, the different interviews related that finding where to buy a ticket is not as easy as it seems: you need to find a vending machine or a shop that can deliver your ticket. Frequently, people get lost when searching for a vending machine. Or even worse: when they have found one, it might be that the machine is out of service, which means you need to find another one and lose time again… Even though the vending machine or the shop is open you need to decide which ticket you need to buy in order to achieve your trip. It’s becoming a big deal going from one place to another with public transport! Users told me that there is no clear information about which ticket to choose, and it’s annoying. You risk buying the wrong ticket and therefore lose money, time and maybe lose the good mood you where in... Moreover, the tickets are in plastic or in paper format, and the majority of the users I interviewed told me that they often lose their ticket, and that it pollutes the planet. And it is logical : when you lose your ticket you need to buy another one or to pay the penalty = loss of money (again), loss of time and total loss of your good mood. To finish, a little amount of interviewers told me that when they are using an app to know where to go such as Citymapper, they found boring that if your connection stops you can’t have access to your trip anymore.

The challenge is to find a solution in order to make the ticket’s purchase process practical, fast and pleasant for the users.

Solution ?

After a long brainstorming I found different solutions :

• The user could buy his ticket in advance on the website of the public transport company
• An app such as Citymapper could include the possibilitiy of buying tickets directly from the app (this implies a previous agreement between Citymapper and the public transport company)

The second solution seems to me the more interesting one, and I drew a little sketch in order to clarify the challenge (as advised):

My solution is an agreement between Citymapper and the public transport company that autorises Citymapper to sell tickets directly in their app. If you can buy your ticket directly from Citymapper, then the app can tell you which way is the less expensive and the fastest, and it also tells you which type of ticket you need to buy to accomplish the trip. In addition to that, there will be no more loss of ticket because it will be directly on your phone; this also means less polution from plastics or paper. Moreover the app will have to add a function that allows the user to download his trip, so he can have access to his ticket and to his trip off line.

It is important to note that in my solution, users already have all their information on the app, they will neither need to login nor enter any data when paying/checking-out.

Prototype:

During this process I learned that interviews are very important because you cannot think of all problems and details by yourself : every user has his own experience with an application or a situation. I knew it by reading the Ironhack lesson, but experiencing it makes it evenmore real and concrete ! Ant it is very exciting to be in a concret situation..! I also found very interesting to do a prototype (this is my first one !) because you need to think where to put the button and the function so it can be the most intuitive, and you realize that in a single page of an app that you are using everyday, there are a lot of functions/ information that you don’t really notice/use but they are all in the same page !