Re-Design
When I was using the IRCTC Website, I realize
A slight mistake gonna impact a lot, as it is an App of the Indian Railway.
As 1.366 billion people use the App and 5,50,000 to 6,00,000 tickets are booked every day.
It is really important to provide a good user experience to people by making it more user-centric.
This is where I decided to start my career in UI/UX.
My goals for the redesign
- To design through user empathy
- To design a more user-friendly and intuitive user interface
- To provide a user-centric product by knowing their needs and pain points
My goals for my own personal development
- Learn how to conduct and analyze user research, create flow charts and wireframes, design through Adobe XD, and prototype.
- Complete my first design project from start to finish (Research to Design).
My Role during the process of redesign
- UX Researcher
- Data Analyst
- UI/UX Designer
Understanding the IRCTC App
As everything is automated these days, the government also decided to start a platform for online booking for trains.
It is a subsidiary of the Indian Railways that handles catering tourism and online ticketing operations.
It provides the following services.
- Online ticketing
- Tatkal scheme
- Tourism
- Train operation(catering and e-ticketing services)
5,50,000 to 6,00,000 tickets are bookings everyday
My user research and data
Before I began my redesign project, I conducted a user interview with 20 people to get a better understanding of whom I was designing for and to understand their pain points:
- Why do you usually use IRCTC App for?
- What is the reason to book tickets online?
- What is the problem they face while booking the tickets?
I conducted these interviews either in person or via a phone or video call. (Pandemic)
Target Audience Demographics
This was really interesting, Among the 20 people I interviewed, there were 13 males and 7 females. The age of the male users ranged from 19 to 52 years old, while the female users ranged from 22 to 45 years old. 45% are current college students and the remaining are parents.
I asked why they use IRCTC. Here were their top 3 reasons:
- To book a ticket
- To book a tatkal ticket
- To see the availability of seat and train
User Persona
Let’s get to know about Reshami and Rupak…
These were the major issues that I found during the research.
Experience 1 — Login Problem
Aside from the repetitive functions within the app, this is the major problem that I noticed. While conducting usability testing.
I’ve conducted usability testing with 5 people (As they cover most of the insights)
Problem: It’s hard to find CTA for registering.
Based on all the data I collected from user interviews and usability study.
came to know, many users are were getting difficult to find the Register CTA.
Only 20% of the user was able to locate the CTA for registering.
As we are habitual, When we want to open our existing account we often search for login CTA and if we don’t have an account we go for the signup process.
It didn’t follow one of the Heuristics Evaluation Using Familiar Metaphors and Language.
For the solution, I chose to show a sign in and log in clearly:
- It’s self-explanatory.
- If the user doesn’t have registered before he can by using the sign-in CTA.
- If the user already has a User Id and password he can directly log in.
- It would be a lot easier to recover the User Id or password.
Based on my results, overall Register knowledge of IRCTC wasn’t that great, After conducting user interviews.
- Only 20% of people found out the CTA for Registration.
- 10% thought they can’t register from the App.
- 70% of people were unable to find CTA for Registration, they kept switching from the Sign-in option to Log in option to find Registration CTA.
Experience 2- Dealy in booking for a tatkal ticket
As we know tatkal booking starts at 10 am for AC classes and 11 am for Non- AC classes.
Within 5–10 minutes, all tickets get booked usually.
If you’re late by any chance, you’re gonna miss the booking and probably have to wait for tomorrow to book.
The UX of the App plays the most important role here. If it’s self-explanatory and has a great flow.
The process can become easy and can be completed within no time.
Problem: Don’t have flexibility
You fill in all the details and now you have to make a final review before payment.
But you see the phone number on which they will send the ticket is wrong. You have to edit it now.
But,
You don’t have any option rather than to go back to block 1 and start the procedure again.
For the solution, I chose to give an option to edit before submission :
- It saves time and would help to speed up the process.
- It will help to edit the details over there, rather than sending the user to start over.
Experience 3- Payment options
After conducting usability testing, I saw many people got confused about the payment options as they’re so many.
Problem: They are so confusing and have a lot of options.
After conducting the user interview, 56% of the people called the payment process complicated and frustrating.
As the methods were not categorized.
For the solution, I chose to give an option to edit before submission :
- It saves time and would help to speed up the process.
- It will help to edit the details over there, rather than sending the user to start over.
If the user will opt to make a payment from a Credit/ Debit Card. After entering the first four-digit, It’ll automatically recognize the card and will take the process further.
Without wasting a lot of time thinking.
Usability Testing 🧪
Since this app design was for my personal project, I tested the working prototype of wireframes with 5 users to get a measurement of effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction.
I gave each user 3 tasks :
Task 1:
Register on the App.
Task 2:
Book tickets.
Task 3:
Make payment
Results 👍
The ISO/IEC 9126–4 approach to Usability Metrics
It defines usability as “the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use”. Usability is not a single, one-dimensional property but rather a combination of factors.
Effectiveness
Effectiveness is the accuracy and completeness with which users achieve specified goals.
Success Rate: 93%
Efficiency
Efficiency is relation to the accuracy and completeness with which users achieve goals.
The average time is taken to complete each task: 29.2 sec (Task 1), 42 sec (Task 2), 21 sec (Task 3).
Satisfaction
The comfort and acceptability of use is satisfaction.
I calculated satisfaction using the System Usability Score (SUS). The average System Usability Scale score is 68. If your score is under 68, then there are probably serious problems with your website usability which you should address. If your score is above 68, then you can relax a little bit...
SUS for all 5 users: 62, 66, 72, 81, 77
Conclusion 😇
The IRCTC is the only platform where everyone can book tickets online.
But its experience is not up to the mark. Which defiantly frustrates the user.
By doing small changes in UX we can provide users good experiencene.
Thank you for making till here :>
