As I continue to develop my transport app for Northern Ireland, it has become increasingly clear to me the importance of understanding the different ticket types offered by Translink for train and bus services.
One of the main challenges I have faced in this process is the sheer number of different ticket types available. From single-journey tickets to return tickets, three-day tickets, off-peak & peak tickets, and weekly & monthly tickets, there are a lot of options to choose from, and it can be confusing for users to know which one is the most appropriate for their needs.
To address this challenge, I have focused on organising the different ticket types in a clear and intuitive way for my app. I have conducted an audit of the current ticket experience to understand the different tickets that each service offers. By doing this, I am able to reorganise the tickets in a much easier-to-understand manner for the user.
As evident below, some services offer quite a lot more ticket options than others which can make it confusing and time-consuming for the user to sift through.
I then focused on organising the different ticket types offered by Translink in a way that is intuitive and user-friendly.
My approach to this issue is to group the tickets by the type of service they are for, such as the Goldline, Metro, or NI Trainline. This allows users to easily find the tickets that are relevant to their needs, without having to sift through a long list of options that are not applicable to their situation.
In addition to organizing the tickets by the type of service, I have also grouped them by the type of user. For example, I have separate categories for adult tickets, child tickets, and student tickets, which makes it easy for users to find the tickets that are most appropriate for their age and status.
By organizing the tickets in this way, I hope to make it easier and less time-consuming for users to find the right ticket type. I believe that this will improve the overall user experience of my app and help to encourage more people to use public transport.
Below is the sitemap that I created for the ticketing system đŸ‘‡
In addition to this, I would also like to make it easier for the user to manage and view their tickets in comparison to the current experience with the mlink app. I want to add ‘most used’, favourited, and search logic to help users find the ticket they need almost instantly.
In relation to the ticketing system, the next steps for this aspect of the project will be to incorporate this sitemap into my overall app sitemap, to visualise its location in the flow of things. Alongside this, I will also be able to start crafting some user flows associated with searching, purchasing, and managing tickets. By doing this, I will gain a better understanding of the user experience associated with tickets.