Implemented a country-wide public transit payments service

Moovit is a popular public transit navigation app, with hundreds of millions of users across the world, Israel included. Followed by the Israeli Ministry of Transportation (MoT) tender, Moovit set out to allow Israeli riders to pay for all public transit types in Israel via the app. To provide a complete service, Moovit collaborated with Pango (a popular parking-payments app). While Pango operates the call center and credit clearing services, Moovit is in charge of the consumer experience. I was involved in the UX, UI, and research of the entire service.

Taking a bus ride home

The challenge

Working on this project included major challenges regarding the service registration and ride validation flows. Both flows demand many steps and details from the user, as required by the Ministry of Transportation.

Also, this payment system is unique and uncommon across the world. Therefore explaining how it works was going to be challenging as well.

Various screens from the service

Ride validation user flow (Screenshot from Miro)

The process

For the registration process (which was mainly planned and designed by me), we created a step-by-step flow, to make it feel easy.

We used in-app communications to tell users the required steps upfront so they will understand they should sign-up before their first ride, and not at the same moment.

The ride validation process, via phone, is much more tedious than simply scanning a "Rav-Kav" card.

For every bus ride, riders need to scan QR on bus > Choose a line they are on > Choose destination stop > Validate.

Various screens from the registration flow

Various screens from validation flow for bus and train

Usability testing

We tested the flow with riders in our offices.

Most testers passed the registration steps easily, even complex steps like uploading IDs.

We did notice that users didn't fully understand how the service works, and the benefits from it. Some raised concerns about privacy and secured payments.

Some issues were taken care of before the launch, while others were "flagged" for follow-up in the beta testing phase on a larger user base.

Photos from our usability testing sessions

Service officially launched toward the end of 2020, with a great amount of coverage in the Israeli media. Since then, we kept following users' behavior, talking with them and with the support team, to find pain points and ways to improve the flow. Below are several examples of our work.

CASE #1

Vague service explanation

As we found out in the tests, users didn’t understand the service and had a low incentive to complete the long registration.

We changed the intro screen from a basic layout to a more “feature highlights” screen, and instead of mixing info about the registration process and the validation process, we focused on service benefits.

The visual itself got a facelift as well to feel more appealing, and give a hint about the main type of validation - scanning QR codes.

Intro screen, before (left) and after (right)

🏆

Following that change, the entire registration (users who finished all steps of registration) completion rate increased by ~4%.

CASE #2

Payment method step drop

Following the partnership with Pango, users were able to choose to pay using credit cards stored on Pango servers (if they have a Pango account), by just adding their CVV code.

The first solution was to add a modal after the selection asking CVV, which resulted in a drop. We assumed users were “caught unprepared” by the request for CVV from a card not necessarily in their wallet, and abandoned the process.

We changed the design of the screen to hint about the need in CVV before choosing the payment method, hoping they will be less surprised or take the alternative option.

Payment method selection screen, before (left) and after (right)

💸

Following that change fewer users left, and more chose to pay using their Pango account. Chances to complete the registration increased.

CASE #3

Skip destination stop selection

We know from prior research that most riders don’t know stations by name.

Looking at the analytics, it was clear that most users are riding in the Gush-Dan area, inside the same price code (15km range). We also know that 99% of “Dan” lines are less than 15km.

If the user boarded a line with all stops in the same price code, we skip the stop selection step.

🚏

Most riders get to skip the "stop selection" step, and by that, more users validate rides successfully.

CASE #4

Quick validation

Prior research shows that most users (±80%) ride on the same lines and routes every day (AKA "daily commuters").

We created a screen showing the rides from the same location they validated in the past, enabling them to validate rides with a single tap.

Recent rides screen

CASE #5

Helping users to end train rides

The Problem

According to MoT, users must create exit tickets when arriving at their train destination station, in order to set their ride fare. Otherwise, they will be charged for the rest of the day.

Also, they must keep the entrance code for inspection.

According to research, users left Moovit app once boarded the train, and opened it again when arrived, using the entrance code to exit the station (which is technically possible) - forgetting to end their ride and by that charged with the maximum daily fare.

Train entrance ticket screen, with "Create exit ticket" CTA

The Solution

We had a few solutions tested during several sprints, hoping to reduce the number of frustrated users:

Once validating the ticket, we reminded the users they’re being charged for the ride and must end it upon arrival.
A few minutes later, we sent an SMS with a reminder.
Once users got far away from the train station (assuming they boarded), we changed the screen, forcing them to make a conscious decision.

Composition showing the solutions we tested: 1. SMS, 2. Pop-up, 3. Screen UI changes when the user takes distance from the station, to force a conscious decision.

🚉

Following these changes, the percentage of open rides was reduced from over 20% to ~3%.

Tomer and Yehonatan listening to users

Follow up

To get more sense of users' problems, we go out to use the service ourselves, observe and talk with users in real-time.

These insights are crucial in helping Moovit plan its next steps.