Learning to uncomplicate

Spoiler: it’s complicated.

Being a new student at Ironhack, and having a tendency to be a little overzealous anyway, I went into my first design challenge at full speed and head first. I came out a bit frazzled (and high on Sharpie fumes) at the end, but I can at least say with confidence that I have learned a lot.

For my first ever design challenge I had to design new functionality for a mobility app, UrbanGo. This Silicon Valley startup wants to make it easier for people to travel around with an app that shows both public and private transport routes. Through the app, travellers can choose the fastest and/or cheapest option out of different routes, combining different modes of transport. They now want to make it possible to buy tickets through the app as well. Buying tickets can be a major pain point with different transport companies all offering their own tickets and having their own payment systems. The assignment was to design this new functionality.

Figuring out user needs and desires

I started with interviewing potential users. To figure out the needs and desires of users of this new functionality, I decided to conduct my interviews with a focus on using the app abroad. My respondents have a public transport card, and wouldn’t use an app to buy tickets while in the Netherlands. They would only use it when travelling abroad, so in the interviews I focused my questions on that topic, to make sure I would get useful answers about what people expect in terms of ease-of-use and functionality.

I interviewed five users (between 35–45 years old) about their experiences with buying tickets for public transport abroad. I asked them about how they would find out where to get tickets, how to pay for them, what their best and worst experiences were, what they thought would be essential for an app to be able to do, and how they would imagine the app would work. I also asked them why they used public transport to get an idea of what might be important to them when using an app like this. I collected all the answers I got from the interviews and sorted the different topics and answers in an excel sheet to be able to get an overview of the needs and desires of my users.

Figuring out what the app needs to do

What I realised first is that the app would already solve a lot of my respondents’ problems by simply existing. Having ticket buying functionality in a mobility app is already a big step towards making public transport (even) more user friendly. Users will not have to stand in line and deal with ticketing machines in a language they don’t know. They won’t have to search endless local websites to buy tickets for the different parts of their journey. They can just get their phone out and buy the tickets, even when standing at a bus stop.

However, apart from this, I found that another major problem was insecurity, caused by learning a new system. What bothered my respondents the most was not so much that it took some time to figure out where to buy tickets, but that it would make them feel insecure, frustrated and not in control. A good example is that most of my respondents mentioned never taking a bus abroad, because they feel it’s too complicated. They prefer taking a train or metro, as it has an easily recognisable start and end point (i.e. a station), a fixed route, and ticketing machines. I found this very interesting, because I don’t think it is necessarily more complicated to figure out a bus route than figuring out a metro route, especially now that we have access to mobility apps. It’s just a feeling that people have, when choosing between a bus or a metro; the feeling of not being in control.

To elaborate on that, the main pain points my respondents mentioned would vary from not having the energy upon arrival to deal with complicated ticket machines, to being shoved aside by impatient locals, to not knowing whether tickets should be printed or not, but in the end it all came down to one main issue: it made them feel insecure and not in control. So the main thing this new functionality needs to do, apart from selling them a ticket, is to give the users confidence; that they are buying the correct ticket, for the correct number of zones, that it’s safe to buy, and that they’re not paying too much. Basically, give them the feeling that they know exactly what they’re doing.

Developing the prototype and learning a lot

To solve this issue I took up my ̶s̶w̶o̶r̶d̶ Sharpies and got sketching. Five A3 sized pages full of scribbles later I figured this was way harder than I thought. First of all, during the interviews I noticed my respondents said completely different things than I had expected them to. Before starting my interviews I had come up with my own answers, and I expected my respondents would give the same answers I did. But then they didn’t. They came up with things I had never even thought about, and that was fascinating and a lot of fun. But when I got to making decisions about my app design, I found it very hard to make these decisions on my own, as I kept thinking, “but, what would my respondents want?” I was very aware that I was making decisions about buttons and pop ups based on my own preferences, not on my potential user’s preferences.

Of course I tried very hard to keep them in mind and to focus on the main objective of the design (giving users confidence), but it was a lot harder than I thought. Funnily enough, it gave me a lot of insecurity about whether I was doing the right thing, which is exactly what I was designing for. Also, brainstorming for new and creative ideas is hard on your own. You really need other people to bounce off on and get to the really good stuff.

