This is from Weekly Product Design Exercise #2.
Design a new system that allows a daily user who uses the metro everyday or an-out-of-town visitor who will use the metro just once to get access to the metro, on time, without having a physical NYC metrocard on hand.
In this case, I won’t focus on the NYC MetroCard system. Instead, I will take the HSL (Finnish local transportation system) as an example.
HSL is widely used in Finland. It supports physical cards and digital tickets. Customers can buy tickets from the website, the HSL mobile app, supermarkets, HSL’s ticket machines, and HSL customer services. Until now, over 50% of customers prefer to use physical cards because there are problems buying tickets with discounts in the mobile app. People buy tickets according to zones A, B, C, D, and one ticket is valid within 80 minutes. For example, if I plan to go to Ikea Espoo (zone C) from Aalto University (zone B), my ticket should cover zones B and C.
When customers get on the bus, they can show their digital tickets to the drivers or swipe their physical cards on the ticket machines. Due to the COVID-19 situation, buying tickets from drivers is no longer supported. Occasionally someone will check the tickets on the bus, those who don’t have tickets will be fined 80 euros.
Problems
I collected problems related to HSL mobile app from:1) my course assignment about HSL (Human-Computer Interaction); 2) a shared course project conducted by another group (User-centered Methods for Product and Service Design); 3) my personal experience.
- Non-Finnish students have problems with identification
- Only seasonal tickets have a discount
- You can only buy a full-price single ticket if you forget to take a physical card
- No support for adding your own physical cards to the HSL app
- If your phone has an electricity or internet problem after buying a ticket, there is no way to verify your ticket
Analysis
Many customers prefer to buy a seasonal ticket because it’s cheaper and the only discounted ticket type for some target customer groups (students, children, pensioners, etc.). However, the back-end systems of the HSL card and the HSL app are not interconnected. Consequently, if you buy a seasonal ticket on your HSL card, it won’t appear on your mobile phone. For some customers, physical HSL cards are convenient because they can also be used as digital door keys. In this case, the usage of the HSL app is not high.
From my perspective, connecting physical cards and digital cards will be a solution. It will be more feasible for customers. They don’t need to buy additional tickets as long as they take the app or the physical cards.
Interconnect the HSL cards and HSL app
- Customers can import their HSL cards to their HSL app via identification. Each card has a unique number.
- Customers can top up their cards and buy tickets on the HSL app. The information will be synced to physical cards. No matter which way they buy tickets, they can synchronize with each other.
- If customers have season tickets but they forget to take physical cards or mobile app, they can still pass the inspection by checking the identification and the card number.
Conclusion
I guess it will be more convenient for users to enjoy HSL services after HSL cards and the HSL app interconnected.
However, this exercise is based on my own understanding and ideation, it is needed more user research and evaluation.
