Ticketless system design for seniors

Nowadays, e-payment and self-service machines are widely used across China. The aging population are having difficulties in using digital services, public service still haven't satisfy their requirements, me and my group members were aware of this problem and decided to something for the growing group.

2.5 billion

According to statistics data, the percentage of people over 65 years old in China is 17.84%, which means currently China has 250 million seniors.
As people getting older, their cognitive level decreases, it takes more time for them to accept new technologies, and most of them refuse to take the step.
The project wants to find out a way for seniors to get accustomed to current ticketless system with their most familiar ways.

Research methods

To better understand the situation of seniors and illiterate people using digital services to buy tickets and enjoy public transportation, some secondary and primary researches were arranged.

Survey

Gathering plenty of information from seniors themselves and their children, employees at train stations.

POEMS

Observing people's behavior at train stations, discovering their pain points, and customize travel experience for the aging population.

Interview

Understanding target users' feeling and expectations for ticketless experience.

According to the data of our survey, most seniors can just use basic functions of digital products, including phones. And still half of the participants think they need extra help if they go to train stations on their own. About ticket purchasing, almost 70% of seniors need their family members to buy for them, which means the experience still need great improvement.

Physical requirements

Senior travelers face physical challenges. When they are waiting for a train or carrying many luggages, their weak bodies can't support the activities.

Digital payment is too hard to learn

Preparing digital wallet for payment is super hard for seniors. They are quite used to pay in cash, the concept of "digital currency" and technologies of this kind is terrifying for them to accept.
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Staffs need to spend much time on teaching every senior to use the purchasing system.

They need extra help

As survey shows, half of the participants needs help of volunteers or policemen at train stations. It indicates there's room for improvement, and it's also a huge cost for operation.

User test and feedbacks

To collect feedbacks, we directly showed the ideas to target audiences, and organized their answers into a chart for discussion.

Taking voice input as a highlight function of this application. It provides an easy way to help users learn to use a smartphone.
Once press, an enlarger for texts prop out, letting users see contents clearly.

Important contents of interfaces are mainly bold and larger fonts compared with popular applications on smartphones. Compared with the original application design, the pages are greatly simplified, and left with enough blank space, giving users a sense of reliability.