Project Overview

It was 2 days sprint conducted by SDSLabs Design and Design Studio. The problem statement was focused on the unavailability of E-Rikshaws on the campus premises. There were 3 teams, each of the team was asked to go through the specified Design Process and create the necessary UX Deliverables.

Problem Statement

E-rickshaws are the primary means of commute inside the campus. They have a large user base including students and residents. Manual rickshaws exist but are time-consuming and relatively expensive. The problems associated with the current system.

• No acceptance of digital payment
• Disimproved system of routes. No route optimization
• Rickshaws unavailability during emergency, during late hours or weak hours
• Internal disputes between rickshaw drivers, no system that runs them in an organized manner
• No standard system of rickshaw rates for different type of routes
• No proper management of E-Rickshaws, the existing method to differentiate between rickshaws of campus to that of outside ones is inefficient.

Assumed Data

• Total number of officially registered reckshwas is 40
• Rickshaw stands in the campus and their density at a different time (They mainly exist outside Kasturba Bhawan Hostel and Rajiv Bhawan Hostel).
• Rickshaws unavailability during emergency, during late hours or weak hours
• No. of outside rickshaws in the campus at a given time (at Rajiv Bhawan max 10, Kasturba Bhawan around 5).
• No. of drivers who accept payments through Paytm (about 1/4th of total).

Process

A 3 stage diamond model of design was followed, keeping in my mind that one will go through all individual processes in detail. The process is divided into 6 phases therefore 2 phases in each diamond.

• Understand (HMW Notes, Affinity Clustering and Mapping, User Experience Mapping)
• Define (Vision Statement, Golden Path)
• Sketch (Sketching Solutions, Low Fidelity Wireframing)
• Decide (Importance and Difficulty Matrix)
• Prototype (Storyboarding, Final Prototype)
• Validate ( Presentation, Feedback)

HMW Notes and Affinity Clustering

Each team member was asked to list down all the points that came in their mind related to the problem statement on sticky notes.
This process was done at a very fast pace so as to collect all the possible situations, pains, problems a user goes through while hiring an e-rick.This gave us a complete overview of the problem statement and later proved to be one reason for us to make sure that all problems were covered.
Next came was the sorting out of all those points listed on sticky notes in groups of similar problems. On the basis of which the following 9 categories were sorted out.

User Experience Mapping

During this process, we studied and created a journey of the user starting right from the point where he/she will think of boarding an e-rick and make the payment. We studied not only the journey but the whole experience and in what ways the user faces pains and opportunities. Based on this we created an experience map as well. I was assigned the task of creating the experience maps. Though everyone contributed to the discussion.

Vision Statement and Golden Path

After being able to analyze all the possible pains, opportunities and scenarios we were able to redefine our problem statement. The newly defined problem statement specified that what actually has to be done or in what direction it has to be solved. This also covered all those problems sorted during affinity mapping.
From here we decided to enter into phase 2 by drafting the Vision Statement which clearly defined our target and goal for the solution designed. The final product would now be based on our vision statement

Get an easy and secure ride with the convenience of digital payment inside the campus.

Then came finalizing the Golden Path which described the main user flow upon which the solution will be focused.

Devising Solutions

This stage mostly involved intense brainstorming session and proposing various solutions for different problems that a user can face during his/her journey. Every member would propose a solution and then the best fit solution was decided and sketched.
The solutions were based on all the opportunities and pains that were studied during User Experience Mapping. Also, they would cover up all the problems that were discussed during affinity mapping.

Sketching - Prototyping

Learning And Contribution

First, I got the opportunity to work with a team of designers, each one them having expertise in their field. So I got to learn the way they interpreted UX as an element of Design. Being a second-year student my work was mostly restricted to the UX Part as with UI I didn’t have much experience then and it was necessary to provide the final mockups of the solution in the nick of the time. However, I got the opportunity to design the logo.

I got to learn about various UX Deliverables like empathy mapping, storyboarding, affinity maps, journey maps, experience maps, vision statement, golden path and how to implement them in UX Research while solving for a problem statement.