Product strategy, discovery, user experience
Ruter mobility hub
Combined mobility for a greener city
2018-2019
The project was part of Ruter’s initiative for combined mobility, and how providing several transport alternatives could contribute to less use of private cars. The assignment was to create a pilot in the form of an app for the corporate market, where employees could plan, book and pay for a trip, and also collect receipts for reimbursement. The combined mobility pilot was part of Ruters’ vision to give their customers more sustainable freedom of movement.
My role
As the lead designer in the team, I had the main role in leading the process from developing the concept and building the prototype. I worked closely with the whole team to define the vision for the pilot and identify the needs that it should address. In an iterative process I developed ideas, made sketches and prototypes and tested them with our target audience.
Challenge
Ruter as the main provider of mobility and transport in the city of Oslo had the aim to position “combined mobility” in the market. One challenging segment was the corporate market where the main form of transport still largely remained use of private cars and taxi. The goal was to present the advantage of other mobility options, such as cycling and public transport, in the context of time and cost and to make it easy to compare options and choose consciously.
How might we solve the travel need for business trips by combined-mobility and thus increase the proportion of travelers with sustainable alternatives.
Plan journey
After finding the right means of transport, the chosen alternative can be saved, with the possibility of booking in advance and setting reminders for the journey.
Pay and reimburse
All types of transport would be available for booking and payment in the app, including taxi and Bysykkel. This would make it easy to have an easy reimbursement solution in the app.
To make the app relevant for the corporate market we decided to keep taxi as an option. “Oslo taxi” as our first partner was a supplier of taxi services with a fixed price and delivery of the receipt in the app.
Compare options
Presenting different means of transport from cycling to taxi, the app makes it easy to compare options in order of relevance, time and cost of travel.
Reimbursement was one of the biggest pain points of corporate travelers. Especially when it comes to public transport, holding on to receipts and delivering them can be a big hassle. In the combined mobility app all receipts were gathered and sorted in one place ready to be sent for reimbursement.
Approach
Based on some initial insight and research, and an early prototype from the first phase of the project, our team started developing a new prototype to test and validate our ideas. We worked in 2 weeks iterations, gathering insights, developing ideas into prototypes and testing. Through many iterations and close collaboration with our stakeholders, taxi providers and city bike in Oslo we developed our first MVP. The insights and learnings of the project was taken further into the Ruter app project.
