Skip the queues with this new app feature
When traveling abroad, were you puzzled by using public transport? Did you ever have to ask people around you how and where to buy tickets to get on the next train? With the new app feature that I created for Citymapper, buying tickets abroad won’t be a hassle anymore.
Citymapper is a public transit and mapping app. Their goal is to solve the problems of urban mobility by offering the quickest and cheapest public and private transport routes to their users.
There is one pain point for many users: the different amount of public transport tickets the users have to purchase.
Using the Design Thinking methodology, I helped Citymapper in creating a new app feature to solve their problem.
I interviewed 5 travellers who use public transportation abroad. I asked them about their travel experiences in different countries. Where have they been? How did they get from a to b? How did they buy their tickets? What was the system and technology like? Was there an app involved in the proces?
Quote: “The most challenging part was that I didn’t know where and how to buy tickets and for a transit from train to metro I had to buy another ticket”
— traveller in Germany
Based on the conducted interviews, I see a few patterns in the experience and emotions of the travellers. Their feelings about the public transport experience abroad are connected to the following:
- in which stage or touchpoint of the journey they are, for example: searching for destination, searching for vendor, buying a ticket, validating ticket, showing ticket in transit, checking-out.
- the country that they are in. Coming down to how well developed and digitised the country is in terms of public transportation and its payment system. For example:
In some countries, like Spain, for most transports it’s difficult or impossible to buy your ticket online, or to buy 1 ticket that is accepted by all forms of transport. In other countries like the UK, it’s possible to pay for your trip instantly with a credit card or online, for all types of transport. Other cities, like Barcelona, have day passes available for different modes of transport like metro and bus.
Defined point of view
I can conclude that Citymapper users are frustrated with having to buy different tickets at different vendors for the same trip.
The users of Citymapper need to visit the least vendors as possible when they are travelling, otherwise they get frustrated and they lose time.
Ideas
Based on the defined problem, I did a brainstorm session to come up with as many ideas as possible:
- Change interface per country and add payment option in countries that allow it
- Create an icon on journeys where it’s possible to pay with credit card, and pay within app
- RFID reader connected to wallet in-app
- Make a prepaid option in the app, create a citymapper pass
- Filter out rides without credit card payment option
- Blockchain technology to pay your public transport with a cryptocurrency token
Narrowing down to 1 feature that can be quickly implemented and is user-friendly:
1. Make it possible to see if on your trip credit-card payment is available, and if so:
2. Payment in-app will be available for that trip.
In the filtered and paid journeys you avoid buying tickets at vendors, you can instantly pay with your ApplePay and Gpay connected to your bank in the app and screen your ticket with your phone.
Analysing the app
Citymapper has filter options, they call them “Routing Powers”. Below you see a screenshot of those routing powers.
You can filter if you only want to go by bus or by train or step-free journeys.
They also have paid filters that for example can give you the routes with the least transfers, see the icons with the crown.
The Routing Powers are available when you swipe down after entering destination, or in the footer.
Prototyping the new feature
Using rapid prototyping and sketching techniques, see below a first draft of how the new feature can be added to the Citymapper app.
- Start screen with all suggested journeys: I added “card” in the filter screen in both the footer icons and the routing powers list.
- Filter screen: Clicking on “card” brings you to a “card” filtered screen (just like there are existing bus and train filter screens)
- Suggested routes screen after filtering “card”: from there the app will show you all journeys available with credit card payment.
- Selected journey map, Pay&Go screen: the user has selected a journey, the app will show the user a Pay&Go option (instead of the only “Go” option that already exists).
The payment is done, the journey can start without any queues!
To work on a multinational app is challenging as you have to keep in mind different regulations, laws, languages, infrastructure and digital payment and advancement.
Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun adapting the Design Thinking proces in creation of a new app feature. I learnt how to observe who the users are and what they experience, and to translate many ideas into 1 prototype.
