Creative problem solving through Design Thinking

Living or traveling in big cities can be somewhat challenging when wanting to use public transport to get from point A to B. There are a number of mobile applications, which help commuters navigate their major cities using public transport.

I want to reach out to the users to understand why they use these products, how they use these products and therefore if there was any way I could improve the customer experience.

This article focuses on one of these popular applications CITYMAPPER, in which I used various design thinking methods to better understand, validate and potentially improve the user experience.

What is Citymapper?

Citymapper, founded in 2011 in the UK, is a fast growing public transit application and mapping service which displays diverse transport options in more than 60 cities around the world.

The application uses a number of key features from route planning, visual maps, and live public transit knowledge, to supply the users with the most optimal routes for their journey including speed, cost etc.

Design Thinking Method

Design thinking can help us to systematically extract, teach, learn and apply human-centered techniques to solve problems in a creative and innovative way — in our designs, in our businesses, in our countries, in our lives.

Some of these techniques can be prototyping, user interviews, focus groups, questionnaires.

If we combine the above design thinking within an iterative, agile development process, we can continuously add value to customers — based on what they want, rather than what we ‘think’ they want.

Emphasize — the heart of Design:

Having lived in big cities like New York and Berlin throughout my last 10 years, I understand the difficulties. Things that usually seem so easy can suddenly turn into a fight of the titans when you are in a hurry and/or in a different city.

In order to fully understand the challenges of urban mobility applications, I conducted User Interviews with commuters within Berlin and London — both cities where the usage of Citymapper is very high.

Here are the questions that were asked:

• How often do you use public transportation?
• Do you use any applications for public transportation?
• If yes — do you face challenges with the applications you are using?
• How do you feel during those challenges?
• What do you like about the concept of urban mobility applications?

Findings

After the interviews, there was a clear sentiment across many participants about the inability or struggle in purchasing tickets based on the optimal route the application was providing.

It was expressed that the current manner of doing so was to switch applications, which led to a feeling of deep frustration, feeling lost and a sense of being overwhelmed — considering that most of the commuters are under time pressure when hopping on and off.

Ideate

From all the responses I have collected, it was clear that users highly desire an application that can cover all the aspects of traveling with public transport, such as the ‘’in app purchase’’ option. For the means of this article, we will be focusing on the next steps regarding this.

I started sketching a few possible user journey maps based on the information obtained from the interviews and usage I observed in person.

Some functional requirements are:

• Allow the user to purchase a ticket for the suggested journey within the application
• The user’s bank account is directly debited for the correct amount
• Tickets are stored electronically in one spot

Some non functional requirements are:

• fast and accessible
• easy to use

Paper Prototype

Once purchased, the ticket(s) will be in QR code and on the main screen, for easy and fast access throughout the journey.

Conclusion

As this was my first challenge of Ironhacks UX/UI Design Bootcamp and also the first time applying Design Thinking in general, I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around what was expected of me.

After getting started, I realized quickly that design thinking is a process for solving problems by prioritizing the consumers needs above all else.

I rediscovered the value of observing, with empathy, how people interact with their environments. I came to an understanding that it is less of a means to get to a single solution, and more of a way to continuously evolve your thinking. I very much enjoyed the hands-on approach to creating innovative solutions.