irctc | rishinthomas

IRCTC app redesign

Ux case study

Brief

IRCTC Rail connect app plays an important role in Indian railway ticket booking. It was developed by IRCTC(Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation). It receded to a slew of disparate feelings that made the experience slow and complex to use. Therefore the user will search for another platform for booking. What if a strong chain has a weak link?

Goals

Make it easy to use for everyone.
Provide Good User Interface
Create a platform for deeper Engagement.

Interviews

I have conducted semi-structured interviews to find out the pain points of users. By interview, I could empathize with users. I always believe, framing the right questions and intent behind the question should be important before start the Interview

Discrepancies about app from users

Less effectiveness in booking system.
Need to enter login pin even for checking ticket status.
App got hanged during tatkal ticket booking
I think it should be more simple

Guerilla usability testing

Based on the interview insights and from my understanding of the function of the app, I decided to perform a Guerilla usability test as the second part of User Research. Thereby I can felt the frustrations of users whilst using the app. Therefore I could more empathize with users.

First User
I selected one of my friends for that. we met in a coffee shop and conducted the Guerilla test
Given Tasks

1) I asked him how he will book a ticket from Mumbai to Kerala.

2) Asked him how will you save the passenger details

Second User
I went to a mall and found a person who never used IRCTC app before. I told him about the context and task to perform. He agreed with me.

Given task
1) I asked him to book a train ticket from Kerala to Mumbai.

I recorded the video using the phone how they used the app after they granted permission. After a coffee from the mall(we both), I returned back.

Empathy mapping

From the interview insights and guerilla usability testing, I have created Empathy Mapping on Whiteboard. I mapped the four states(Says, Thinks, Does, Feels) of users to empathize more with them. Four states are represented in different colors.

Empathy mapping

Persona

From user study, I created personas for two categories such as a frequent user of the IRCTC app and new user to IRCTC app and categorized them according to activities pain points, and goals

Define problem

From research data, I got some pain points currently in IRCTC app. I am going to note down all the points I found

Pain Point 1: User need to rely on login pin to open the app

User needs to type login pin all time to access the app. It is required even for checking the booking status. One of the disadvantage of IRCTC App is its efficiency. Sometimes it takes a long time to open the app. Therefore users become frustrated if they forced to type login pin all time.

Pain Point 2: Discoverability issue with the passenger details adding

Pain Point 3: Difficulty in abbreviations

IRCTC app used many abbreviations like RAC, CNF, WL. That created a big frustration in users using the app first time. So they relied on another way to ticket booking. Even the majority of frequent users don't know the meaning of subscript numbers used with RAC and WL

Pain Point 4: Need to click on each coaches to know about their own ticket status

The user didn't get ticket details in a single tap. First, he or she got the train list. Then tapped on the required train to get details about coaches. Tap on the coach to show ticket details.