I imagined a way to improve the commute experience of a real user, using UX methods.
As part of the introduction course of my HEC Montreal formation on UX Design & Evaluation, I had to work on a way to improve the commute experience of a real user, using UX methods as well.
Persona & interview
The interview and its analysis helped me to know my user and understand his experience.
The insights
Tanguy needs a solution to be on time when traveling from home to university. He also needs to be focused on something valuable while commuting. Being occupied makes the time, he feels he is losing pass faster.
Problem statement
To prepare the brainstorm and begin the ideation of concepts, I answered the question :
- How might we as Sorbonne University take advantage of Tanguy’s need to make good use of the time he spends commuting to help him get to school on time, with the feeling that he didn’t waste any time.
Brainstorm
Brainstorming allowed me to understand if my solutions fit the user's needs to improve his experience. I presented each of them to Tanguy to get his feedback and see what was animating him the most.
Thanks to his feedback, I made a final concept with the key features.
Consequently, I imagined this solution as an app regrouping everything “commute-related “ Tanguy does before, during, and after his journey. The aim was to create the most convenient solution to make his whole commute experience (and beyond) frictionless and more enjoyable.
What are the key functionalities?
- The app displays the date and what’s the next class to prepare for
- Smart transports timetables: the app knows where they start his journey to the university. It calculates the best itineraries and displays them. As a result, Tanguy doesn’t need to check his schedule and then do a research on his real-time public transport app. Everything is in the same place now!
- Schedule: the app displays the class schedule. No need to use the browser to check the schedule on the student portal anymore!
- Three buttons for different activities:
- LEARN: to access lectures (could be audio lectures) and courses content-
- READ: read a curated selection of articles on various thematics
- PLAY: play a ”quiz game” linked to the study program to learn while having fun and play against their peer students
Prototyping
I presented the prototype to Tanguy to collect his feedback. He liked the clarity and organization of the information. The solution was very valuable and allowed them to see effortlessly the train timetable and class schedule. These are the main elements of their day and organization.
They appreciated the easy access to the activities which highly help make the time spent commuting becoming useful.
To make the experience even more immersive, I designed a high-fidelity mockup of the app's home page. I chose blue as the color is associated with trust and mobility as well as shades of grey to offer a light and breathing experience.
