Pain in the App
When googling ‘travel is’ suggests all sorts of things — from ‘my passion’ to ‘the antidote to ignorance’. I would say ‘traveling is an emotion that works alongside with happiness.’
I think we can all agree on how valuable traveling is. It gives us perspective. It makes us better human beings. By leaving the so called ‘comfort zone’ one is forced to understand and, sometimes, engage into complete different ways of living.
The truth is: it can be tricky.
Have you ever caught yourself in the middle of a non-familiar city having no idea of how to navigate it? The hotel is located in point A, the museum in point B and the restaurants in point C. You are on a budget and you have to rely on public transportation. That’s when you wish to go back to point ‘comfort zone’. You feel lost, in need of help.
This is where Citymapper comes handy.
Citymapper is an app that presents transport options between any two locations in supported cities. It includes all types of transport — from walking to buses.
It is really helpfull and the world needed it. However, after conducting a few interviews, it was clear it was missing something. How did I come to this conclusion? The following sentence came up a few times while talking about public transportation in foreign places: “when I was in *city* I was fined for having the wrong ticket.” or “I had no idea which ticket I should have bought”.
Main problem: when traveling, people tend to struggle in the buying-tickets logistics. Sometimes they have to buy through different channels. Sometimes they buy the wrong ticket. Sometimes they buy unnecessary tickets or they just don’t buy the one that better suits their needs. Whatever the scenario, it is time consuming and annoying.
The gap, in the public transportation dynamics, was clear. It needed to be fullfiled with a practical solution.
Citymapper already gives all the information needed — from schedules to which bus or metro line to take. Why not adding a feature that solves this nuisance as well?
A feature to help and guide in the process of buying the right ticket to the right occasion. Next step: ‘lo-fiing’.
Before making any suggestions I felt the need to really understand the look and feel of the app. I’m pretty much sure I’ve explored every single iteration there was to explore. It was then logical that a ‘Buy Ticket’ button was needed when the chosen route is presented.
Flow: Buy ticket Button-> Ticketing choices with short description screen -> Payment Method screen -> Transaction Completed (or not) Screen -> If completed it would generate a ticket that would automatically go to a Wallet where all the tickets — active and expired — would be in (this segment would also need to be created).
After all the research, this was the flow that, I tought, it could be added to the existent app, Citymapper, to solve a real life problem.
I’ve come to an understanding (and a very important one) after this exercise: listening attentively to what others have to say by creating an environment of empathy is crucial to grow personally and professionaly. As Stephen R. Covey said “to listen with empathy is the most important human skill”.
tg,
