Transportation Contextual Inquiries and Interviews
A company wanted to learn about commuters’ habits in a Chilean city and understand why they didn’t use public transportation. With uncertainty of the level of success that an innovative system could have in the city, my team was tasked with conducting research in the form of contextual inquiries and interviews, as well as assessing their initial reactions to a prototype.
I worked as a UX researcher in a team of 2. I helped in designing and planning the study, moderated interviews and contextual inquiries, and worked collaboratively on the deliverables.
Outcomes
The client was able to plan their next step on their product development process.
Findings revealed that cultural changes in the transportation companies were needed. Without these changes, commuters would not be interested enough in using public transportation.
Users
Commuters of the city of any age or gender
Bus drivers, bus owners and other people working at transportation businesses
Methodology
Interviews were conducted with commuters who did and did not use public transportation.
Contextual inquiries were held with bus drivers, bus owners and other workers at bus parking lots.
6 mod guides were created for this purpose, since interviews were specific to each user type.
Questions about the steps and emotions involved in their journey were asked:
Passengers mapped it out from planning their trip until they stepped out of the bus
Bus drivers mapped it out from getting a route assigned until they returned to the bus parking lot
Challenges
Contextual inquiries at transportation companies were planned ahead, but interviews with passengers were conducted in guerrilla style. There were times constraints related to this: being at the city for a short period of time and being tasked with finding enough participants for in-depth interviews.
Also, the client’s team needed results right away since they were moving into a next phase of development. We presented an initial report to satisfy this need, and afterwards we had more presentations with expanded findings.
Journey Map sample. It includes steps before, during and after the ride, emotions associated within every step, explanations, quotes and breaking points.
The presented information was modified from the original for privacy purposes.
Deliverables
6 personas and 1 proto-persona were created.
2 emotion/journey maps: one for passengers riding a bus and one for bus drivers
Proof of concept exploratory research results were included in a final report.
Recommended plan of action for launching the new system in the future.
All deliverables were presented to the client by my team member and me over the course of a few weekly meetings. Different members of the client’s team, who were working in other projects, attended the presentations.