Case study: Enhancing an online train boarding experience
Traveling sometimes can be a hassle, especially in a pandemic situation like now. In Indonesia itself, the travel regulations have been updated over and over since the first day of the pandemic. We have to bring some documents as proof that we are eligible enough to travel and not contagious by the virus.
In Indonesia, there was a bunch of travel apps that help us to book train tickets. However, the one I want to talk about here is KAI Access. KAI Access is the official train booking application by ‘the one and only’ train service provider in Indonesia. This application has quite powerful features which the other booking apps don’t have, such as e-boarding passes, cancellation, and rescheduling tickets.
Design Process
🔎 User Research
My first approach to begin this case study is to understand the user of KAI Access through user research. The objective of my user research are:
- Gather insight about the passenger’s behavior during the booking process until boarding.
- Understand their preference using KAI Acces.
To address these objectives, I used a quantitative method through an online questionnaire to 30 respondents.
The key finding from the research are:
- The ratio of user KAI Access is 60%, while the other booking apps are only 40%. So, KAI Access is trusty enough among the train passengers.
- 66,7% of KAI Access users don’t know the e-boarding pass feature where they don’t have to print their boarding pass on paper.
- The most used feature on KAI Access: Book the ticket, Reschedule, Cancel.
- During the pandemic, the behavior that changes is they have to come to the station two times. The first one is to take the swab test, the second is for departing.
- 90% of passengers are coming to the station long before their departure time (it’s either a day before or several hours before)
To combine and validate the data I’ve got during qualitative research before, I continued the research with a qualitative method by Zoom interview to 5 people who have traveled by train during the pandemic. The key questions that I keep in mind during the session are:
- How’s the process from ordering tickets to boarding at the train station?
- How’s the behavior of traveling during a pandemic?
- What’s the pain point while doing all of the processes?
From the user research, I obtained these key findings:
- Before buying the tickets, travelers were ensuring the latest update about travel by train by asking from others or simply Google it away. Users are okay with any platform to buy train tickets. But here’s the pattern: if they bought at KAI Access, they’re most likely to use e-boarding tickets instead of printing them out.
- Since the new regulations said that travelers must bring covid-free test results, they tend to take the swab test a day before their departure to avoid the long queue and make them in the rush.
- They need to bring out a lot of documents while boarding at the gate.
These are some quotes I highlighted from the interview session:
“It's such a hassle to bring out all of the documents while we’re boarding. I’m afraid these documents will be lost along the checking” — Maya.
“It could be more simple with all digital stuff nowadays. But why do we have to bring out all of these papers” — Putra.
“These papers are not handy at all. My hands are already full of the stuff” — Gendis.
Research Takeaways
By combining these two research methods, I conclude that travelers need to spare more time and effort to prepare a lot of documents as a requirement to be eligible to travel by train.
To understand more about the users’ feelings and actions, I make this user journey. As you can see, the most terrible feeling is when the persona is in the after-boarding process and their documents are being reviewed by the staff.
✏️ Define
During the define phase, I use an affinity map to analyze and synthesis the data I’ve got before.
To conclude the Define Phase, I rounded up my research into the following pain points:
- Users need to come to the train station two times. Once for taking the swab test, and the second one is for departing.
- Users need to do the manual process while taking the swab test, from registration to the test’s result.
- Users sometimes don’t have sufficient information about the latest travel regulations.
- The users’ behavior has been shifted during the pandemic: they tend to avoid the crowd, mask on every time, and be more cautious.
- Users were suffering when they have to bring the required documents while their hands are already full of stuff.
🌍 Ideation
To develop the initial ideas, I needed to create design principles to follow. I turned key insights and pain points into How Might We statements to generate useful design solutions. These statements are going to be a guide to foresee what the KAI Access prototype should feature.
These are the chosen HMW statement I keep in mind to start the brainstorming on the Ideate process:
How might we…
“…make the apps that integrate with our COVID-19 test result”
“…make the passengers come just one time to the station”
“…make the swab test’s process easy and quick”
“…keep the user informed about the latest regulations”
“…merge the documents travel requirements into one”
💻 Prototype
Reflecting on the users’ pain point and the How Might We statement before, I tried to find solutions to solve them and introduce new features overall to improve the user experience. After creating Information Architecture, User flow, and numerous sketches, I move on to the high fidelity design.
Three main features to ease the users’ activity.
As I mentioned above in my research before, the most frequently used feature the user use in this apps besides train ticket booking, are ticket cancellation and rescheduling. I try to put them on the top to make them on point and accessible.
Stay updated with the latest travel regulations.
The travel regulations feature was added to create a solution for the user who not being aware enough of the latest travel regulation (which has updated over time).
Say no more to register manually 👋
To shorten the swab test registration process, I add a new section to buy a swab antigen test along with the booking ticket — which the previous one never had before. This solution not only shortens the registration process but also prevents the passenger to stay longer in the crowd. It will give the passengers an efficient booking journey overall.
Merging all the documents' travel requirements into one device.
To tackle the users’ paint point that they have to bring a lot of required documents while their hands are already full of stuff, I come up with the idea to merge all of the documents into one app.
Show the barcode, scan, and you’re on your way!
And here’s the final results of the process. You will only need to bring the boarding pass’ barcode on your phone and ID Card when you’re boarding. It’s handy and easy!
😬 Hallway testing
I did quick hallway testing my prototype through 4 of my friends who are already familiar with KAI Access. These are the highlight of their testimonies:
- “I am so glad to see three features I need the most on the homepage! Uh-oh, the swab and vaccine feature might be helpful too.” — Lulu.
- “It simply will save my time a lot!” — Fara.
- “At first, I couldn’t recognize the command on the completing document’s instructions. Maybe this feature is kind of a new thing for me. But I like this idea. It guides us step by step to attach and complete all the documents.” — Gama.
- “The idea of merging test result paper, vaccine certificate, and boarding pass in one device is cool. Those are all we want!” — Rifqi.
👀 Lesson Learned
I have been personally fond of trains for a long time, so it’s been an enjoyable journey for me to redesign something I am familiar with. I learn so much during the process, especially the user research. It is fascinating that with thorough empathy, I could discover the problems I don’t usually notice.
Therefore, there are some aspects I might do better in the future. I should be more thoughtful of the behavior of people who may be more familiar with paper-based documents and arrange the usability test properly to gather more feedback through the design.
I would like to thank all the participants from my research and testing for their time and support. Sending my special thanks to my mentor at Productzilla Academy as well for all the feedback and advice. Thank you for reading! Hopeful you enjoyed this case study. If you have any feedback, I’d like to hear from you. See you soon!
