Design Thinking for the Circular Journey Ticket.

1. -by Jyoti Thakur
Application
Circular Journey Ticketing Application

2. The design problem
“Design an application for booking
Indian Railways Circular Journey tickets
online.”

3. As the name suggests, it is for a trip that is roughly circular in nature,
where no station (apart from the origin) is touched twice during the
journey & it save your time & money.
The traveller can not repeat any station again during the CJ
The traveller finishes the journey at the same station from where he
started.
There are fixed routes and travellers are free to customize as per their
own routes.
What is circular journey?

4. How to book CJT?
This application will be examined to check that your route is
permissible under circular ticket rules by Station Manager.
Once approved you need to make payment at reservation counter.
Visit biggest railway station in your city with application
Your contact details
Starting point and ending destination
The class of travel for your circular ticket
The date of your first journey
The eight (or less) places at which you wish to break journey
The specific route you will take between your break journey points

5. Scope of the solution
Circular Journey Ticketing Application for:
Route selection
Train selection
Class selection
Break selection
Ticket availability per leg of journey
Itinerary tweaking to ensure validity

6. A solid UX work will vresult in…
Better products, Cheaper to fix problems, Less risk, Better ability to de-
liver to deadline and avoid scope creep, Deeper insights, Products that
are easy to use make more money, User-led projects can get products
to market more quickly, Ease of use is a common customer require-
ment.
Project Philosophy / Process

7. Strategy & Brainstorming
Based on secondary research which
includes article, blog, consumer complains, I
was able to collect some artificats.
Also few insights are there from primary
research which was face-to-face interview I
did.

8. Current task flow of CJT
The task here explains the process of
booking circular journey ticket.

9. Research
Collecting all artefacts (covered in basic rules & finding for
circular journey ticket)
Persona
Task based paper prototype usability testing
Float questionnaire online
Primary research through face-to-face & telephonic interviews.
Secondary research through blogs, article, forum post.
Expert feedback by reviewing & understanding the design problem
not just system built but keeping myself in users shoes as drawbacks in
existing system.

10. Artefact collected

11. Artefact-blogs, article, forums

12. Drawbacks in current system

13. Target users

14. Interview Question
Interviewed 3 users - Meena, Dr. Nishant, Neeraj

15. Personas - Interviewed
Meena Barik / 25 years / Music teacher in
Government school
Lives in Delhi with her elder sister & brother-in-law.
Found of travelling & saves her part of salary for
family vacation.
She uses desktop in school & at time in cyber café.
She uses Micromax mobile & is connected with
friend & family through Whatsapp. Her last visit was
Badrinath with her sister family.
“Agar ma circular journey ticket phone pe he book
kar pate toe bahoot acha hota, na railway station
jana hota na lambi line ma khada hona.”
Providing book ticket through call will literate
users.
Know the user need
“Mera gav ma kafee logo
ko circular journey ke
barama pata ha….queeke
gav ma baat jaldi faile tee
ha.”
Dr. Nishant / 38 years / Enterprise Routing & Global
Geocoding
He is from Bihar & lives in Delhi & uses train service
if flight is not available on that particular route.
He is not happy with train service due to hygiene.
He uses iPhone for booking all his travel tickets &
prefers the same for other services. He plans all his
travel in advance & specially for train to get tickets.
Prefers to travel in train with his old age parents
& small kid for smooth journey. His staff uses
circular journey service for moving from one place
to another. But at time they miss the train while
reaching to starting station & the tickets get cancel.
Looking for something similar to check-in facility,
which flight has users to void the cancellation of his
staff tickets.
Better experience
“Don’t have flexibility
to change the boarding
station where he is
standing at that point.”
Neeraj Dubey / 36 years / Manager
He is from Delhi & lives in nuclear family.
Found of traveling & spending quality time with his
two girls & wife.
This summer vacation he went to North part of
India along with his 2 brothers & their family.
He is frequent traveller 4-5 times in a year. Prefer to
book through IRCTC website & book himself. Prefer
to travel in train due to easy move, good sight view
through window, eat different type of food. Don’t
mind spending more money but prefer online
booking to avoid visiting railway station & waiting
in queue.
Want to avoid visiting railway station & standing in
queue
Win them by trust
“Station jana ka chakar
bach jaya online he
suvidha mil jaya”
Interview audio link Interview audio linkInterview audio link

16. Online survey
Conducted online survey form link, received 40
responses: You can see result here
Prefer train journey:
12.5% for Pilgrimage visit
45% Vacation
2.5% Business purpose
40% Normal journey
Travel plan in advance
77.5% in advance
0% on the fly while surfing
0% friend suggested
32.5% situational based
Frequent travel in a year
27.5% Once
17.5% Twice
50% More than twice
5% Never
Do you opt for multiple locations visit
17.5% Circular Journey Ticket
67.5% Normal Ticket
15% Tatkal ticket
Aware about CJT facility & benefits
72.5% yes
27.5% No
Ever used CJT
15% once
2.5%Twice
82.5% Never

