Helping passengers by understanding their needs

Often the best ideas are the simple ones.

For anyone catching a bus in London during the rush hour has probably experienced a mad crush on the lower level only to find that the top level is almost empty.  For some, they like the convenience of sitting or standing close to the door.  But for others, there the lack of visibility of what space is upstairs along with perhaps an assumption that it must be busy and not wanting to go up, find it is full and have to head back down again.

So it's great that responding to this, Transport for London are trialling a simple indicator to show the availability of seats on the upstairs level.

You can read more about the trial at this blog - http://goo.gl/AuJcVC 

Why can't we get passenger information right?

Back in November Passenger Focus released it's findings on what passengers needed when things go wrong; it didn't paint a very good picture of how the railway industry handles problems.  The recently issued National Passenger Survey continued to show a high level of dissatisfaction amongst passengers.

We know it’s not usually done well because of the recurring story from passengers when things go wrong is “we weren’t told anything”. As travellers we all know the feelings this generates in us about the organisations we have to use.

So why can't we get it right?  It's clear what passengers need...

(1) Passengers want an explanation of the reasons for the delay.  This shouldn't be couched in operational language but in terms that are understandable.  It doesn't have to be about blame but tell them what is going on and make them feel like you are taking ownership of the problem.

(2) The main need is what is the impact on their journey?  Do they need to change their plans? How late will they be? This requires information to be specific - generic descriptions of lateness or potential cancellations don't help passengers make decisions.  Should they seek a different route?  Crucially what alternatives are available?  This is a hard one as it often crosses over to other operators.

(3) Timing of the information - can they be told before they set out?  Is it too late for them to find an alternative?  So timing is critical. We've seen examples of emails sent by TOCs about trains when they already departed and the passengers can’t do anything.  It doesn't help that trains are usually not considered late until after they should have departed.

(4) Consistency.  The same information must be available across the various channels – from information boards in stations, social media, other online sources, staff, etc.  We got examples of receiving messages warning of problems only for there to be no sign of similar messages at the station; this relates to...

(5) Information that can be trusted – as an example, we all know that we lose trust in the motorway signs telling us of tailbacks that never materialise.

(6) Make sure staff are the best informed people.  Nothing is more frustrating than asking staff and seeing them look up at the information boards - it shouts that they don't know any more than the passenger!

(7) Work all the channels – this means people and digital.  Digital good for broadcasting information but don't rely on technology: people are more interactive and provide a personal service

Perhaps the biggest barrier to delivering this is how operators are organised, how they function when things go wrong and how they collaborate with other companies.  The common mode we see is that organisations get into “fixing the problem” - all resources are put into sorting the incident and restoring the service.  Informing passengers and spreading the message to those on the front line is a secondary consideration.

Part of this is about being able to quickly diagnose and determine the actions.  In our view, the focus should be on better organisational and service design to get the information right and pushed out.  This needs to come ahead of investing in new passenger information technology: if the information pushed out is poor, more display boards or twitter feeds won't help.  This is especially true around consistency and quality of information across the different channels.  For example, social media is not different from information displays in stations and operators are realising this isn’t a function to be provided separately by the marketing team.  

We’ve done some work with some rail companies to try and shorten the chain of communication between controllers making decisions and those who disseminate information – so there is some appetite to address this but more clearly needs to be done. It would be great to see more innovation and more collaboration to really tackle this and do it right.

So step one we suggest is to look at your organisation solely through the lens of the passenger and providing better information and see where you can improve.

iBeacons - should we be pushing or pulling content?

iBeacons are causing quite a stir at the moment with a flurry of major companies, including airlines, retail giants and arts venues running trials and pilot schemes trying to work out how they can be employed, the benefits they may bring and how consumers react to the geo-position enabled devices.

The key battleground, as we see it, is the contest between enabling customers to pull context-relevant information when they want it vs. companies using the technology to push information.  The push model seems to have the negative potential to become intrusive and marketing led.

iBeacons are small, low cost, location transmitting devices, that can be installed in fixed locations within the built environment to talk to smartphones via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). They have the advantage over GPS in that they work inside and therefore can enable smartphone apps to trigger personalised messages and bespoke content to users when they come within close proximity to the beacons. In essence, the beacons provide the user with location sensitive information/content that has not before been possible within buildings. It also enables the provider to monitor where people are – for example, as shopper walks into a store or a passenger nears a check-in area.

Recently Tesco and Waitrose have both been running pilot schemes at single store locations with an expressed aim to boost customer shopping experience. Waitrose have developed an in-store mode to its app which, via the beacons, enables users to receive in-store offers as they approach particular aisles or food counters, read product reviews and add and collect items in a virtual shopping basket.

