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Before-After DMRC.jpg

Delhi Metro Mobile Application

Client

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation

My Role

Independent UX Researcher

Tools

User Interviews

Project Duration

3 Months
Public Questionnaires
Affinity Mapping
DMRC

Overview

The Delhi Metro is world’s 7th largest Rapid Transit System. It accounts for 5.7 million journeys everyday.

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The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) recently planned to revamp their mobile application from the ground-up－introduce new UI, add new features and make it easy to navigate. This research aims to introduce a new paradigm of User Experience (UX) as the foundational core to the proposed redesigning of the DMRC Mobile Application.

Overview

The Problem

Their current app had many usability errors, bugs and UI had not been updated to keep up the new Operating Systems. The users called the app confusing, unresponsive and not user friendly. DMRC wanted a new look for the app such that it is more user-friendly.

Research Methods

Qualitative - Usability testing and Journey Mapping

  • Evaluative research using read-aloud method. 3 Users.

  • User feedback study through Google Play Store.

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Why?

  1. Observe users interacting with the current app

  2. Map their emotions and pain points.

  3. Understand the user’s mental model

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Quantitative - Survey

  • Online descriptive public survey. 162 responses.

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Why?

  1. Observe the public’s awareness and opinion about the app.

  2. Discover their usage patterns

  3. Study what features do they use and what they would like to use?

Data collected from online survey

User Research

Research Questions

  1. What are the current problems users are facing with the app?

  2. What new features should be added to the app?

  3. How should the information be structured so that the features are easy to find?

Insights

  1. Users can’t find the information they seek in the app.

  2. Users want to know many new features that the DMRC have not considered.

  3. One-third of the metro users have never used the app.

  4. Users are not aware of many features within the app.

Insights
Wireframe

Information architecture

I complied the data gathered from the Usability Study, Journey Mapping and the Survey into a User Flow. This was done to-

  1. Link the needs of the users to the features that DMRC is planning to roll-out.

  2. Prioritize the features that people need to the font of the app

  3. Group and link the features through the user’s mental model of using the app.

Evolution of the wireframe from Affinity Mapping

Challenges

  1. It was initially difficult to convince the stakeholders to change the app requirements. Showing reports and quantitative data helped.

  2. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, contextual interviews were not possible.

  3. Due to the time constraint, the research is done with only a fraction of the app’s users. It would be interesting to see the results stay the same if the sample size is increased. 

Challenges

Research Impact

  1. The insights from Usability Testing and Surveys changed the course of the design. Many of these features had earlier been overlooked by the DMRC.

  2. App was released in Feb 2022, with most of the solutions as proposed by the study. Its ratings have improved significantly on the App Stores as well.

  3. Features that users wanted eg. Nearest Metro Station, details about accessibility in the station, and UI changes Hamburger Menu design have been integrated.

“Sarth has done a meticulous and critical study on redesigning of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) App. His in-depth insights specific, actionable and futuristic recommendations have immense potential to help us in essentially connecting to millions of our users and making their every day commuting experiences much more pleasant and smoother.”

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—Mohinder Yadav, Sr. Deputy General Manager, DMRC

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