A second thing I quickly learned is that once you start putting your thoughts on paper, many more other thoughts will pop up. I would draw a button and then realise I would also need a back button, and then started thinking about “but what does this button do?”, and I would basically just end up in an endless loop of questions that would lead to other questions, and then some more. An incredible deep and dark Abyss of Questions. It was quite hard to make decisions because of that, and it would sometimes become almost paralysing. I think this all took a lot longer than it should have, if I had just stopped asking questions after a while. Sometimes you just have to make decisions, keeping in mind that this is just a prototype. The point of prototyping is that you can quickly and cheaply try out different things. So it’s not necessary to have your first iteration be absolutely perfect. This, I think, is a lesson I have only just started learning.

And lastly, how do you design for confidence? I really wanted to be creative and come up with something cool and different, but I think in the end my app design isn’t so different than already existing similar apps. Also, I’m not really sure that my design really solved the problem I intended to solve. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing though, because if this were a real design, for a real app, the next step would be user testing, and then hopefully it would become more clear whether my ideas work or not, and then I could go back to improve the prototype. Which, after all, is the main idea of design thinking.

The prototype

So, this is what I came up with:

A quick rundown of the prototype: users start with planning a route (screen 1). They can choose to see a pop up with their favorite places (that they added at some other time). They can also click to see their travel history, to see all places they have been to. They can also choose to leave out certain modes of transport (for those people still not wanting to take busses). This gives people a feeling of control. All their trips are saved in the system, but they can also choose their own favorite places as shortcuts, and they can decide the building blocks of their journey. Once they’ve punched in their destination and starting point, the app will give them several different routes to choose from. They can sort the results according to their preference (time, price or number of transfers) and then choose the route they want. They will then immediately be able to buy tickets. They can buy tickets for a part of the journey (so for example only the train tickets) in case they already have a bus ticket or public transport card, or for all parts of the journey. If applicable, a pop up will appear to tell the user that a day card (or some other discount scheme) is cheaper, and then have a button to buy a day card straight away.

This gives a user confidence that they’re not paying too much, and that they’re getting the correct tickets. They will go through a simple payment screen, choosing their preferred method of payment and entering their details (which can also be saved in the system, if people want). They will then get a confirmation of payment and a QR code, which will serve as their ticket. It will also mention a short explanation of how the ticket works (i.e. show to the driver or scan at the entrance). Again, to give the user the idea that they know what’s expected of them, which will give them confidence. There will also be a pop up (only on first use) to tell the user a screenshot has been made of the QR code, so it can be used offline.

Last but not least, there’s an option to turn on “Guided Mode”, which gives step-by-step instructions, with for example pictures of bus stops and other information, to help users navigate an unfamiliar public transport system and find their way. It will work with GPS and scrolls up while the user is travelling, so they will always have the next step ready. For those users who like to have more of a sense of adventure, they can go back to the screen with their chosen route, which will show just the departure times and station names and not all the other information that Guided Mode offers.

Final thoughts and advice

So in conclusion, was it harder than I thought? Yes, it was. But it was also a lot of fun, and that was sort of a surprise too. I had a feeling I would enjoy this kind of thing, but I had not expected I would love it, spending hours on drawing prototypes, and that I would happily skip into the endless Abyss of Questions. I do think I took way too long with this, and I need to become more strict towards myself about making decisions and moving on to the next stage of the design thinking process. In the end, that is really what has been most useful about this first design exercise for me: becoming more aware of the different steps in the design thinking process and how I, with my own habits and tendencies, approach this process.

And as a final bit of advice, open your windows while using Sharpies to draw prototypes. The fresh air will help with the smell, but will also give you fresh thoughts ;)

Want to learn more?

If you’d like to become an expert in UX Design, Design Thinking, UI Design, or another related design topic, then consider to take an online UX course from the Interaction Design Foundation. For example, Design Thinking, Become a UX Designer from Scratch, Conducting Usability Testing or User Research — Methods and Best Practices. Good luck on your learning journey!