In another camp, Tescos are playing it more cautiously. Their trial is initially being used to deliver pop-up reminders to customers to pick up pre-ordered items as they walk into the store. Tesco have said they will be holding off pushing promotions, for the time being, over fears it could scare customers away from using the app if they are bombarded with messages.

Meanwhile in France, supermarket giant Carrefour have jumped in with both feet in its flagship Paris store, installing 200 beacons, which automatically open the Carrefour app upon entering the store then enable shoppers to be guided around the store in the most efficient manner to collect items from their personal shopping lists and/or recipe ingredients they have selected on their app at home. Their intention is to soon send geo-push coupons and offers to shoppers’ phones based on their location in-store and buying profile.

Over in the arts sector, the power of iBeacon-enabled apps is set to revolutionise the visitor experience within museums, galleries and exhibitions. Location sensitive content pushed to visitor smartphones and tablets as they approach exhibits has the potential to unearth a fresh new layer of rich and interesting information to support and entertain the visitor as they wander around the museum/gallery. Current thinking has proposed concepts such as:

• Provide additional information about an exhibit to bring it to life. For example a video or sound clip describing the details, inspiration and interesting anecdotes about a painting. 
• Augmented reality allowing the viewer to look back in time at the interior of a room via their smart phone screen. 
• Present information in a large range of languages rather than the sometimes limited set on printed information. 
• Provide suggestions of other artwork or pieces within the gallery based on items the viewer ‘likes’. 
• Provision of contextual info which automatically pops up as the viewer walks past a painting/exhibit making interaction effortless. The viewer chooses whether to engage with the pop up…. or not. 
• Provide dynamic routing around large exhibits and communicate proximity to facilities. 

Airports are busy transport hubs, with high passenger numbers who all have to abide by a set process and schedule. The airport also has a multitude of facilities, from retail, to dining to leisure. Within this dynamic and inherently multi-cultural environment there are opportunities for the application of technology and iBeacons to simplify or enhance the journey. SITA have recently published their research findings on the use of iBeacons in airports.  This includes automating the push of boarding info, automatically bringing passenger boarding card onto the smartphone homescreen when nearing checkpoints and advising passengers of the “rules” (e.g. remove liquids and laptops from your hand baggage) and informing arriving passengers of baggage timings and reclaim belt details.

Easyjet are also trialling iBeacons at three of their key airports allowing users of the Easyjet app to receive updates and personal info at key touchpoints. These include where to drop off oversize luggage, and personalising live boarding gate info to save passengers having to stare at departure screens. Virgin Atlantic are also on board with an iBeacon trial but appear to be pushing the envelope further with push notifications sent to passengers informing them of partner company promotions such as a currency exchange offer as they pass the TravelEx. They are also aiming to push notifications to passengers in the Virgin Club lounge when slots in the Club spa become available.

All of these trials and ideas show that there are different views and a very careful line to tread here between engagement and bombardment. So, are iBeacons the future of customer experience?

They certainly seem to offer an interesting opportunity to engage and communicate important useful information to users and to aide supporting navigation around indoor spaces. In the arts sector they can unlock whole new channels of information and entertainment. Most powerfully is what they can do in the provision of accessibility information and aiding navigation and travel information for hearing or sight impaired travellers.

However, there are clear concerns that the usefulness could easily be eroded by overzealous use for pushed marketing notifications.

We are interested in identifying positive applications where it can really make a difference to the users experience or interaction with a place. Our initial guidance on how iBeacon features should be utilised is that:

• Features which enrich the users experience or make it easier and reduce time queuing are positive and should be developed further. 
• Pop up notifications should be used sparingly and where companies believe they can deliver useful, usable content to the user.  The user needs to remain in control of what they receive
• Language selection inline with the users smartphone could really aide international travellers who may sometimes struggle in foreign buildings. 
• Geo-position targeted messages should not be use as a mass marketing tool. If it begins to feel like location targeted spam users will soon switch off and disconnect. 
• Automatic pop up of a feature that the user needs to use - such as a boarding pass is good, automatic pop ups of adverts is not. 
• Use of digital content should be seen as supplementing physical signage and displays within the building, NOT replacing. Physical signage communicates to all, not just those with smart phones and selected apps. 
• iBeacon features have the potential to deliver accessibility information to passengers/users with hearing or sight impairments to help them navigate and access travel information. We see this as a genuinely powerful and positive use of the technology. 

