Mobimeo’s User-Centric Approach for Product Development

May 19, 2021
4 min
Photo: Unsplash/Kaleidiko
Die Corona-Pandemie hat sich auf fast alle Bereiche des öffentlichen und privaten Lebens ausgewirkt. Auch mit Blick auf die Mobilität hat die Krise für noch nie da gewesene Verhältnisse gesorgt und Entwicklungen beschleunigt, die sich sonst wahrscheinlich erst in einigen Jahren realisiert hätten. Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) kann eine Lösung für Mobilitätsanbieter sein, um mit den Folgen der Pandemie umzugehen.
Congestion, air pollution and CO2 emissions in cities and urban areas are one of the biggest challenges we face today, especially since the number of people living in cities is constantly increasing. There is a need to change behaviour in terms of how people move from A to B, improve air quality and reduce individual carbon footprints. Mobimeo builds a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform that connects public transport, sharing and on-demand alternatives to create easy access to all mobility options and encourage a shift towards more sustainable modes of transport. To achieve this, we consider user and market needs throughout the development process. We work across disciplines and in agile teams to constantly iterate and make improvements to provide users with an attractive and relaxed mobility experience. → This Blog-Post is the first in a series of several posts. In this article, we give you an understanding of what a user-centric approach means for Mobimeo. The following articles will demonstrate this approach along our products.
Author: Anna Filby, Digital Trainee

Anna is a Digital Trainee at Deutsche Bahn with experience in new mobility and product innovation. In her second practical posting, she worked at Mobimeo in the Communication and Marketing team. Anna is convinced that understanding the needs of the user offers a great opportunity to redesign the way we move in cities.

We use our knowledge of users and the market to create engagement

To ensure we build products that are user-centric and address the needs of the market, we keep one eye on the user and the other on the needs of the market during our development process.

 

Our 4 principles for product development

Our goal is to uncover user needs and market opportunities to drive Mobimeo to develop better, user-centric products that increase engagement. Our vision is to make cities greener and mobility easier. Based on user needs, we apply four core principles to do this:
1. Radically simple design: Mobimeo’s design language is created to enable an easy-to-use interface by reducing complexity for the user. Therefore, our design is the foundation for a great product experience.

2. Personalisation: At Mobimeo, we develop a digital mobility platform with personalised route offers and information to create added value for individuals.

3. Contextualisation: We give contextual recommendations so that users can choose the best connection to their destination.

4. One-stop shop: We provide route search, deep integration and deep linking of mobility providers as well as booking options in one solution that makes it easy for users to choose greener modes of transport.

 

We develop MaaS solutions based on users’ needs

As mobility is changing rapidly, new forms are emerging and numerous apps to access these services have entered the market. In recent years, this has become increasingly confusing for the user and it is often a challenge to find the most suitable mode of transport for one’s situation. These are just some of the problems users face. At Mobimeo, we are shaping the future of urban mobility by tailoring our products to people’s needs, based on research and insights.

To develop MaaS applications, we look closely at our users by deploying personas. We know how to excite users and bring them into the MaaS world by continuously evaluating and considering their needs, preferences, situations and challenges. Based on data from various studies and the analytics team, we continuously enrich and evolve our personas. The uptake of our products is high as we develop our features for different target groups. Our goal is to make daily mobility as easy as possible.

 

Mobimeo’s product development process

Our product development process follows a structured design approach that is divided into several phases. To ensure that the user is at the center of this process, we have a strong team that constantly shares insights to have the best product version available and create exceptional experiences.

01 Discover
In the discovery phase, we uncover user needs, explore opportunity spaces and innovation. We conduct research to jointly define the target user and our value proposition.

02 Define
We define our focus, design and validate concepts and our hypotheses about needs and solutions to narrow down ideas.

03 Develop
We ideate and test our concepts to validate user experience.

04 Deliver
We embed quality assurance practices deep into the development cycle and regularly test our apps in various test scenarios to increase quality in our processes and products. Just before we launch our product or new features, we conduct usability testings (method of evaluating products with users) and beta tests to closely track how our products are used.

05 Evolve
After we launch, we are not done. We continuously monitor the apps to validate hypotheses and explore new possibilities for product improvements. Ongoing evaluations, follow-up interviews and analyses enable us to improve and expand our product. For example, we analyse how users interact with our product. We collect user feedback that we pass on to the other teams in the development process.

 

Data driven decisions

To understand the user from the beginning, Mobimeo’s UX Research team applies various methods, from ethnographic studies, user journey analysis and personas, usability testing to market analysis and feature prioritisation. The Product and Quality Assurance team continuously iterates on products and embeds quality assurance practices deep into the development cycle. At Mobimeo, we regularly test our apps in various scenarios. We also do field trips to evaluate new features. Therefore, we involve multiple Mobimeos from other teams as well as users to make our tests as accurate as possible. The Product Analytics team measures at the same time the success of the product and evaluates which experiences are most likely to appeal to users to make them use the apps for a long time and increase the reach. Last but not least, the design team translates the product vision into visuals and tests the app interface for user experience and intuitive user guidance. These agile teams work cross-functionally in iterations, which allows Mobimeo to be very flexible and respond quickly to user requests.

 

Benefits of Mobimeo’s user-centric approach for mobility providers and of course their users!

There are many challenges regarding mobility and encouraging a shift to more sustainable modes of transport. By putting the user at the center of our development processes, we build tailored MaaS solutions and experiences that people will not easily part with!

The key benefits from our approach for public transport operators, transport associations and other mobility providers can be summarised as follows:
1. User knowledge
Gain insights about users, their needs and mobility behaviour

2. Reach a broad user base
Develop digital products for different target groups to take various users needs into account 

3. Innovative user-centric features
Include user voice right from the start to ensure a human-centered design

4. Always have the newest version
Ongoing development, continuous iterations and new releases through agile processes

The results are
High user loyalty: Improving the digital channel to build customer loyalty with your business

Strong user engagement: Increase monthly active users and ticket sales by knowing your users

Promoting sustainable mobility behaviour: Encourage users to switch towards more sustainable modes of transport, e.g. public transport or greener modes

Outlook: In the next blog post, we will show how this user-centric approach is incorporated into our product development with concrete examples.

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