2. THE DESIGN PROBLEM
โ Design an application for booking Indian Railways
โCircular Journeyโ tickets. โ
3. SCOPE OF THE SOLUTION
A Circular Journey Ticketing Application for
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Route Selection
Train Selection
Break Selection
Ticket Availability per leg of journey
Itinerary tweaking to ensure validity
5. THE PROCESS
This is a very challenging and interesting exercise, which gave my opportunities to explore lot of things. First I started with some
research, trying to understand what exactly is circular journey and when, why and how people will use it.
I did some research online, tried identifying people through Facebook groups who have used it in past, interviewed them and
gathered information regarding their tradeoffs and pain points. I create open ended and close ended questionnaire and tried
gathering all information regarding the circular journey and overall train reservation system to innovate with my design. Basing
my user research data, I created 3 different personaโs with different needs and creating scenarios and user story around their
needs.
I also created user journey and mental model of users who would be using the online circular journey system in general.
Based on all the above exercises, I was able to come up with the applications detailed functionality and information architecture.
I created some rough notes and sketches throughout my problem solving timeline and with all the data I was able to collect, I
designed the โhigh fidelityโ wireframes.
Due to lack of time, I was not able to completely work on the visual design, hence tried making my wireframes as intuitive and
interactive as possible for the evaluators to judge.
7. PROCESS INCLUDES
โ Reviewing and understanding the Design Problem
โ Reviewing sites providing Circular Journey information
โ Researched blogs, post, forums talking about Circular
Journey Tickets and its process
9. UNDERSTANDING CIRCULAR JOURNEY
If you wish to go on a pilgrimage or sightseeing trip to
many destinations, Indian Railways provides the facility of
booking Circular Journey Tickets.
11. BOOKING FORM INPUTS
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Date of issue
Station Name
Train Name and number
Journey Date
From and to
No of Passengers
Distance
Description in case of combined tickets
Nature of concessions if any
Issuing authority
Fare
Reservation Charges
Total Amount
Name and Sign of SM/BC
Date of arrival
SM Signature
13. Once your itinerary is finalized, you can approach the Divisional Commercial Manager of the
Division of certain major stations to which the journey commencing station belongs.
The Divisional Commercial Manager or the station authorities will then calculate the cost of the
tickets based on your itinerary. He will also inform the Station Manager of the same in a prescribed
format.
You can purchase Circular Journey Tickets by presenting this form at the Booking Office of the station
where you propose to start your journey.
After purchasing the Circular Journey Ticket, you must approach the Reservation Office to reserve your
accommodation for various laps of your journey. You will then be issued reserved journey ticket for the
journey.
15. 1.
There are fixed numbers of circular journey routes and travellers cannot
define their own route, but have to choose from one of the fixed set of
routes
2.
Maximum of 8 break journeys will be admissible within validity period on a
ticket
3.
Circular journey begins and ends at the same station and cannot have
exceptions
4.
Validity period starts from date of commencement of Journey
5.
Manual process, which expects the person to go to the major stations
from where the journey commences
26. FEW ANSWERS
โif I can take a connecting train from a station enroute if the booking is not available all the way till
destination. It doesn't give me options. I need to separately research various trains and their routes in order to
find tht info.โ
Bindu Vaz
โso many things.. so many passwords required, tatkal ticket, availability constantly changing? I haven't
been able to get one yet unless I spend a lot of time!โ
Tulsi Dharmarajan
โHard to change itinerary without starting over.โ
Sarah Swart
โwaiting list, bad feedback..โ
Vikas Bo
27. USER INTERVIEWS
1. Identified few people who used Circular Journey in the past
through social networking groups, willing to answer my
questions
2. Created a list of questions to ask them and got their consent
3. Remotely Interviewed them and got my questions answered
33. KEY FEATURES AND FUNCTIONALITY DERIVED FROM RESEARCH
Home Page Flow
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Login
Quick booking
Circular journey
Contact us
FAQ
Login Flow
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Plan my trip
Plan my circular journey
My Bookings
Cancellations
Refunds
Search
FAQ
Plan my Circular Journey
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Get user inputs
Suggest route
Browse Routes
Select route
Add breakpoints
Find train and availability per leg of journey
Select train per leg of journey
Find hotel at each breakpoint
Select Hotel
Get destination information at each break points
Review Itinerary
Proceed with booking
Add passenger information
Select berth preferences
Add discounts if applicable
hold itinerary for a week
Modify Itinerary
Confirm Itinerary
Cancel Itinerary
FAQ
45. Top Header will have login and register information
Design Thought
Few informations and tasks doesn't need to have login until a particular phase. Why restrict users in the first step itself by
forcing them to login to start with planning and booking? This is a secondary need of any user, hence moved it to the top.
