Improving the travel experience through user-centred design

Experientia 2009

Stories about trains

Trenitalia: designing the travel experience

Enable new forms of interaction between customers and Trenitalia’s physical/information structure

Increased communication potentialMaking data available anytime/anywhere to support personnel and passenger decisions

Potential for the design of new services offeringsDesign of new combinations of digital and physical resources of Trenitalia that could improve and enlarge the range of activities passengers can experience during a train journey

Travel stages

DreamingActivities related to imagining future travel scenarios and situations

LearningActivities related to searching and acquiring information about a future travel

PlanningActivities related to taking decisions about the different resources to be used during a travel

Starting from homeActivities carried out to move from the home environment to the train station

Entering the stationOrientation / information retrieval activities performed once entered the train station

TicketingProcedures and activities performed to acquire the travel document

WaitingTime range and activities usually carried out on platform or waiting rooms due to train delays, catching connections, etc.

BoardingActivities involved in entering the train envi-ronment (wagon) and finding a place to sit

RidingActivities carried out during the time spent on board like relaxing, socialising or working

ContinuingActivities related to leaving the train and train station to connect with other means of transport or physical environments

Travel roles

CommutersFrequent travellers involved in highly predictable and repetitive journeys

TouristsLeisure travellers with a wide range of expectations and needs

Business travellersTimely arrival is crucial for them

Event travellersVisit places because of their interest in a specific event (e.g. sporting, religious, political or cultural events)

Travellers with special needsOften dependent on the support of others during the travel for various reasons.

Railroad employeesInterested in the railway system as their place of work and in its changes from a professional point of view

Scenarios of prototypical travel situations

Based on understanding people, their needs and their roles, we developed scenarios of innovative forms of interaction between passengers and Trenitalia

At home On board Delays

Special events

‘Cool tricks’

Scenario 1: At home

Fulfilling information needs before travelling

Giving well-represented and communicated packages of information to a passenger before and during the travel

At home Checking his phone In Milan station On the platform

Scenario 2: On board

Find my way scenario

Reduce people’s uncertainty and stress by providing information on the right location and destination

In the train Correct station notificationBoarding

Improved delay communication provides better travel experience

Reduce stress levels through timely information, travel alerts, transparency and dynamic information delivery

In the office At the station On the way to the platform Boarding the train Riding the train

Scenario 3: Delays

Scenario 3: Delays

Scenario 4: Special events

At school At the station On board Stopping Continuing

Transforming the travelling experience: the school trip case

Design the train environment to support and augment the event travel experience

Scenario 5: ‘Cool tricks’

Changing the external perception of trains

Use interaction design to associate the Trenitalia brand identity with the perception of high-technology

1. TechnologySmart phones, pervasive displays, augmented reality, ubiquitous InternetBut it is still about information and communication

2. People Increased expectations, increased independenceBut basic human behaviour is still the same

3. Client (Trenitalia)Some services implemented, more technologically enabledBut it is still a transport company

What has changed?

Research on and scenariosof future developments

Scenarios

In-depth understanding of user needs through observation and analysis

User profiles

Comprehensive usability analysis Implementation support

Strong user experiences Iterative prototypes

User-centred design concepts and strategies

Design specification

Context

Understand

Ideas

DesignForesight

TestExperience Touchpoints

Prototype

User-centred design approach People

Identify future business opportunitiesMedium range scenarios about the way people will organise their lives in the future, what products and services they might need, and how they will use them, helps companies and organisations identify opportunities for design and innovation.

Foresight Approach Context research

Trend exploration

Expert opinions

Opportunity mapping

Scenario development

Deliverables Trend analysis

Technology roadmaps

Mood boards

Scenarios of use

Connect marketing research with in-depth user understanding

To understand people’s experiences and behaviours, and to grasp how they interact with products and services, we need to observe them in their own environments, analyse their conversations, flows and tasks, and use these qualitative insights to model products and services.

Understand Approach User experience modelling

Contextual inquiry

Design ethnography

Interviews with extreme and lead users

Conversation analysis

Task and flow analysis

Deliverables User profiles and personas

Customer journey maps

Experience models

Scenarios

Create user-centred strategies and design concepts

Translating the user and use needs and desired experience into creative and human-centred strategies, concepts and design will ensure compelling, desirable and useful solutions for the end-users and added value for companies.

Design Approach Strategic design

Innovation workshops

Opportunity modelling

Idea generation

Concept development

Communication design, interaction design, industrial design, information architecture

Deliverables Concept visualisations

Sketches

Design drawings and models

User and use requirements

Design specifications

Assure effective and strong experiences through prototyping

By designing progressively more refined prototypes, we gain insights on what works with people and what doesn't, and why, and we can test user acceptance, usage benefits and drawbacks in various contexts, making sure that the end result is solid and valuable.

Prototype Approach Just enough prototyping

Iterative process

Conceptual prototypes

Appearance prototypes

Functional prototypes

Deliverables Lo-fi prototypes are developed

with simple tools: paper, screen, video, wizard-of-oz, walk-through…

Hi-fi prototypes are more sophisticated: here we have applications, appearance models and functional models

Deliver robust products and services through comprehensive user testing

By assessing, measuring and evaluating the user experience companies and organisations can align their products and services with their users’ needs.

Test Approach Participatory methods

Heuristic evaluations

Cognitive walkthroughs

Focus groups

Usability testing

Deliverables Usability analysis

Prototype iterations

Implementation support

Alcatel Lucent

Condé Nast

Ferrero

Finmeccanica

Intesa San Paolo

Mattel

SITRA, Finland

Swisscom

Yahoo!

Alcatel Lucent

Applied Dreams

CVS Pharmacy

Deutsche Telekom

Ferrero

Kodak

Max Mara

Nokia

Samsung

SITRA, Finland

Swisscom

Tre Spade

Vodafone

Expedia

Fujitsu Siemens

Nokia

RIM

Red Hat

Samsung

Vodafone

Whirlpool

Condé Nast

Conifer Research

CVS Pharmacy

Expedia

Fidelity

Haier

Microsoft

Motorola

Samsung

SITRA, Finland

Thomson CompuMark

Vodafone

People

UnderstandIdeas

Design

City of Genk

CSI-Piemonte

European Commission

Nokia

Samsung

SITRA, Finland

Swisscom

Trenitalia

Vodafone

Context

Foresight TestExperienceTouchpoints

Prototypes

Our Clients

Experientia s.r.l.Via Cesare Battisti 15

10123 Torino

Italy

T+39 011 812 9687

info@experientia.com

www.experientia.com