Ironhack’s Prework - Andy Challenge 1: Citymapper
Citymapper is a transport app specializing in public transport and urban mobility. The application integrates data for all urban modes of transport, including walking, cycling or taxis, in addition to public transport. Available in more than 100 cities, Citymapper helps millions of users plan their trips and arrive on time while avoiding traffic disruptions.
In this Ironhack challenge, we are asked to create a new feature for the application. In order to carry out this project, we will follow the phases of the design thinking framework: empathize, define, ideate, and prototype.
What is the problem?
Citymapper is an application used by millions of people, including me. However, every user is different, and in order to better understand how they use the app, what they like, and what difficulties they face, I conducted interviews for the empathize phase.
The interviews were conducted either by phone or video conference with Citymapper or Google Maps users, using a semi-structured interview guide.
Following the interviews, I found that the application is very appreciated, mainly because it provides accurate travel times and proposes the best itineraries according to users’ needs. However, the navigation when the users walk is not often used and was identified as an area that could be improved.
None of the interviewees mentioned difficulties when it comes to purchasing transport tickets, and when I insisted on this part of their journey, it was not identified as a big issue, even when traveling abroad.
It is because nowadays, in many cities it is possible to use public transport without a physical ticket, simply by using a credit card or a transport card that works across different modes of transportation, with either limited travel or unlimited travel for a few days.
Defining the problem
For this challenge, I was asked to imagine a feature in Citymapper to solve the pain of having to purchase different public transport tickets by different channels.
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The objective is to facilitate the process of purchasing a ticket by avoiding queues, broken machines, or confusion when choosing ticket option in unknown cities. This feature will offer the users a more complete experience when using Citymapper in their journey.
What is the solution ?
Ideation
solve this problem, I considered several ideas, such as:
- Integrating a Citymapper card within the app that could be credited and used on contactless terminals for metros, buses ect.
- Improving the interface to provide a clear information about which ticket to buy and avoid confusion.
- A Citymapper subscription that would include access to all transportation modes directly within the app
- Adding the possibility to purchase transport tickets for all available transportation modes directly in the application
I chose to develop this last idea: an interface that allows users to pay for transport tickets directly within the app.
The application would offer the right ticket at the same price as vending machines. Users would be able to purchase tickets for each stage of their journey, either in advance while planning their trip or in real time during their journey. They would then use their phone on contactless terminals to validate their travel.
This idea in mind I have realized some sketched prototype showing how this will work within the application.
This prototypes focus exclusively on the step by step navigation interface, however, we can imagine that the tickets can be available directly from the home page.
With this challenge, I have realized that something that can seem simple such as using public transportation and a navigation app is a process that can be improved using UX Design and the design thinking framework.
