Avanti

Avanti

The challenge:

Majority of train ticket sales occur through vending machines in stations. Avanti did not have data about this channel, nor the reason why people prefer to purchase from the machines. They were aware however, of large queues and numerous social media complaints which were undermining their reputation.


The process:

  1. Alignment workshop

  2. Journey mapping

  3. Ethnographic research recruitment and execution

  4. Archetypes creation

  5. Presentation of findings

  6. Usability testing

  7. Analysis of painpoints and strategy proposition

“This is exactly what we needed, I am so happy with this work. I share the same thoughts over these issues but every time people asked me to back up my opinions with data. Now I can.”

“This is exactly what we needed, I am so happy with this work. I share the same thoughts over these issues but every time people asked me to back up my opinions with data. Now I can.”

Rachelle Phasey

Retail Product Manager, Avanti

ETHNOGRAPHY KEY FINDINGS:


The more complex the journey, the more confusing the experience. A user who wants to buy a single ticket from the quick-buy section loves the machine. A user who wants to buy a multi-leg return journey and book a seat for a specific time, hates it.


Overwhelming majority of people travelling for leisure purchased from TVM because they didn't know at what time they would arrive to the station and wanted to jump on the first available train.

WHAT I LEARNED

Placing an alignment workshop at the beginning is key to understand the true expectations of stakeholders and to check if those expectations are the same among their team. The successful of this project was determined by the fact that we identified straight away the client's need.


As team leader I had to constantly ensure the delivery was on time and outstanding but I also realised that sacrificing perfection in favour to team happiness is ok sometimes. Communicating with team members as soon as a problem arise is invaluable and it ensure a neutral, clear communication.

The more complex the journey, the more confusing the experience. A user who wants to buy a single ticket from the quick-buy section loves the machine. A user who wants to buy a multi-leg return journey and book a seat for a specific time, hates it.


Overwhelming majority of people travelling for leisure purchased from TVM because they didn't know at what time they would arrive to the station and wanted to jump on the first available train.

ETHNOGRAPHY KEY FINDINGS


Placing an alignment workshop at the beginning is key to understand the true expectations of stakeholders and to check if those expectations are the same among their team. The successful of this project was determined by the fact that we identified straight away the client's need.


As team leader I had to constantly ensure the delivery was on time and outstanding but I also realised that sacrificing perfection in favour to team happiness is ok sometimes. Communicating with team members as soon as a problem arise is invaluable and it ensure a neutral, clear communication.

WHAT I LEARNED

TEAM & ROLE

I worked as a lead in a team of 2 XD, for 6 weeks across 2 research phases


WHAT I DID

I led research and analysis, presentation and outcome and managed project deadlines and provided mentorship for less experienced team members

WHAT I DELIVERED

Alignment workshop, Ethnographic research findings, User testing findings, mapping of the current experience and pain points, design principle and future roadmap


PROJECT OUTCOME

A 124-page usability report with recommendations backed by research and a strategy for future implementations

Alignment workshop and ethnographic research

I prepared an alignment workshop to define what success would look like to the stakeholders. It emerged that they had already an understanding of how the ticket vending machines (TVMs) worked and had collected some feedback from frontline staff but there was a knowledge gap around the typical TVMs buyers and their reasons.

Those findings highlighted the need to focus the discovery on users' travel habits and motivations.

The ethnographic research was based on observing the interaction with the machine (the fly-on-the-wall approach) and asking users about:

1- the experience they just had

2- their usual ticket booking routine.


Our observation lasted 4 days, covering both weekend and weekdays across two locations: Coventry and Manchester, in order to observe a variety of commuters and leisure travellers.

We interviewed a total of 306 people.

Ethnographic findings

I identified which user-journeys were consistently failed by users, leading to high chances of abandonment and complaints.


Data collected on motivations and habits allowed me to draft TVM proto-personas and present them to the client.


Persona 1: Family/couple, unplanned leisure trip

Persona 2: Single, Commuter


I also planned interviews to frontline staff as I believed they had been invaluable witnesses of the users' experience.

