Redesigning the DMRC Application | A UX Case Study
A Quick Summary 🚇
The Delhi Metro is a mass rapid transit (MRT) system serving Delhi and its satellite cities of Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gurugram, Noida, Bahadurgarh and Ballabhgarh, in the National Capital Region of India. It is by far the largest and busiest metro rail system in India and the second oldest after the Kolkata Metro.
To navigate soo many stations and colour-coded lines, DMRC introduced a mobile application that helps a traveller find the nearest metro station, destination station, station information, first and last metro station timings, and many more. But I found this application very terrible.
In this project, I am trying to enhance the usability of the current DMRC application.
My Design Process 🎨
I divided my game plan into 4 distinct phases, cheers to IDEO’s human-centred design thinking process.
The Problem (brainstorming) 🤔
Despite having a mobile application, most travellers don’t use that application because it is difficult for them to navigate through stations or find any information related to the metro/metro station. Also, they have to spend around half an hour in a queue to collect travel token or to recharge their travel card.
On the other hand, DMRC is also losing millions of revenue every year because of the lost time of users waiting in long lines at the ticket machine & the high cost of maintaining machine infrastructure.
Qualitative Research: As a designer, we should not rely on our assumptions and our pain points only, so I decided to go for some user interview in my locality. Performing a usability test with 5 people will help you uncover 93% of what is possible to discover and luckily I found them also.
While interacting with these people, I found the same concern as I had.
Ahmed uncle confirms that it's true that people have been in a queue for a long to get their metro card recharge or to collect travel token. Also, most of the time recharge machine is under maintenance & DMRC spends a lot of revenue on their maintenance.
Amyra was more worried as she has to be in a long queue to recharge her metro card. She is an existing DMRC application user, but she finds this application confusing and not so user friendly. Every time she has to rely on google while travelling to a new place to get information and directions.
Aashi and Piyush don’t use the DMRC application at all for any purpose as they are not aware of the existing application. They use the metro card to travel but have to be in a long queue to recharge their card.
Pradeep bhaiya confirms that he tricks the system sometimes to save time but need something to get rid of the long queue.
Here are some user reviews and ratings from google play also.
Let's categorise all user problems
After I had completed my initial round of usability testing, I reviewed the notes and wrote down all obstacles and crafted an affinity diagram.
User Pain Points
- Application has confusing navigations and route information and they can’t find relevant information easily
- Maps and directions are very hard to read
- Traveller still has to be in a queue to recharge their metro card
- Need the application in the Hindi language also for the people who don't know the English language
DMRC Pain Points
- Recharge machine maintenance cost is high
- Loss of revenue because of people spending more time in a long queue.
To better understand the scenario, I have crafted a user persona. Meet Amyra Agnihotri, an event manager who usually travels from the metro and most of the time she has to travel to a new location because of her job nature.
The Solution (Ideation) 😎
Synthesizing all the gathered information, I come up with some possible solutions.
For Metro users
- To create navigation within the application easy for travellers so that they can get relevant information without any pain
- The map and navigation should be easy to read
- Option to add a metro card in the application and to recharge their metro card from the DMRC application only to avoid being in a queue
- Option to opt for the Hindi language.
- For NFC mobile users, there should be an option to use their mobile device as a metro card for check-in and check-out.
In the current application, the navigation is not soo appropriate and not organized. I mean, everything has been shown in a first fold. I have tried to solve this cluttered architecture by organizing and grouping relevant options and put the most important option in front which is “view journey information”.
Map and navigation are also not relevant. I can’t figure out easily by which station should I interchange and to which station I suppose to go. For this, I have redesigned the journey screen and added some missing and important information.
The user is also getting the option to add his metro card and recharge his card from the application only. Users can also add multiple metro cards and can track transactions and travel details for each card.
The multilanguage option can be a tricky one. Not only Indians, but Foreigners also travel by DMRC. I kept this option simple for now and based on user inputs, the option to opt for the Hindi language has been added.
For DMRC
- Providing an option to our user to recharge their metro card from their mobile device can get rid of large recharge machines and can save lots of revenue.
- Less people in queue = more travelers = more revenue generate.
These solutions can help DMRC to save and generate more revenue. Giving the option to the user to recharge their metro card from the application only will save the expense of heavy recharge machines as most of the time the machine is under maintenance. More people can travel as they don’t have to be in a long queue anymore.
What’s new in the solution
I came up with the idea of using NFC for NFC enabled mobile devices. Near Field Communication (NFC) is a technology that allows two-way communication between a phone and an NFC tag; this communication is established when a phone is brought within 10 cm of the NFC tag. See Video
Introducing this feature can make the job easy for NFC enabled mobile device users. The user just has to enable NFC toggle to use his mobile device as a metro card.
Based on the pitched solution, I have redesigned the user flow of the DMRC application using MIRO.
MIRO is sooo cool…😍
The Sketch and Designs (Prototyping) 🖌️
Based on the Solution, I crafted Mid-Fidelity Wireframes using Balsamiq.
In this new flow, a user has to choose a language (Hindi or English) then he has to create an account using his phone number and OTP password. In this way, a user will be able to create an account to add a metro card and will be able to add a balance to his card. A user can also activate NFC on a particular card (if supported by his device)
The main objective is to get information between the start and the end station from the main “home screen”.
A user can get information of any station from the “station tab” (train timings, number of the gate, sources around, etc.) about a specific station.
In the “metro card” section, the user can add and see all his added metro cards. He can also recharge his metro card from the application only and see transaction history and travel history as well.
And from the menu tab, a user can access other options like edit profile, a tour guide, lost and found, help and support, DMRC information etc.
Visual Mockups & Prototype
Here are the visual mockups and working prototype of my mid-fidelity wireframes.
Testing the Designs (testing) ⚙️
Again, I went back to my users and asked them to test the prototype and noted their feedbacks.
Outcome
In this project, I just tried to craft a better overall experience based on self-observation and reviews of few DMRC users. The features I have implemented reduce the stress of using the app on the run and let the app serve as a guide for both tourists and locals. The results might be different when the actual product is presented to the end-user and there might be some new challenges that people might face. In that case, I would need to reiterate the prototype.
I do not work for, nor am I affiliated with DMRC. I did this case study as I’m a regular commuter in Delhi Metro and as a Product Designer, I just wanted to make this product more usable and user friendly. I had much fun completing this project.