Mapping out mobility, a radical idea in 2015?

On the past 6th to the 8th of July 2011, took place the Lift 2011France, in Marseille,  where Utilisacteur held a 3 hours workshop around the methodology Kahn & associates / Utilisacteur mixing information design and service design.  

We counted in the room various and complementary profiles, like « La Poste innovation », the INRIA, Bouygues telecom Innovation, the Chronos group, the « Cantine Numérique » from Rennes, local communities: Rennes, Grand Lyon, CG Marseille, service designers, engineers, associations and experts of transport. About forty participants split up in 4 groups, in which they discovered a character attributed to them. A set of card, as a common language, allowed them on the first 15 minutes to build the journey of their character :

- Step cards: preparation, departure, and arrival…

- transportation mode cards: walking, bike, subway, and bus…

- Object cards: Smartphone, luggage …

- information channel cards: ticket booth, agent, apps, announcement, descriptive

- Place cards: station, city…

 In a second part of the workshop, a game board allowed the participants to visualize and to complete their rough draft of scenario by placing cards from left to right and from top to bottom, and to identify which objects are used, for which information channels, for which transport mode, for such or such stage… This is called mapping the user experience, vizualised on a wireframe known as a " customer journey map ".

At this moment of the workshop some cards which could be missing were created, allowing groups to develop the set, before entering the final part of the workshop, identifying lacks and opportunities, step by step, in the character journey.  

As the main theme of this edition 2011 of the Lift was “ be radical ", participants were thrown in a 2015 horizon scenario, to help them find radical idea(s), from their "lack and opportunities" observation. The last phase of the workshop was followed by a discussion of the group about the current events on these subjects.

4 scenarios:

The team 1 developed the journey of a "connected seniors" couple on their way to holidays. The group suggests simple services, reassuring, available at any time of the route to help the couple from the preparation to the various stages of their travel, with the possibility of assisted mobilities objects  ( eg. intelligent wheelchair) to overcome specific senior problems.

The radical idea of the team: In this scenario, we notice an opportunity for a proactive posture from the mobility generators. For example, the hostel that can coordinate shuttles for their customers and then be placed as an actor of choice for potential " public transportation on demand".  A reassuring journey, services of accompaniment in the mobility, both in the various services and in the physical displacement of seniors, potentially with " intelligent wheelchairs ", sorts of micro intelligent mobile units in the systems of public transportation. We can observe a multi-channel access of the various services and the inherent problem of multi-screen still there in 2015, tablet, Smartphone and the problems (or opportunities) of low battery / finding energy.

NB: if the part of "connected" seniors (+ of 65 years) having an internet access represent only 31 % of the senior population in France, the rise of mobile internet accelerates the accessibility to those numeric services, an opportunity to explore the passenger support market.

It is on the experience of a "backpacker" arriving at the airport that the team 2 worked on, defined by a very reduced phase of preparation to build its route from the airport to its accommodation. The backpacker heard that some couch surfing is available in Asnières (a city nearby Paris) . Besides the difficulties with his backpack (that he would like to get rid of when he needs to), with the signage system, with its Chilean accent complicating interactions with the staff in the ticket office during the ticket purchase, he has an expensive mobile offer with 30 Mb of bandwidth in roaming to help him in his route. And a multitude of applications possible to download. But which one should be chosen...

The radical idea of the team: here is the opportunity of both more social and digital interaction in the public transportation. Why not share or offer peer to peer micro - loans of bandwidths for cellphone... Of course the battery remains a central problem to allow the tourists and the inhabitants of a country to facilitate the exchange. The sharing of 3G and more generally the access to connectivity is a backbone to use numeric services. In 2015, problems of nationalities are not still adjusted… a funny wink from the team, journey for foreign passports stakeholders even more tough in 2015 ?

The team 3 worked on the journey of a person with reduced mobility, still involving hazards scattered on the way but with more sociable mobility in year 2015. This traveller goes this morning to his work. It happens that he is also employed by SNCF (FRENCH NATIONAL RAILWAY COMPANY) in another station than his. Without stigmatizing this particular traveller, services of accompaniment and social networks between travellers motivate the community by different incentives : reductions or free travel to support an easy and simple mutual help between the travellers.

The radical idea of the team : What if an employer took into account his employees speficic mobility patterns to work ? This specific context of reduced mobility brings to the foreground the whole necessity of the employers to consider their role in their employees mobilities.  

The journey of a group is a particular case regarding mobility, on which had to work the team 4. With the development of a journey scenario of Participants to the Lift 2015 Brest / Paris / Marseille, that chose the public transportation, rather than pre-organized bus. The problems of synergies and slowness of a moving group, the delay of one of them, the specific needs of another one, implies that the group smartly coordinates itself in front various situations met during the journey. A late train impacts on the accompaniment of a person with reduced mobility, or dealing with the conference website providing more or less given information...  

The radical idea of the team: the dynamic ticket, a travel journey thought as a sequence of costs and choices. The final cost of the journey is calculated at the end, allowing a more fluid mobility, as well as avoiding the exponential complexities of a journey with connections (in situations of delays).

This workshop follows upon a first edition in partnership with the mission “No transport without design" , of the Apci, for the Ministry of the Sustainable development, Transport and the Accommodation, which gathered the French and European transport operators, design agencies and conception stakeholders, on May 27th of this year. Please contact christophe.tallec(at)utilisacteur.fr for request on any complementary information concerning the workshop or to know our offers creative sessions animations, service design and innovation