Design Thinking #Challenge 1 : Urban Go

UrbanGo is a public transit and mapping startup based in Silicon Valley. Their goal is to solve the problems of urban mobility by offering the quickest and cheapest public and private transport routes to their users.

Problem

UrbanGo already solves some of the main problems of urban mobility, but there is some pain point for many users. Users have to buy different amounts of Public transport tickets. But the process of buying these tickets can be very annoying (queues, vending machines that don’t work, etc.). And it is also difficult to carry multiple paper or plastic tickets. The goal is to make the process easier and more comfortable when you are abroad.

Empathize

I have interviewed five different users. Users ages are about 18 to 35 where they live in different cities. The users use the public transport daily and use online platforms in their phones for navigating. As a different application, they are using Google Maps and City Mapper.

Define

• It is difficult to choose the language, the payment method and the right ticket
• There is not enough information on what ticket you need.
• Different kinds of tickets like paper, plastic, digital..
• Annoying to wait in a queue to buy ticket
• When the machines don’t work you can’t buy ticket
• It is hard to find the best way of the destinations also sometimes people don’t want to tell you the direction or tell you wrong.
• Some schedules are not updated.

Ideate

I decided to develop a user-friendly approach so that people use this application easily.

• Easy to sort/reach stations from Map, durations and prices.
• QR code as a ticket.
• Online Payment

Prototype

In this first low-fidelity prototype I outlined the process of purchasing the ticket from the app.

In the first page the user searches for a route. Starting and destination point selected by the user to define the direction. After entering the route there are some plans for selecting what you want to choose from options then select your ticket. Third page displays the price and lists some information about the ticket. The user can select a ticket and then purchase it by clicking the “buy” button. After buying options we can see the ticket as a QR Code . Now we scan it at the ticket gate in the station or at the bus. Also there is information listed about the route.

Conclusion

This challenge is a pre-work for my bootcamp at Ironhack. After this challenge I have learned how to classify the Design Thinking methodology and Design Thinking approach in the real-life example. It is a new perspective for me to change my career from development to design . Because I always focused on how to solve the problem and always thought about the result. But now, with some design processes and the methodologies. By this way it is a good experience to get new approaches like research techniques and interviews.