Mobile Railway Ticketing
Keywords: Smartphone Application, European Railway Ticketing, Task Centered Design
Mentor: Univ. Prof. DI Dr. Thomas Grechenig and Ms. Karin Kappel, RISE-INSO, TUWien, Austria
Duration: May - July 2012
Project Description
The goal of this project was to develop a concept and design for a Mobile Railway Ticketing Application for generic smartphone users throughout Europe. Hence, there was a need to understand how the European railways work and we had to test the application (a low fidelity working prototype) for its usability.
Process Followed
Initially, we had to have a very deep understanding about how various other existing ticketing applications work and then brainstorm accordingly to introduce new features to it. The process followed was:
- Market Research and Bench-marking of around 20 existing applications in the market.
- Features and Information Architecture
- Interaction Concepts
- Wireframing
- Low fidelity prototype
- User Testing
- Data Analysis and Iteration
We have introduced new features such as Travel and Tourist information of different places along with the railway ticketing.
Usability Review
- Firstly, the test materials for the purpose of the User Testing were prepared and also according to the initial development level prototype.
- A pilot test was run to find the mistakes in the testing material and make the necessary modifications.
- Conducted the final User Testing with 5 test persons. Think Aloud Protocol was used to understand the user's mental model.
- The analysis was done in two ways. First, analyzing the each person’s response towards all features. And second, analyzing each feature according to the test persons.
- Data Analysis and Iterations were done on the prototype.
Challenges
- Understanding the differnce between Indian and European Railway systems was very important.
- To adjust huge data on a small screen.
- To choose the relevant features.
- Security and privacy issues.
What I have learnt?
It was a very great experience working with people from different cultures, understanding their needs and their usage of technology. I learnt how a cross-cultural professional team works and putting subjective Usability Testing into practice was very insightful.
Portfolio > Research Projects > Mobile Railway Ticketing Application