Joined up journeys

One of the advantages that the car has over public transport is that it takes the passenger from A – B, door to- door, no changes, no hassle. So as well as being the ultimate consumer product, it is also convenient and easy. But with the costs of motoring rising, and roads becoming more congested, the car is losing much of its shine. Urban planners are focused on reducing the number of private vehicles on the road, and getting travellers onto the public transport network. The challenge for transport operators is how to give travellers as easy and comfortable a journey as possible.

One element that would improve the experience and encourage the shift from private to public transport would be to improve the interchange between different stages in the passenger journey. The need to interchange can arouse strong emotions in passengers – it is something we’d rather avoid, it’s a moment of stress and uncertainty, it is a point where we see the difference in service quality between the different parts of our journey. Rarely have different operators invested in eliminating the gaps created where two systems come together.

And complete journey is the important concept. That is what we take. But on public transport different legs are provided by different operators and take different forms. But each has to work and work together for the journey to pan out.

The success of transport is about multi-modal systems and making them work effectively. In the UK great steps are being taken to integrate; in particular, HS2 offers opportunities to create seamless interchanges which will be necessary to make the high-speed, high volume, high frequency network operate reliably.  HS2 has been designed from the ground-up with the needs of passengers at the very heart of the trains and station interchanges.  In the Middle East places like Jeddah are building a whole transport system in one go. Future smart cities thinking may provide a platform to support all of this.

So getting it right is about understanding those joins but across the piece – architecture & space, service, information, etc. If we are to do interchange better they need to work seamlessly together and be passenger focused – transport in the UK is run as a commercial enterprise by individual organisations – hence interchange doesn’t go as far as services waiting for a delayed inbound service. However, as transport operators are increasingly seeing the commercial value in being more passenger focussed , there is the prospect of change for the better when collaboration between operators can deliver better interchanges within a successful commercial model.

It’s about how we better support journey planning. At the moment we still have to interact with each provider – we can’t buy a door-to-door journey ticket. But why not? We don’t get many opportunities when the interchange is free – e.g. in London if you make a journey by tube and

then transfer to bus you pay twice…why? By contrast, Hong King has the Octopus card which does have the ability to allow free interchange to a certain extent. Data is supporting the whole journey planner although these are more often provided by third parties rather than the actual service providers.

At the moment technology doesn’t really support interchange in any meaningful way. We might have

some token efforts to provide some information displays say in a station about the bus or metro service. The passenger has to do the work to get real-time information. More apps are being developed, again usually by third parties. But there are no real mechanisms to help passengers respond to problems in real-time, or to rebook a leg of the journey, for example. Integrated ticketing and data is needed.

There are also opportunities for smarter technology. For example, if “the system” knows you are getting off at a station to transfer to the local tram system, then a smart system might reserve your train ticket to put you in a carriage near the right exit at the station. There is a great opportunity to support passengers better and great more personalized and adaptive services.

Then there is the physical environment – how does the architecture and urban space help?

Fundamental is good wayfinding but that can be extended into providing better  information before arrival – such as the process for queuing for taxi ranks which varies from one location to another.

As new stations and airports are developed, they are usually well designed to accommodate future anticipated growth in capacity. They sometimes perform less well in accommodating future interchange growth – so the taxi rank or bus stops or cycle racks don’t have similar space

to grow.

Often the problem for passengers is it doesn’t feel like a single ecosystem. Each operator brand their bit differently, has a different operational model so it behaves differently as the passenger views it and critically the service quality will vary. The experience of say arriving on a Virgin train and transferring to the tube or a bus puts you into two very different experiences.

Key messages – getting interchange right is key to great customer experience; making it work for passengers means seeing it as an integrated journey and therefore focus on the joins; all the bits have to work in harmony and this requires a change in service attitude (providing a graceful & planned handover rather than being dumped on the pavement!). The lesson service providers must learn is to look beyond their own boundaries are consider the passengers journey end-end – that means looking outwards rather than just within.

Is the ticket dead?

The news that London Underground are to close ticket offices (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-25025888) is set to change the nature of the "ticket" and the interaction between operator and customer.

The days of the little bit of paper clutched in our hands are clearly numbered.  Tickets moving onto our smart mobile devices creates a range of opportunities to enhance the passenger experience by offering a more joined-up, journey-orientated service.

With a ticket on a smartphone, the operator knows who you are.  This could be an enabler for more personalised and individual services.  Preferences, likes & dislikes can all be remembered and bookings and offers tailored accordingly.

