Secondary Research
Based on the redundant operations we observed when riders were adding value to their Clipper card at the kiosks, my partner Himani and I decided to pick heavy commuters as our target archetype. Additionally, with Kate's suggestion, I also looked up possible reasons why people might not sign up for the Clipper card auto-fill service online. Below is a list of potential causes I identified:
People don’t know the auto-fill service exists.
People need to register online.
It asks you to "Allow 10 days for value to be available for the first time".
There's uncertain delay (‘usually 1~2 days’) in adding value.
There's uncertain delay (‘usually 5 days’) for the updated amount to show up on some transit agencies.
Adding value online has a higher minimum top-up value. ($1.25 instead of $0.05 on kiosk)
You must order at least $20 in cash to set up autoload.
People might not have a credit card or don’t want to disclose their bank account.
Personas
Taking the list above into account, plus a bunch of interesting behaviors, needs, as well as a piece of anecdote, we came up with "Lucas", our Personas.
by Himani Deshpande, Sep.29 2018
Lucas' journey from entering the station to the train platform:
Pushes bike to the Clipper kiosk.
Stands in the queue.
Removes his wallet containing his Clipper and credit card.
He’s anticipating the train arriving, looking at the time on his phone.
Proceeds to the kiosk with bike, wallet, and phone in hand.
Adds money to his Clipper card.
Puts cell phone back to the pocket.
Leaves the kiosk with his bike and Clipper in hand.
Tap Clipper at the fare gate and quickly go down to the platform.
Success Criteria
As you can see, Lucas is always in a hurry with a lot of things to handle with his hands. Hence Lucas is looking for streamlined experience represented by the ease of use and speed. Below is the 5 success criteria I identified for Lucas:
With the personas established, we went on to discuss the task flows which turned out to be quite a brain consuming job. We had a lot of abandoned drafts, sketches, and even math equations. Himani has an in detail reflection here on how we form and filter ideas in section "Choosing the Adapt Path". One thing worth mentioning is that, whenever we felt stuck, the most efficient approach to find a way out was performing a role play: imagine what I would have to do if I were Lucas. It could easily tell us what makes sense and what not.
Snaps of our raw sketches done on Sep.29 2018.
Task flows
Here I would like to take "Express Top-up" -- a feature we designed specifically for heavy commuters -- as an example to demonstrate a task flow and its UI screens. The key idea of this feature is that the kiosk will remember the last transaction history of this particular Clipper card and display it on the screen as a quick access.
Additionally, we introduce mobile wallet (such as Apple Pay) as a new payment method apart from cash and ATM card. Our foothold is that, since the Clipper disk is an NFC device, enabling mobile wallet is a relatively feasible tweak. This could definitely help heavy commuters with mobile wallets to relieve their stress dealing with a lot of objects (belongings, wallet, smart phone, earphones...the list can go very long ) on hand.
Other highlights:
Originally the rider need to tap his/her Clipper twice to add value: once before transaction and once after authorizing transaction. This could be troublesome and time consuming. Hence we suggests adding a tray below the Clipper disk enabling riders to "place" their Clipper/wallet throughout the top-up process.
Auto-exit: After completing the top-up, the system will auto-exit in 5 seconds even if the rider doesn't press CANCEL. This prevents potential information leak and avoids letting the next customer awkwardly press CANCEL for the previous user.
Revised UI screens in sequence:
by Yang Qian, Sep.30 2018
Corresponding Task flow:
by Himani Deshpande, Sep.30 2018
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