THSR APP Redesign
I redesigned the THSR APP by running through the entire UX design life cycle to enhance the user experience of THSR ticket booking and distribution.
Project Profile
TIME
3/2024 – 7/2024
BACKGROUND
A self-initiated project
ROLE
UX designer / UX researcher
SKILLS & TOOLS
Affinity Map / Persona / Information Architecture / Wireframing / Prototyping / Figma
Final Outcomes
More intuitive ticket distribution workflow
BEFORE
AFTER
Higher accessibility to the timetable
BEFORE
AFTER
Improved display of reservation details
BEFORE
AFTER
BACKGROUND
Potential improvement opportunity of THSR App
THSR APP is the official application of Taiwan High Speed Rail. As the main access to THSR services, I found a lot of users have complained about its usability and felt confused during their usage.
USER RESEARCH
User interview & App Store review crawl
I conducted two user research methods and then analyzed the results with affinity mapping and an impact matrix. Finally, I decided to work on two pain points.
User Interview
I conducted user interviews on 20 THSR App users.
Gender
Age
Frequency of Taking THSR
Affinity Map
Crawling reviews on the App Store
I wrote a Python script to crawl 500 recent reviews and filtered out those with ratings below three.
Summary
I used an impact matrix to analyze the 4 main pain points and decided to focus on the "ticket distribution" and "timetable" features.
DEFINITION
Building personas & analyzing user journeys
Based on prior user research, I created two personas and mapped their user journeys to define the target audience and the problems they encounter while interacting with the two features.
Persona
User Journey Map
How might I improve the user flow from checking timetable, booking tickets, to distributing tickets among multiple users?
IDEATION
Information architecture & user flow redesign
According to user feedbacks from the research, I redesigned the app’s IA and the user flows of ticket distribution and timetable checking to elevate the feature’s usability and accessibility.
Information Architecture
- Enhanced the timetable accessibility
- Reorganized the timetable information based on user needs
- Integrated various ticket statuses into a single tab for a more intuitive information architecture
BEFORE
AFTER
User Flow
- Integrated timetable checking into the ticket booking workflow to streamline the process and enhance efficiency
- Separated the ticket collection and distribution flows for usability
BEFORE
AFTER
WIREFRAMING & USABILITY TESTING
Checking Timetable
Ticket Distribution
1st round of iteration
Challenge
It's hard for users to be aware of the additional filter on the booking page for timetable checking
Added a checkbox for schedule display on the booking page when setting up filters
Allowed users to be aware of the new function in advance but the wording is too long
Adjusted the filter wording
It became more concise but could be confusing
Changed from buttons to tab pages
Consistent and intuitive for users but less scalable
Based on the testing results, all participants preferred the third solution for its consistency and usability.
- Switch form buttons to tab pages for intuitiveness
BEFORE
AFTER
PROTOTYPING & USABILITY TESTING
Information architecture & user flow redesign
According to user feedbacks from the research, I redesigned the app’s IA and the user flows of ticket distribution and timetable checking to elevate the feature’s usability and accessibility.
2nd round of iteration
- Reorganized the display of reservation details to allow users to know earlier whether the booked tickets meet their needs
BEFORE
AFTER
- Linked notifications to additional "History" page for better access to ticket distribution results
BEFORE
AFTER
FINAL DESIGN
A more accessible and intuitive UX design
I redesigned the ticket booking, distribution, and timetable checking processes, resulting in a significant improvement in usability testing metrics.
Ticket Booking
Adjusted reservation details based on user needs
User research revealed that when booking tickets, people care about their seats and prefer to review reservation details as early as possible to decide whether to continue with the booking process
Ticket Collection & Distribution
Separated the user flows of ticket collection and distribution for intuitiveness
Users are confused and find the current user flow troublesome, as it requires them to collect a ticket before distributing others
Integrated different status of tickets for simplification
I integrated different status of tickets (unpaid/uncollected/collected) into one tab page to make the information architecture more concise
Linked the distribution notification to the history page for usability
Users expressed a potential need for access to ticket distribution records after the operation, so I linked the pop-up message to an additional history page in the menu
Timetable Checking
Improved user access to the timetable by switching tab pages
When users missed booking tickets, they often needed to check the timetable to buy non-reserved seat tickets. However, in the past, they found it difficult to locate this function within the app
Added non-reserved seat information for user needs
Users require information about the number of non-reserved seats available on each train to help them decide which one to take
Enabled users to scroll through schedules for usability
Flipping through pages to browse trains can be overwhelming for users, making it difficult for them to identify newly loaded schedules
Outcomes
Num of Taps
User Feedback
All participants reported that my redesign is easier to use than the original version and takes them less time to learn.
REFLECTION
Information architecture & user flow redesign
According to user feedbacks from the research, I redesigned the app’s IA and the user flows of ticket distribution and timetable checking to elevate the feature’s usability and accessibility.
If I can deploy the new design into the market and conduct usability testing with real users, I will measure the task success rate for ticket distribution and the average time users spend completing the task. This approach will help me verify whether users can achieve their goals more efficiently with my redesign.