What is it about?

Deutsche Bahn Dinge is a project I was a part of, in my fourth semester. We were involved in collecting data using contextual inquiry, analyzing the data, creating affinity maps, and then prototyping the system.

I was part of the group for the project, where four of us were responsible, and we all shared equal responsibilities in each task.

DB Dinge

The Problem

The main problem was to research the aspect of DB. We selected this particular project for our research as it is very common to everyone, and also based on the daily problems people face with the train system.

Design Process

We started our research by conducting a contextual inquiry. We started with finding the participants for our project, which was a bit easier as we could branch out to student groups, and people we knew. It was also easier as the Deutsche Bahn is such an essential part of everyone. We followed the participants and followed along with their daily activities and how they proceeded to use the app.

We also conducted further processes where external individuals engaged with our affinity mapping in order to stimulate a solution-oriented thinking process.

Oftentimes, we think we know what is best for the user, and often fail to see beyond that. To make sure this does not happen, we had external participants to go through our notes and add their thoughts to it. This way, it helped us see beyond the picture and also helped us gain a new insight.

After selection the ideas that seemed the most common among everyone, we decided on some of the main functionalities that would help with the existing DB app and worked on a prototype for the system.

Prototyping the Ideas

Interpretation Session and Affinity Mapping

After the contextual inquiry session, we moved on to interpret our findings and get on with the interpretations. For this, since we were a group of 4, we each made notes of what findings we had and collectively noted them down. After this, we selected a contextual design model for bridging the gap between design and data.

Conceptual

UX Design

Doing so, we were able to recognize the patterns among them, and also make note of the problems they were having. We were mostly focused on what their problems were, how they solved them, and what other measures they used as well. We also made a note to collect the tacit data.

Contextual Inquiry: Observing our participant how she traveled using DB

Contextual Design Model

A snippet of the affinity mapping process

Storyboarding/User Personas

We prototyped for all the possible scenarios. You can view the video here.

Learnings

Through a collaborative approach, it was a valuable learning experience to understand UX methods and how they can be applied effectively. Additionally, I discovered improved ways to:

Collaboration with the team
New techniques for data research
Contextual design and its method
UX methods

Client

Sector

My Role

Project Time

Uni Project

Transport

3 months

Researcher

What is it about?

Deutsche Bahn Dinge is a project I was a part of, in my fourth semester. We were involved in collecting data using contextual inquiry, analyzing the data, creating affinity maps, and then prototyping the system.

I was part of the group for the project, where four of us were responsible, and we all shared equal responsibilities in each task.

DB Dinge

The Problem

The main problem was to research the aspect of DB. We selected this particular project for our research as it is very common to everyone, and also based on the daily problems people face with the train system.

Design Process

We also conducted further processes where external individuals engaged with our affinity mapping in order to stimulate a solution-oriented thinking process.

Oftentimes, we think we know what is best for the user, and often fail to see beyond that. To make sure this does not happen, we had external participants to go through our notes and add their thoughts to it. This way, it helped us see beyond the picture and also helped us gain a new insight.

After selection the ideas that seemed the most common among everyone, we decided on some of the main functionalities that would help with the existing DB app and worked on a prototype for the system.

Prototyping the Ideas

Interpretation Session and Affinity Mapping

Doing so, we were able to recognize the patterns among them, and also make note of the problems they were having. We were mostly focused on what their problems were, how they solved them, and what other measures they used as well. We also made a note to collect the tacit data.

Storyboarding/User Personas

We prototyped for all the possible scenarios. You can view the video here.

Learnings

Through a collaborative approach, it was a valuable learning experience to understand UX methods and how they can be applied effectively. Additionally, I discovered improved ways to:

Collaboration with the team

New techniques for data research

Contextual design and its method

Client

Sector

My Role

Project Time