The operator might also know where you are.  This might allow individual travel information to be pushed to you as you enter the station - "Welcome to King's Cross, your 12.43 train to York is running 5 minutes late and will be ready for boarding in 10 minutes from Platform 6".

Knowing where you are could help eliminate the current advance booking of seats that sit empty for the journey.  The system would only allocate the seat as you enter the station.  This could also provide more flexibility for you to change seats or even change which train you are going to get.  This could be the end of the ticket barrier too - no need to go through a gate as the "station" knows that everyone on the platform is a valid ticket holder.  No more ticket inspections?  Wouldn't that be nice.

This kind of consist information could be really useful to train operators who currently have no idea who is on their train.  It can help with ensuring passengers are spread through the train and enable a range of new personalised services to be offered on-board.

The removal of the ticket office could change the nature of the interaction between passenger and staff.  The current mode is very "over the counter" and is transactional in nature.  Removing the physical separation might allow more of a personal concierge-style service to be provided which is of more value to passengers.

The only loss is the old romance of that collectable bit of paper.  But that probably disappeared long ago anyway.

Let's hope that as this technology becomes more widespread, operators take the opportunity to provide genuinely better services to passengers and do more than get rid of some staff, sell us a ticket and push loads of advertising to our phones.

The reality of wayfinding in railway stations

Nice little blog that sums up the wayfinding experience of many in stations and how then the customer service has to rescue the situation (or sometimes fails to do so).  Most wayfinding mistakes result in annoyance or stress...but others have more significant consequences

http://wendyhome.com/2013/04/18/4-hour-detour/

Announcements - useful or annoying?

On all public transport systems we are generally bombarded by verbal announcements, many pre-recorded.  Some are useful - "the next train from platform 6 is the ..." but most are just noise - don't run when its wet, keep your belongings with you, etc.

It is similar to how our visual field is assailed by signs and information.  Again we have to look for those that are useful to us against the sea of warnings, advice and instructions.

But perhaps the tide is turning and the needs of the passenger are starting to make headway against the transport operators who are presumably following general practice and are trying to avoid potential litigation.  Transport Minister, Norman Baker, yesterday made some statements against the current volume of announcements - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21773741

After all, we need the information provision in our transport systems to help us find our way and use the services and not get lost amongst the noise.

Impact of digital mapping on wayfinding

An interesting article in the New Scientist recently highlighted some of the emerging trends in digital mapping and how our experience of navigating spaces and environments is changing. 

What does this mean for traditional methods of providing navigational information?

The way in which we find our way is changing.  The coverage of mapping information from Google, Apple, Bing and others is getting increasingly comprehensive.  The more recent move to mapping internal spaces is also growing – Google now has the annotated floor plans of over 10,000 buildings.

The real change with this mapping technology is that the way is accessed, usually via GPS and a smartphone, places you at the centre of the map and can often orientate the map to show you which way you are facing.

The question for traditional designers of wayfinding signage is whether this is a competing technology or a complementary approach to help us find our way.

Digital mapping offers many opportunities.  Augmented reality technology can be used to show the location of the destination (i.e. the entrance to a specific building) or points of interest along the way.  Other data can be drawn into show imminent weather or perhaps crime spots that should be avoided (with its own potentially negative impact).

However it is clear that there are a number of issues with an increasing reliance on digital mapping technology.  Research has shown that the limited view that we get on a screen narrows our field of view so whilst we can follow the directions we never effectively develop a mental model of where we are.  This increases our reliance on the technology as we don’t really learn the route – a problem when you leave your phone at home!

This lack of understanding where we are highlights one of the other main issues with the current technology…and that is trust.  The recent debacle for Apple has undermined the trust of many users.  When seen alongside the various tales of woe of people following their satnavs and getting into trouble.   It is clear that the technology still has some way to go!

We are also recognizing that the mapping technology is owned by large multinationals with their own agendas – for example, perhaps they are more likely to identify points of interest with whom they have a commercial interest than those of genuine interest to us.

Digital mapping will only increase and the technology will improve rapidly including how that information is provided.  Research has shown that people referring to their phones walk more slowly, actually walk longer distances and were worse at orientation than those using a paper map. So for success maybe the future is more integrated technology like Google Glass.  At the moment, it feels like reliance on mapping technology makes us less likely to absorb our surroundings, be less inquisitive and adventurous – a less interesting way of getting around.

But the need for us to consider the built environment independent of the technology will also not go away – the technology will always have shortcomings and we have to cater for those who can’t or don’t use the technology (inclusive design?). 

The challenge is how can we provide wayfinding using a range of methods and how can we harness all of these to help people get the mental model of how a space is laid out and how they can navigate without reliance on any one method.

