Design Thinking Exercise | Ironhack

Before starting my UX UI course at Ironhack, in Berlin, my first challenge was to create a feature for Cittymapper that solves the pain of purchasing different amounts of public transport tickets through distinct channels. It was required to undergo a design thinking process, including its typical steps.

What is Citymapper App:

Citymapper is an urban mobility app and mapping service that displays transport options, usually with live timing, between two locations in a supported city. It integrates data for all urban modes of transport, including walking, cycling, driving, and public transportation.

To create a valuable solution, I started interviewing five people who use public transport every day and abroad. I begin by trying to understand who I was designing for, their needs, how they think and behave.

To begin, I asked myself the following questions:

What problems am I solving?

1. The different amount of public transport tickets the users have to purchase.
2. The process of buying these tickets can be very annoying (queues, vending machines that don’t work, etc.).
3. paper plastic use
4. Purchasing different amounts of public transport tickets through distinct channels.

Who is your audience?

People who use public transport and apps to find the best journey when commuting and the best public transport ticket options when they are abroad.

Who is your client’s competition?

1. Google maps
2. Different public transport apps from public transport companies in other cities in Europe.

I wanted to understand how they figure out their best routes and purchase public transport tickets when commuting every day and abroad as well as the problems they might have in this process. The Interview goals are to determine the main pain points and what users are having the most trouble with.

I prepare my interview questions, remembering that they should be open-ended. I was focusing on starting conversations about commuting every day and abroad. I had five pleasant opportunities to listen how people use public transports and urban mobilities apps.

The main problems I found when interviewing users:

The people I interviewed expressed to me that they often use google maps, even in their city (Berlin) or when doing regular routes. They also use a specific app to purchase tickets, The BVG- Apps.

Some people I talk, are from or often go to other European cities. They explained they use public transport apps abroad to purchase tickets. They do some research and already have some background information about how it might work.

Pain points I found in my interviews :

• They are buying the wrong tickets when they go to a city for the first time or getting used to a new city.
• Separate tickets and public transport tariffs in different countries and cities.
• Different information can be found on the internet.
• Cittymapper and google maps don’t show the price of the tickets, the other apps in the competition, the BVG- Apps, for routes and tickets purchase, are offering this possibility.
• Misinformation about Public transport apps and online tickets use instructions. My interviewees described being in doubt about if they could buy more than one passage in the BVG App for other people; and if they could validate some tickets later or not.
• In Berlin, the BVG app is the only one that offers the service to purchase tickets. Users say they are afraid of being controlled and having data problems. When purchasing in this app, they do print screens of their tickets in case of being checked by controllers.
• There are specific situations in every city. In Berlin, the public transport tariff system divides into three zones: Zone A, B, and C. Different prices apply to each one. You can also choose from multiple ticket options like tickets with specific discounts, bikes, weeks, weekends, etc. That makes it hard to find the right choice, especially if the user doesn’t live in Berlin and uses its public transport service.
• The BVG App does not offer the option to validate some tickets whenever you want; some people mentioned that because of that, they would often buy paper tickets to validate whenever they wish.

I wrote my findings and defined a problem statement, focusing on the user’s viewpoint and what they need. This way I was able to detect the main problems that I wanted to solve:

Construct a feature inside Cittymapper, providing the users with a practical overview of ticket choices, tariffs, and information about using the ticket; The possibility to validate whenever they wish, and save the tickets in a digital wallet or/and download it. Because they want to understand the public transport tariffs of the cities they go, look for the best journey and ticket purchase possibilities, and be sure they will have something saved in their phone in case of being controlled and data connection problems. Users want to feel confident, informed and have less stress as possible while purchasing tickets.

To solve these problems, I used brainstorming techniques to generate many ideas. I wrote my findings down on post-its and started thinking about how I would solve that and the best solution.

The user needs to be able to purchase the ticket directly on the application. When deciding to buy a ticket from the landing page, the feature offers an overview of ticket options, describing which situation is advantageous to buy it. When researching for the best journey, the user will have together with the public transport options, tariffs, price information, and the possibility of purchasing it. Then, when the purchase process finishes, they can see the instructions on how to use the ticket in each city that they may select and the option to download and validate their ticket whenever they wish.

I did a few hand-sketched screens to understand the solutions I was about to design, keeping user needs and functionalities in mind. I thought my design, considering that users would already have their information stored in the application, they will neither need to login nor enter any data when paying/checking-out.

Final Sketch Prototypes:

Implementing the Designing Thinking process is about listening to the audience and being empathetic to their pain points. The process allows creative techniques that work back and forth between iterating ideas, redefining the problem, and refining solutions until we are satisfied with the outcome, trying to provide an adequate and user-friendly solution.