Moovit

Service Design for Inclusiveness

My Role: User Research and UX/UI Design

Client: Moovit

Project Overview

Moovit is an Israeli app that helps users plan public transport routes, with the goal of making mobility a basic human right and helping people reach their destinations smoothly. However, it falls short in serving the elderly, who heavily rely on public transport but face challenges using the app. We used service design methodologies to enhance inclusivity within the Moovit app by focusing on this often-overlooked user group.

My Contributions

In a team of three, we identified a basic service currently addressed by technology: public transportation. We decided to focus on this area, particularly for the elderly community. Despite its importance, existing technological solutions fail to adequately serve this group, neglecting a significant segment of potential users. Our team conducted the research, user mapping, and requirements together, each contributing to different parts. My primary contribution was defining the solution and the UX/UI for each proposed value proposition.

we started by shaping our research questions, focusing on understanding the habits, needs, and challenges of the elderly when using public transportation. Our research included interviews with elders who uses public transportation regularly, as well as literature review, since much research already exists in this particular domain.
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In our research, we noted that most elderly individuals tend to rely on familiar public transportation for their regular trips, reducing the necessity of using Moovit. However, when seeking new destinations, they prefer user-friendly public transport over driving or costly taxis, highlighting a potential impactful use case for Moovit within this demographic. Therefore, we chose to focus our user journey mapping on this use case: an elderly person who wants to use public transportation to reach a new destination.

Research

After analyzing all of the findings, we had four key insights:

1) Public transportation can be stressful for anyone, but it is ten times more stressful for the elderly.

2) There is a lot of uncertainty involved in using public transportation, especially for the elderly. Mitigating it will significantly improve the experience.

3) Most of the elders have a strict routine. Changes usually don't sit well with them, and they have a difficult time adjusting to new methods, like using assistive technology (apps).
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4) Public transportation has a social aspect that older people enjoy such as going out, meeting people, seeing other people, and talking to them. We should consider this fact and make our service more personal and social.

Key Insights

Solution

While considering our findings and key insights, we started to envision what we wanted our future service would be like. Our thinking was guided by four main principles, each of which addressed a particular need or pain point that emerged during the research phase: Simplicity, Certainty, Personal, Social.
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After reflecting on the mapped user journey and key moments within it, and while considering our key values, we ended up with 4 value propositions, that have the greatest impact:

1) Clean Mode: In this mode, the app will be cleaned and displaying only essential information. On the home screen, users will select a departure, destination, and time. Results will be clear and prominent, with the algorithm prioritizing options better suited for the elderly, such as routes with fewer steps and better conditions, rather than just the fastest route. Clean mode will be the default for users over 65 and will be implemented across all app screens to make navigation simpler and clearer.

2) Ratings: The app will now provide additional information, such as the overall accessibility rating of the ride, the bus driver’s rating, bus crowding levels, and the length of required walks. These ratings will be based on feedback from other users.

3) Remind Me: A feature to remind users about important events during their journey, such as when to leave home, items to bring (e.g., medicine, Rav-Kav, documents), bus arrival times, and when to get off the bus. During onboarding, users can select what they want to be reminded about.
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4) Travel Buddy: Travel buddies are app users with similar routes to senior users. When the app identifies a match, it suggests a common meeting point. This feature aims to provide companionship and reassurance, while also offering assistance if needed.