How we redesigned RATP’s vending machines
Ironhack Bootcamp, project 1— Metro Kiosk
As part of the UX UI Ironhack bootcamp, our first big challenge was to redesign the vending machines’ interface of the RATP, the French National Train Service.
This project was based on developing the ability to observe people’s behavior when navigating the interface of vending machines and interpret their pain-points. The basis of the research was interviewing users in the act of using those vending machines.
Our mission was to focus on a specific and discreet problem in user interaction and find a solution to improve the user journey.
Setup
We worked in team of 4 with Caroline Giupponi Masse, Quentin Massonneauand Magali Confiant and had to present our work within a week.
Context and users’ interview
How do you put the user at the center of the design process?
- Being aware of the context
- Understand the users by “stepping in their shoes” through observation (observe their behaviors in the context of their lives), engagement (interact with them) & immersion (experience what user experience: introspection)
So we started our guerrilla observations and interviews in the metro station, to catch the users in the act of using those vending machines.
“I’m in a hurry”
“In a COVID-19 context, I don’t like touching screens, I don’t even know who touched it before”
“They don’t have contactless payment option, it’s annoying because I don’t want to touch the buttons”
Our interviews helped us determined who our users are and what their main pain points are while interacting with the vending machine.
In a COVID-19 context, we noticed that most of the users interviewed were reluctant to touch digital screens and would have preferred contactless payment on all vending machines. We decided to focus on the first pain point and created a persona based on that.
View the journey map with persona.
Solution
According to our feedbacks and the (short) time we had to brainstorm in group, we came up with a solution:
==> The creation of an app which allows the user to buy a ticket or charge Navigo pass online and combine it with a withdrawal terminal - contactless - as the user will only have to scan his/her own personal QR code provided by the app.
Conclusion, what are my insights?
I really enjoyed working in group for this projet, we had a good energy and worked efficiently together.
The timing was extremely short, we were under a bit of stress to finish the project within the requested time. But it was actually a good source of stress because we were super motivated and eager to respect the deadlines for this first project.
I was a bit perplexed about the users’ will to answer my questions during the guerrilla interviews, but actually, they were opened to that exercice. It helped me gain confidence interviewing people I don’t know in the street.
Finally, I would have liked to push the project further and have the possibility to develop mid and high fidelity frames.
Thanks for reading!
