DAY 1: Contextual Inquiry of Citibikes
I always loved riding bikes. Especially when I'm in a foreign city, I make it a point to try to look for a bike rental place. I was a little bit scared to go about it here in NY though (streets are way too busy with crazy drivers!). I guess it was opportune that a Contextual Inquiry of the Citibike program was one of our first mini-projects for Day 1 of the UXDI program.
Talisa @the-throughline and I headed to the bike share station at 23rd and Broadway at around 5:00 PM on a chilly Monday night.
We stayed by the station for around an hour. During the time we were there, we got to observe a total of 7 people: 5 men and 2 women renting the bikes.
Citibike users at this hour were habitual/regular customers as they all made use of the Citibike card attached to their keychains. We assumed they were all commuters or people who lived nearby.
NOT BAD, IF YOU’VE DONE THIS BEFORE...
They were all very familiar with the process of renting a bike. The only blatant issues we observed among this set of users were:
Some bikes wouldn’t come off the dock. There are red lights that would usually indicate if the bike is broken or not usable and unfortunately, these were not lit for the bikes that wouldn’t get off the dock. Because of this, a number of users continued to try using these bikes.
We also observed that no one bothered to press the “Repair button” to report the issue. Aside from the button being inconspicuous, I think another possible issue might be the vague language. Is this also the button to press to report a broken dock?
A user had difficulty in adjusting his bike seat but after tinkering with it for awhile, he simply rode on. I think this issue should definitely be addressed as though it may seem like he shrugged it off as a slight discomfort, others can have a bigger issue with this particular problem (like not being able to reach the pedals at all)
I think a great and often overlooked feature of these Citibikes are the baskets in front. I know that may be a pretty basic feature but putting their bags down on the basket was the first action of 6 out of the 7 users we observed. Even thinking of putting your bag down on wet concrete on this rainy day just to look for keys may not be a good start to your Citibike experience.
BUT THERE’S ALWAYS A FIRST TIME.
We also tried putting ourselves in the shoes of first time users/tourists. The biggest issue we had was that there was simply too much information that was also difficult to read (area was dark, the sign was way above the line of sight, low contrast colors, and just way too much text). Pricing was also difficult to understand. The actual interface of the digital screen to rent a bike seemed better but dipping your credit card just to get more information (not even to pay for anything yet) would definitely be a barrier to many.
Better signage (and lighting)
Fix feedback mechanism (“Repair bikes” button and copy)
You can view full presentation here.
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
annaxmalina
dededos
