Avanzabus shopping experience — case study

Photo by Scott Hewitt on Unsplash

Intro

For our first assignment of the UX/UI Bootcamp, we were given the following briefing:

• Redesign the interface of the National Train Service, or similar (bus, train);
• Include a feature that helps a user group achieve a task;
• The solution should be integrated into a larger solution as well as solve a identified problem.

Initially, two service providers were considered: Renfe and Comboios de Portugal — respectively the Spanish and the Portuguese national train services. However, Renfe just went through a thorough redesign of its buying experience, and Comboios de Portugal seemed too big of a challenge for the time given for the project.

So the group decided to go with bus company Avanzabus.

More specifically, we decided to analyse the Avanzabus mobile app.

Before work started, we planned the expected steps and tasks needed to achieve an outcome that answered the briefing.

Of course we had all this organized using our best friend, Trello.

By using Design Thinking, we have the structure and steps to guide us in the development of the project. Of course things aren’t as linear as the image above might suggest, but it sure is a very good starting point.

Process

The first phase of the project — the Hypothesis phase — started with a comprehensive research on the users of travel apps, travels apps themselves, an analysis of the Avanzabus app.

Key findings from the secondary research conducted.

A survey with 75 respondents and 5 interviews were conducted.

Nielsen´s Usability Heuristics gave hints on three possible hypothesis.

The key findings of the research phase lead to the identification of 5 main problems in the buying process of the Avanzabus app.

1 — Unavailable trips make the user abandon the shopping process;

2 — The “To-From” search bar is difficult to use and makes it hard to find the names the user is looking for;

3 — Filters do not to make choosing the final trip easier;

4 — The home page does not prioritize the ticket buying process;

5 — Users feel locked in place without the possibility of going back one step.

Proposal

Having identified what problems we were addressing in the final solution, it was time to prototype.

What is shown in the images below are the screens of the final prototype, which was tested, adjusted and validated with users.

Problem 01 x solution: users cannot select unavailable dates.

Problem 02 x solution: redesigned search UI.

Problem 03 x solution: redesigned filters to make search more customizable.

Problem 04 x solution: redesigned home page to prioritize ticket buying process.

Problem 05 x solution: option to go back one step + status bar.

The full prototype can be found at the link below:

Click here to view prototype AvanzaBus

Note: this is a lo-fi prototype, meaning it is meant to analyse the way users interact with the product — it is not meant to emulate the final result of the user interface/product.

Results and next steps

There is a saying that goes a bit like this:

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.

So we set off to measure how much improved our proposed redesign was compared to the original Avanzabus app.

Identified problems X KPI X original design score X redesign score.

The ultimate test, though, would come as the next steps are developed, and would answer the following hypothesis:

The redesign will reduce the drop-out rate from 80% to 20%.

To do so, we propose the following next steps:

• Mid fidelity prototype and user testing;
• High fidelity prototype and user testing;
• Development of final app version.

To wrap up

Doing this project taught some valuable lessons:

1 — plan, plan, plan! Yes, creative processes can— and should! — be planned with tasks, person responsible and due date;

2 — some minor adjustments can have a great impact on the overall user experience;

3 — data-driven crazy: if it can´t be measured, it doesn´t even exist!

This project was done with my Ironhack colleagues Rebecca Wood and Ignacio Alonso Ferreiro — together, we are Avanzamos!