If users want they can login and continue, else they always have the option to freely start their travel planning from the home
page itself.
46. 90% of the users come to travel booking site with a
predefined travel plan in mind post researches
Design Thought
With a multi location travel plan
users are always confused which
route is betters for them, feasible, in
their budget and seek advices from
experts, friends and colleagues.
Leveraging users predefined plan
and mental model, the application
would get some key inputs from the
users and provide them the best
possible routes basing their needs
reducing their effort to think a lot.
47. 10% of the users plan their travel on the fly after browsing through
informations
Design Thought
For the users who have no predefined travel plans in mind, and want to plan
seeking routes, distance, price etc on their own, I have designed an alternative
flow which would show them all possible routes for any particular zone.
48. 10% of the users plan their travel on the fly after browsing through
informations
Design Thought
No users remember station codes by heart unless they are
frequent travellers. If we also provide a station lookup with an
interactive map on click of any city, corresponding stations
would show up, along with a free form search.
49. Users love when applications understands their needs and suggest
options
Design Thought
Users love when application understands
their need and drives the entire system
and flow according to their need and
expectations.
My application would gather key
information from the user during planning
and based on their inputs would suggest
best possible routes.
An option to edit inputs based on their
criteria and update suggestions/routes on
the fly give users complete control.
50. Remember users choice throughout the interface
Design Thought
If users have added multiple locations during
travel planning as their destinations, its because
they want to go to these places in most of the
cases except certain exceptions.
My application would remember the users
choices and during break point selection time it
automatically would select those points and
show as breakpoints.
Users always have option to control their
choices throughout the application.
51. Always provide smart options to the users, with full control
Design Thought
When the users checks โselect connecting trainโ from any
breakpoint, I would show them option to select which
connecting point from the circular route do they want to go .
Since my routes are closed and limited, the system know the
destinations and trains for those areas, hence my application
would only show options user wants to see.
52. Always provide smart options to the users, with full control
Design Thought
Users route are fixed, stations and breaks
are fixed, hence my application would show
them only trains fitting into their criteria and
inputs.
53. Always provide additional options to users as an add on
Design Thought
When users are travelling to any location, and
decided to break there, its very obvious they
might also look for accommodation unless
they have relatives and friends at every
location :)
My application would provide users options to
select if they need accommodation, if yes the
interface would suggest hotels (based on tie
up with local state tourism) for users to
select.
Similarly for sightseeing or pilgrimages visits,
users seeks travel guide, hence we can
provide them this options as well tying up
with local state tourism encouraging state
54. Record user choices and always provide them option to modify
Design Thought
Giving users control on what they do, how
they do is always a pleasure for them.
My application would remember and record
users every inputs and give them the
flexibility to modify it anytime.
55. Provide great experience within restrictions.
Design Thought
When user selected 8 breakpoint, the 9th
possible breakpoint in the circular journey
would get into disabled mode and trying to
click it would communicate the message and
restrictions.
56. Provide great experience within restrictions.
Design Thought
User should always know the systems limitations and restrictions and my application will have clear communication for
the same, allowing users to take control.
57. Always provide alternate ways to do the same task.
Design Thought
When user selects any point from the
map, my application would give them full
control to select it as a break point and
add trains, accommodations etc from
that point too.
58. Communicate clearly
Design Thought
When user selects any point from the
map as a breakpoint, there should be
some visual cue indicating the same and
my system would indicate added
breakpoints visually
59. Show users the preview of their tasks and provide them flexibility to tweak if needed
Design Thought
Once itinerary is built, I would show
users a summary of their trips, their
breakpoints, additional services they
added into their breaks, the cost per leg
etc.
If the itinerary is going out of their
budget or timeline post all settings, they
can always tweak it at this phase before
proceeding to the booking.
60. Show users the restrictions if any
Design Thought
Once my itinerary is finalize with all routes, trains, breaks etc, now comes the actual step of booking. I would show users
the limitation to login before proceeding from this point if this is a key business need. Else will add an (optional) message
indicating users can still skip login and continue to next steps.
61. Due to lack of time was not able to work on Visual Design and Style
Guide