Improved Passenger Experience with Smartphone Technology

Alongside improving the design of airports, providing simpler wayfinding, and making the security process less stressful, the ever present smartphone seems to be the battleground for providing better information to the passenger at a number of points on the journey.

This article from the Amor Group presents a good summary of the current applications and uses for smartphone technology.  Worth a quick read:

Smartphones as an Enabler for Improved Passenger Experience

Report into Heathrow Winter Resilience

The recent enquiry report into the response at Heathrow airport to the recent winter snow raised many interesting points about communications in a complex control environment and responding to difficult situations.

The report highlighted the problems in managing real-time communications between different groups and functions all trying to collaborate.  We often see this in our control room design work - the resource required to disseminate information is often too much so only partial information is shared.  We have been looking at a number of projects recently where shared systems automatically enable visibility of information held by other functions so reducing this problem - providing communications in parallel rather than serial.

This kind of information sharing is important for different teams to retain the "big picture" overview of the situation, one which is often changing rapidly.  Good situational awareness is critical for the right decisions to be made at all levels of crisis response.

The report also flagged some interesting issues about the physical location of controls in relation to the events going on (many of the control rooms involved had no visibility of the airfield to give them that important contextual information) and in relation to each other.  Co-location of control rooms has its problems but it can be effective in short-cutting some of the communication flows.

One final point of note was the importance given to managing passenger needs during the crisis. Inevitably the focus of many operations during events like this is to focus on restoring the service as quickly as possible.  But if all resources are directed on this then the operation ignores supporting the passengers during this stressful experience.  It was good to see recommendations covering passenger welfare both in terms of provision of regular, up to date information and in providing temporary facilities in the airport.

Rail fares advice "inadequate" - are there design solutions?

According to Which?, the advice that passengers receive on selecting the right train fare is inadquate - www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12563302.

Why is this and what could be done to fix the problem?  Well we've tried to give the problem some thought and come up with some ideas.

1) The train companies need to start thinking more like passengers and how they plan their journeys.
How do we think about a journey when we travel? We know where we want to start, where we want to go, what time we want to leave or arrive, whether we need to go via somewhere or stop off and whether we want to go with the shortest journey time or lowest cost.  We might know when we want to travel one way but not be sure of when we are going to return; or I might want to return to or from a different station.

So why can't the ticket machines, websites and the staff in the ticket offices get our travel requirements in a similar way? Ticket machines and websites could be designed to help you with this kind of route planning based around asking questions and allowing more freedom of potential responses.  Staff in ticket offices could be given intelligent support systems to help them diagnose what the customer wants.

2) Simplify the ticket options.
Some efforts have been made in the last few years to reduce the complexity of the ticket structures but its still not that simple.  For example, who really understands the range of what peak vs off peak really means on different lines?  Do you know when off-peak starts?  How do you find out?

So why don't ticket machines, offices and websites give you this information?  If you specify a departure time towards the end of the peak, why can't you be given the clear option of delaying slightly and getting a cheaper ticket?  The information on restrictions (and opportunities) needs to be pushed visibly at the passenger so they can make better decisions.

3) Ease the complex regulations
Whilst the railway industry clearly has to run as a business, some of the regulations that operate and restrict are arcane and impenitrable. For example, rules about breaking journeys or how you can't easily buy a ticket to extend a journey beyond the reach of your Oyster card in London.  None of this is passenger focused.

The industry is clearly poorly set up for this.  The structure makes it difficult to buy tickets that use services from different train operating companies.  But as passengers we take a "train", we don't take a Virgin train or a FCC train.  The distinction between companies should be invisible.  One thing this does is push you towards using the train company websites individually.  What a pain to maintain different logons for each website!  Why can't we have one single website (like the Trainline offers on a commercial basis)?

Holograms to help you get through airport security?

Luton Airport are introducing holographic helpers to advise passengers and help them to get through the security checks more easily and efficiently.



An interesting concept. As we all know airport security is confusing and stressful.  There are an array of signs trying to tell  us what to do but trying to absorb this information in this situation is difficult - so we usually fail to do so, further increasing the stress of the uncertainty.

Perhaps the ideal would be just to have more staff on duty but the repition of information is something people aren't great at doing - certainly not with any enthusiasm - and we have to recognise that the cost would be high.

People are best for responding to questions and dealing with odd events.  So it would seem that something like these holograms, that can deliver the basic information in a more absorbable way, may have something going for them.

Anyone going through Luton Airport that sees them in operation, please do comment with your views.