Per Nilsson
Wave Ticketing
Improving a public transit service for transport workers and customers through a touchless ticketing system. (Academic Project)
My Role
Lead Flash AS2 developer, user interviewer + tester
Description
We developed a touchless (RFID) ticketing concept and presented it to the Skånetrafiken Public Transit company. Included on this page is the Flash interface designed to run on an HP handheld computer. It's a prototype developed to user-test the envisioned system with train conductors.
Our goal was to reduce the time needed for manual ticket controls, increasing the time available for customer service. Results of user tests were positive. We believe the fully implemented system would help Skånetrafiken retain customers as well as employees.
Video Scenario
Design Process
The brief was to design the new generation ticketing system for local transit provide Skånetrafiken. We developed personas to keep the focus on making the service easier to use for commuters.
Interviews
At first, we were looking at buses as well as commuter trains, but saw a greater potential for improvement on trains. We proceeded by interviewing three different train conductors. We learned that conductors want to spend more time with customer service, but that ticket controls take up most of their time.
The solution we proposed was a contact-less ticket system, coupled with sensors in train seats, and a handheld device used by train personnel. This allowed conductors to quickly see which passengers already had valid passes, and which might need to buy one, greatly streamlining their job and freeing them up for other tasks.
User Tests
We developed a handheld prototype of the system, and user tested it, on trains, with three different conductors. Our goal with the tests were to evaluate two functions: localizing passengers without valid tickets, and selling + activating tickets. The prototype was iterated between tests. Changes we made based on the tests were:
- Moved ticket sales-functionality from dedicated button to access it directly through clicking on a seat. This turned out to be an intuitive solution.
- Display of train car went from showing one whole car (zoomed out) to showing part of a car (zoomed in). Clicking the smaller seats demanded too high precision.
- Improved contrast between seats needing attention, and other seats.
- Changed background color to improve contrast and ease of viewing.
Challenges
- Simulating automatic positioning relative to train car. The users had to scroll and flip the screen manually.
- Getting Flash Lite to work with user interface components on the handheld.
Notes
Adam Danielsson assisted in code implementation. The project location was Sweden, so the interface and code comments are in Swedish.
Team
Per Nilsson, Sara Stiber, Daniel Brossner, Adam Danielsson, Christer Andersson
The Prototype Application
Instructions
The interface starts in administrator mode, and you are given a choice to "Activate Seats" or "Start" the main interface. This Seat Activation mode lets the user tester simulate a populated train car with RFID functionality, by marking seats supposed to be occupied by persons without a ticket.
When started, the main display will show a diagram of a train car. Blinking seats represent freeloaders.
- Press "Aktivera Säten".
- Clicking on a seat will mark it to simulate a person without a valid train ticket.
- Dragging the background lets you navigate the train car
- Clicking any "Vagn x" button will change the overview to a different train car.
- When ready, click the [<--] button to go back to the start screen
- Press "Starta!". This will activate the main interface
- Clicking the "u-turn" button flips the diagram 180° (in production, the screen would scroll and flip automatically as needed, using sensors and RFID location markers)
- Clicking any blinking seat to start the sale dialog. Enter number of Zones, one-way/return, onboard sales-fee, and whether the payment is cash or credit card
Actionscript Source Files
Download Flash file package (1.7Mb Zip)
Below is Actionscript source for online viewing. Please note that most code comments, as well as variable names, are in Swedish.