Case Study: Public Transport Victoria App

The Brief

• Better support multi-modal travel with particular emphasis on journey planning and avoiding delays
• Promote a shift to walking and cycling

• Better promote ticketing information and purchase

Background

Despite Melbourne being ranked the world's most liveable city, it has one of the country's lowest proportions of people cycling or walking to work in any state capital. In 2011, just 5.4% of Melburnians walked or rode, compared with 5.9% in Sydney, 8.1% in Hobart and 8.4% in Canberra. The number of commuters across all forms of transport in Melbourne's greater city increased by 11% between 2011 and 2017. The number of people using trains to get to work increased by 27 % across that same period. It's clear the demand for PTV services is growing and with that, user need to access transit information is also increasing. Unfortunately, the current PTV app has a bit of a popularity problem - it's app store rating is just 2.1 stars.

Research

The Competitors

As part of the research process, we conducted a competitive analysis looking at a variety transport apps from around the world.  

User Interviews 

We interviewed 15 people with a range of transport needs. They were a mix of train, tram and bus users and they lived in a variety of locations from regional Victoria through to the CDB.

Contextual Inquiry

 We asked users to complete a series of task using the PTV App to assess the usability of various functions. 

Synthesising The Data 

We compiled our research and created an affinity map which highlighted key areas with significant pain points. 

Key Research Findings 

Transport Disruptions

• No advance notification. People who experience unplanned disruptions generally were not finding out about it until they are affected by it.
• Lack of information about alternative routes during disruptions and delays.
• The PTV app is not people’s first point of contact. People are referring to social media for updates.

Myki

• News agents are not open 24 hours so the time window to purchase tickets in person is limited to store hours
• Online payment takes time to activate. This is an issue for tram users who don’t live near a station.
• Topping up online is clunky. You have to enter your 15 digit Myki number.
• People aren’t aware of their Myki balance
• It’s not possible to top up at all tram stops or on board trams
• There are limited top up options on board buses.

PTV APP - Journey Planner

• The journey planner does not cope well with using a landmark or business as a destination. For instance, if you enter General Assembly, there are no search results. The search is not smart.
• Many people are not aware that they can save a favourite location for easy search.
• People are not aware they can customise their journey.

PTV APp - GeNeral 

• Many people are not aware of the ticket outlet locations feature in app
• Various interactive elements are too small and functions are unclear.
• No process of introduction to features

Problem statement

• Users are frustrated about the lack of notice during unplanned disruptions and unsure how their trip will be affected.
• Many users prefer the functionality of Google Maps for journey planning.
• Many PTV users are frustrated as they are not able to instantly top up their Myki cards on the go. This results in many people riding the system without paying, either with/without intent.

Solution Statement

When redesigning the app, our focus would be: 

• Providing users with real time notifications of disruptions
• Improve the usability of the journey planner function
• Promote Myki information and purchase via the app
• Promote a shift to walking and cycling.

User Flow

The user flow below shows how we imagined users' journey through the app when using it for journey planning and Myki top up purposes. 

Ideation and Wireframe Sketches 

Given this was a two week sprint, we used time boxing to sharpen our focus as we created wireframe sketches. We included a smart search so that users could search for addresses, businesses, landmarks. Our landing page encouraged people to save favourites for ease of search and so that they could be given relevant disruption notifications. We included a map in the journey planner function. One of the projects goals was to encourage people to walk more so our paper prototype gave users the option of adding steps to a journey. We also included the ability for user to check their Myki balance and top up via the app. 

User Testing and Iteration

We tested the paper prototypes with users and received valuable feedback on the new features. For instance, the paper prototype allowed users to scan their myki card so that they were not required to enter the 10 digit Myki card number when registering their card. As this is a new feature that people are not currently familiar with, we found the labelling around this needed to be clearer. We used this feedback to finetune our concept before we created the interactive prototype.

Interactive Prototype + User Testing

User testing of the interactive prototype revealed additional information which we used to iterate the design. These changes included making the language of the 'What's New' screen more conversational in tone and changing the labelling of the 'Preferences' tab to 'Options'.  

Summary

We delivered an interactive prototype that addressed all of the issues outlined in the initial brief and was supported by solid user feedback. The prototype supported better multi-modal travel by incorporating cycling and walking as options into the transport mix. The usability of the journey planner function was improved and users are able to receive relevant, real time delay information with easy access to alternative route information. Walking was promoted by encouraging users to add extra steps to their journey and allowing them to increase the walking time they consider acceptable for each journey via the app's settings. Perhaps most importantly, the prototype contains important Myki balance information and the ability to top up instantly via the app. 

Looking Forward

I recommend more research into the landing page of the app as there are a variety of features that could be added to this screen. More user testing is required into whether the live information regarding transport options home shown on the landing page is useful or annoying to the majority of users. 

*This case study was completed as part of the UX Design Immersive at General Assembly.