Get inspired

Abstract

With increasing populations, the need for transportation is increasing as well. This creates societal issues putting pressure on the affordability of transport, the liveability of cities and sustainability of mobility infrastructure. The radical innovation that could potentially reform the entire transport system in order to tackle these societal challenges is Mobility as a Service. But for MaaS to become a succes, the current way the Dutch mobility system functions has to change, and travellers need to adopt the use of the system in a way that societal issues will actually be solved. Whereas current developments regarding MaaS in the Netherlands are mainly focussed on creating a base on technical and policy level, this graduation project puts the individual traveller central. In collaboration with RET, 9292 and the Seamless Personal Mobility lab, the project evolved around the process of designing of a mobile MaaS journey plan application that supports travellers with tailormade travel advice to fulfil trip-dependent needs, when preparing a door-to-door travel plan. As a case study, the target group entailed travellers that travel to incidental leisure activities and live in an urban area with a large mobility offer (like Rotterdam). Along the line of a user-centred double diamond process, a variety of research activities and multiple design iterations are conducted with extensive user involvement to unravel true user needs and creating desirable and usable experiences. Based on the insights gained, a design of a mobile journey planner MaaS application is envisioned, prototyped and evaluated with travellers, mobility, design and technology experts. For MaaS to become a success, the service should provide added value for travellers to adopt the service and stimulate a positive travel behaviour change. Currently the way people travel is very much rooted in existing habits and routines. Cross-checking multiple application is carried out in search of finding the best travel plan fulfilling travellers’ specific travel needs. To improve the current process of planning a trip, the final design is focussed around supporting travellers in their information search on travel possibilities and evaluation of these alternatives. Design criteria for creating a personally relevant travel plan The process of creating a door-to-door travel plan should provide travellers with freedom of control and choice, speed and ease. Besides to create a window of opportunity for positive travel behaviour change, the design should provide personally relevant inspiration on a diversity of travel modes and allow for a clear comparison on different modes on each leg of the trip as well as for travels plans as a whole. Get inspired – a MaaS journey planner The final design is a journey planner sparking travellers with endless personalised travel possibilities. In the form of a white-label app, this design is envisioned being part of a MaaS application that supports travellers in their search for information and evaluation of possible travel modes and routes. The app provides travellers with two methods to create a door-to-door travel plan. The Reismodus method provides a few complete travel plans filtered by a personally chosen travel mode. On the other hand, travellers are provided with full control by the ability to compose the entire travel plan from scratch. On top of that, creating a profile and adding personal transport modes, subscriptions and/or discount cards, allows for evaluating the data that are truly apply to oneself. Evaluating on desirability, viability, feasibility and integrity The final design is evaluated with travellers, and design, technology and mobility experts on desirability, feasibility, viability and integrity. Conducting different guerrilla tests provided insights in the desire for an ‘advanced profile’ to support receive personally relevant travel suggestions and information, and a clear division of ‘Reismodus advocates’ and ‘Stel samen advocates’. Besides the different functionalities of the final design are provided an initial estimation on the level of complexity, and are reviewed by design experts on usability and UX patterns. Eventually a variety of evaluation sessions with mobility experts generated insights in the design’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential opportunities and threats.