Making the Invisible Visible

Abstract

Introduction This thesis is part of my Master of Science graduation project at the OV-chipkaart Graduation Lab of the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology. The aim of the Graduation Lab is to improve electronic ticketing for travellers using Dutch public transport in a 3 to 10 year time-span. This work is supported by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, provinces (IPO), city regions (SkVV), Dutch Railways (NS), Rotterdam public transport (RET), and consumer organisation Rover. Electronic ticketing The OV-chipkaart electronic ticketing system for Dutch public transport achieves its goals and fulfils its purpose as is (Niemantsverdriet, 2011). It is a reliable payment system that allows for exact revenue distribution and securing stations by limiting entrance to people with tickets. While these business goals have been achieved, a holistic and integrated travel experience has not been a top priority. Problem Groups of travellers have experienced system related problems that could have been solved beforehand, such as inconsistent and confusing human-machine interfaces, hard to understand system rules, and a lack of system transparency. Wayfinding, smartcard acquisition, problem solving and lack of transparency were the four main usability problems found in Joppien, Niermeijer & Niks (2013). The lack of transparency caused by the ticket information invisibility is a usability problem with low impact, high frequency and high persistency. Solving this usability problem will improve the customer satisfaction of a large group of people on many occasions. Product proposals To make ticket information visible, I studied the available technologies and analysed several solutions: portable smartcard reader, a smartcard with integrated display, local NFC smartcard communication and backend information communication. I evaluated these proposals with medium-fidelity prototypes with 16 travellers and 15 experts. I concluded that they see limited usefulness for a portable reader and are enthusiastic about the display card, but have strong preference for a smartphone solution. Participants would preferably use a smartphone that allows fare payment instead of just local NFC or backend ticket information visualisation. Recommended proposal With this user input, I designed a smartphone solution that allows travellers to pay for public transport and fits the existing OV-chipkaart infrastructure. I compared the viability of using GPS, NFC, BLE, tracking and QR codes for this purpose and concluded that QR codes best fit the requirements for the foreseeable future. QR code tickets are able to use scanners that are already being developed for international travellers and post-pay services for business travellers. Some of the other technologies do not have enough market penetration or have technical limitations. The proposed design for fare payment with smartphones is an app that generates a QR code and displays it on screen. This QR code is scanned at check-in and check-out points by a new type of validator, ensuring reliable fare collection. The QR code communicates the ticket information to the OV-chipkaart system while the app can display the same information in a human readable format to travellers. Conductors are able to validate tickets by scanning a similar QR code generated by the app. The app can also show travel history, as well as purchased and available season tickets, and current travel information based on GPS location information and online route information services. A user of this app is logged in to his public transport account, which links the smartphone to a bank account. I evaluated this smartphone fare payment proposal with a high-fidelity prototype with 10 participants and the results were positive. Participants preferred the use of a contactless technology that would not require line of sight (i.e., NFC, BLE or similar), but indicated that a solution that uses QR codes would both solve their ticket information visibility problem and be preferable in use to the current smartcard. While a growing majority of people has smartphones, there will probably always remain a group of people who either do not have one or do not want to use one for fare payment. To also improve the travel experience for these people, I also re-evaluated the display card. Participants without smartphones prefer the display card to paper tickets, the current smartcard and a smartphone solution. A major concern remains the development and production costs: travellers are probably unwilling to pay more for a required purchase. Selling the display card for a higher price besides a regular smartcard will probably result in a relatively low volume of sales, increasing the per unit production costs in a vicious circle. Especially infrequent travellers and low-income earners could benefit from greater insight into their credit balance and travel expenses, but would probably be reluctant to purchase a higher price display card. Conclusion I recommend developing both the display card and smartphone fare payment app, in order to improve the travel experience for all people. The display card should replace the existing smartcard. The smartphone app should start with QR codes for device-system communication and other technologies should be followed closely.