My findings were delivered in an 11-section Figjam which took around 3 hours to present. Part of the presentation time was used as workshop as I wanted to involve the client to shape the upcoming usability test.


Please request access to figjam here.

ETHNOGRAPHY KEY FINDINGS


The more complex the journey, the more confusing the experience. A user who wants to buy a single ticket from the quick-buy section loves the TVM. A user who wants to buy a multi-leg return journey and book a seat for a specific time, hates it.


The overwhelming majority of people travelling for leisure purchased from a TVM because they didn't know at what time they would arrive to the station and wanted to jump on the first available train.

Analysis and final delivery

Once more it was clear that people loved the experience for simple purchases but was disappointed when they were adding on complexity. Booking a seat was considered a welcome addition but the overall experienced with the seat selector lead to huge disappointments. I identified numerous usability problems through out the interface. Those problems were either related to poor UI or to inconsistency with existing UX patterns or users mental models.

I delivered all the findings in a final deck and presented them to the client with a rating system to assign severity and urgency to each of them.

Recruitment and User testing

For the Usability Testing sessions, I recruited 10 people (+2 spares) ensuring the inclusion of existing and first-time TVM users, 18-75 yo age group and users with a range of disabilities.

Users were provided with 3 tasks/scenarios (and related prompt cards) covering the 3 key tasks previously identified.


Each session lasted approximately 45 minutes with a loose script but a strong focus on specific issues observed during ethnography (ie: return tickets, multi-leg journeys, seat selection, date and time changes).

Recruitment and User testing

For the Usability Testing sessions, I recruited 10 people (+2 spares) ensuring the inclusion of existing and first-time TVM users, 18-75 yo age group and users with a range of disabilities.

Users were provided with 3 tasks/scenarios (and related prompt cards) covering the 3 key tasks previously identified.


Each session lasted approximately 45 minutes with a loose script but a strong focus on specific issues observed during ethnography (ie: return tickets, multi-leg journeys, seat selection, date and time changes).

Recruitment and User Testing

For the Usability Testing sessions, I recruited 10 people (+2 spares) ensuring the inclusion of existing and first-time TVM users, 18-75 yo age group and users with a range of disabilities.

Users were provided with 3 tasks/scenarios (and related prompt cards) covering the 3 key tasks previously identified.


Each session lasted approximately 45 minutes with a loose script but a strong focus on specific issues observed during ethnography (ie: return tickets, multi-leg journeys, seat selection, date and time changes).

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Analysis and final delivery

Once more it was clear that people loved the experience for simple purchases but was disappointed when they were adding on complexity. Booking a seat was considered a welcome addition but the overall experienced with the seat selector lead to huge disappointments. I identified numerous usability problems through out the interface. Those problems were either related to poor UI or to inconsistency with existing UX patterns or users mental models.

I delivered all the findings in a final deck and presented them to the client with a rating system to assign severity and urgency to each of them.

Analysis and final delivery

People liked the experience for simple purchases but were disappointed when purchases involved complexity.

Reserving a seat was considered a welcome addition but the overall experienced with the seat selector led to disappointments. In my final deck I identified numerous usability problems, either related to poor UI or to inconsistency with existing UX patterns or users mental models and proposed solutions.

Strategy:

1- Immediately act upon what was identified as quick-wins. Items that only required tweaks to improve.

2- Immediately start to integrate analytics on TVMs in order to benchmark against the future interactions

3- Involve frontline staff and build a steady feedback communication channel with them

4- Introducing new designs incrementally to not upset established users as nicely explained here

Next Project

WHAT I LEARNED

Placing an alignment workshop at the beginning is key to understanding the true expectations of stakeholders and to check if those expectations are the same among their team. The success of this project was determined by immediately identifying the client's need.


As team lead, I had to ensure the punctuality and quality of the outcome. I also realised that sacrificing perfection in favour of team happiness is ok sometimes. Communicating with team members as soon as a problem arises is invaluable.

Next Project

hello@ilariaoberto.com

Linkedin

Dribbble

Resume

Medium

hello@ilariaoberto.com

Linkedin

Dribbble

Resume

Medium

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