DebEz
DebEz is a smart mobility app, that helps the citizens of Debrecen, Hungary to navigate the map easier and buy tickets quickly through the app.
About the project
Brief introduction
Debrecen is a city located in the eastern part of Hungary. It is the second largest city with over 200.000 inhabitants. Debrecen is known as a student friendly city because one of the best universities (University of Debrecen) is located there and it is highly ranked globally. It is also a quiet and green city which makes it more special.
The problem
Public transport is one of the most concerning issues for inhabitants because of the lack of buses in the late hours and also no frequent buses early in the morning which makes it hard for people to go to work, school or carry on with their activities. There is no punctuality in the arrival time of vehicles and a few bus lanes are available (it covers 5.5km). During Covid-19, people wouldn’t use public transport because of hygienic issues, so there has been a need to come up with solutions.
Project duration
1st month
Research- user study,
Brainstorming, solution idea
2nd month
UX- design strategy, IA, Low-fidelity and
high fidelity wireframes
3rd month
UI- visual design, prototyping, mockup
Tools used
Design process
For this project, we decided to follow Design-Thinking process, a user- focused approach to problem solving. A customer’s goal is making their own life easier, saving money and feel more awesome
Research
Meet the user. Understand the
issue
Empathize
Understanding people’s concerns and feedback
Ideate & Create
Generating the idea
Coming up with wireframes
Test
Testing the ideas and wireframes before moving forward.
Develop & prototype
Usability and experimentation
Test
Refining the product
Empathize & learning phase
During this phase, it is crucial to get feedback by citizens and experts who are affected by this issue and also are responsible of it. The outcome is to understand user’s needs, frustrations and wishes to have better services. What they think and feel about this problem is important. We have used two research
methods: qualitative and quantitative research integrated with user personas.
Qualitative research phase
Interview with one of DKV experts regarding the current situation of public transport in Debrecen via Zoom
Questions asked:
What actions have been taken so far?
What are the costs that make up the ticket
prices?
What are the current limitations?
Have there been any innovative ideas regarding the redesign of vehicles?
Will there be more discounts
for elderly people and
students?
Insights
Old traffic management
system
Longer bus trips face more problems
Punctuality
Rush hour and traffic
jam
Price of the ticket:
-fuel
-maintenance
-buses rental
Parking
spaces
Interview with one of Debrecen citizens via Zoom
Questions asked:
What do you like and dislike about public transport?
Are you satisfied with
the offered service?
Do you feel safe?
Do you think that
local community’s needs are fulfilled?
What changes have there been?
Insights
New generation prefers faster ways of transport
Comfort is a
priority + saving money
Carpool is preferred
Slow service
Punctuality
Quantitative research phase
Online survey done in Google Forms answered by 228 people
Competitive audit
Transport made easy
Pen & Paper
High-fidelity wireframes
Typography and Colors
Prototype
Challenges
- Trying not to get biased opinions while testing the prototype.
- Placing the achievement and game features on the app
Achievement
This project was part of Innovacity mobility Design-Thinking by EIT Urban Mobility, a hackathon-like workshops.
The prototype is a team-project. The co-creators are Fayez Al-Hamad and Imane Moustakim. We pitched our idea on the 24th of June 2021 and it got positive feedback by Hungarian experts. On the 5th of October, we pitched our idea again, in front of an international panel. Our prototype was liked a lot and became the winning idea.
We pitched in HACK N TALK start-up event and we introduced this project in Munich, Germany on the 2nd of December 2021.