17. Information Architecture

18. App Map for Circular Journey Ticket

19. Usability Testing on paper prototype
Scenario:
User was asked to book circular journey ticket for his family vacation
with his old age parents, wife & kids. He needs to consider minimum
cities break within the trip.
If he wishes, he can also book services available during his stay at
different location.
I wanted to learn hoe efficient & easy the flow is for him to use it.
Insights received were corrected & implemented in the wireframe &

20. Usability Testing on paper prototype

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1 Company Logo 6 When user click on ‘Circular journey’ tab it is highlighted &
information related to it’s visible.
2 Once user login there is welcome message greeting them. User
can logout clicking on logout link. Contact is a point to reach
railway customer care or write mail.
3 Universal search within the website. Most of the users use it
when they find difficulties looking for information.
4 Vertical navigation ease is a unique benefit of the web, and an
excellent system of navigation will exploit it to the maximum
advantage. It covers the entire transport mode which Indian
railway supports.
5 A breadcrumb shows a page’s location in the site hierarchy. User
testing shows many benefits and no downsides to breadcrumbs
for secondary navigation.
7 Small introduction for users to understand what is circular
journey & FAQ link which answerer their queries.
8 In the existing system there are 3 options available with the
defined routes. User needs to select any one to plan accordingly.
9 User providing information about the purpose of journey will
help railway department about the most usage of CJT & come
up with promotional scheme.
10 User can opt for the services he wants to avail along with the
train journey.
11 User will be directed to next step of the process once he click on
continue CTA button.
Circular Journey Wireframe

22. 1
1 User needs to provide information about no. of adult, child &
senior citizen travelling. It will help later to fetch the data.
16 Based on selection of services user can see pre-populated
categories services to opt for during his journey.
2 Clicking on info-tip will show the eligibility & concession details.
3 User can opt for reserved seat for pregnant/ lady above 45 years,
also person who is physical handicap can avail it.
4 User needs to fill the starting journey detail. User can either click
on location icon & map will open with search box to enter the
place & it will be added as starting journey point.
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5 It’s oblivious no one remember train number, user can get
the list of all station code based on station he entered in
pop-up window. Once user selects the train number it will be
automatically pre-populated in starting journey location based
on the cursor lies.
6 User can also use mic icon & speak about the city name & it the
server will fetch data.
7 User needs to define starting journey date. User can also click
on calendar icon & pick the date as per plan.
8 Distance covered helps the user to keep track on km he is
covering in journeys. It will get added based on station added in
the planner.
9 Based on distance & the number of people, fare is calculated.
10 User needs to enter different station details, which he will be
covering in circular journey.
11 User can remove any of the added break journey if wants too by
clicking on cross icon.
12 If user wants to add more break journeys he need to click on
plus icon & the row requesting station name, date will be added.
13 Total km for the journeys user he will be covering in circular
journey.
14 Total fare for the journeys user has planned his trip.
15 This section will be pre-populated based on user has shown
interest previously. User can all add & remove other services.
17 Based on the user planned break journey, cities will be shown to
look for hotel & other services. User can select the city where he
needs services.
18 Pre-populated dates as per the city user is staying will be shown
in check-in & checkout. User can also modify it.
19 User can also filter the hotels based on rating.
20 User can use price slider to pick the hotel based on his budget.
21 User can search hotel based on keyword.
22 Hotel pictures in to get sneak peak.
23 User can use gallery pagination to see more pictures.
24 Information about the hotel name, its rating, location, Google
map for the location, small brief about the hotel property with
more link redirecting to detail page of the hotel information.
25 Price of the hotel visible with big & bold fonts. Discount offers if
applicable.
26 Book button to book the hotel.
27 Continue button will take user to next step of the process.
Circular Journey Wireframe
Circular Journey Wireframe

23. 1 Based on previous screen & the number of travellers travelling
the rows will be generated & pre populated. User need to fill the
names of travellers, age, berth preference, based on age enter
senior citizen checkbox will be active & shown selected. User
also needs to provide ID card for which they have options of ID
Card Type, Pan Card, Adhar Card, and Driving License
5 Hotel details/services you have book will be presented here.
User has option to remove it.
2 Mobile number is required to send the ticket details to users,
which will help them to keep track on status.
3 Email id is required to send the e-ticket details to users, which
will help them to keep track on status as well carry printout
during the journey for itinerary they have planned.
4 User needs to select the ticket type for journey. It can be either
e-ticket or I-ticket. E-ticket will be email to them while, I-ticket
will be sending through post/courier.
7 Back button will take user to previous screen.
8 Make payment button will take user to payment page, where
user can view his ticket details & make payment through
provided mode.
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Circular Journey Wireframe

24. 1 Summary of journey ticket will show the details about number
of passengers travelling, their age, gender, berth preference if
opted for, ID card type & details.
3 Starting point of journey to all covering cities & then the
destination.
2 Summary of class type, journey starting & ending date, validity,
mobile, email id, number of days, total km & train ticket fare.
7 Make payment by selecting different modes available. Credit
card tab will be active as default tab.
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Circular Journey Wireframe

25. 1 Message for the transaction happened successfully.
And a confirmation to send e-ticket & SMS as provided by user.
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Circular Journey Wireframe

26. Visual Design for Circular Journey

27. Home Page > Train

28. Circular Journey

29. web www.thinqkreations.com
email thinqkreations@hotmail.com
mob +91-9811555513
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