Designing for Cities
User research project (Mater’s Thesis) to create understand the perception and behavior of the people of Milan towards Mobility as a Service.
Scroll to analysis
Role
User Researcher
Team
ATM Milano (Milano Transport Agency)
Milano&Partners
Challenge
This project was conducted in collaboration with Milano&Partners and ATM Milano (the public transport agency) as part of my Masters Thesis. The city was in its initial stages of launching Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), an aggregator platform for all mobility services in the city as part of the city’s Sustainable Development Goals Initiates.
The goal of the application was to aggregate 19 existing mobility platforms, and simplify the user experience of booking, paying, tracking all through a single platform. The aim of the project was to minimise the use of cars and promote sustainable and smart mobility. However, since MaaS was a completely new concept in the city, ATM Milano was yet unaware of how the market would perceive it, who would use it, and how to effectively manage the onboarding strategy. Some initial attempts had been made in Europe to initiate the platform, however they frizzled out before they could even expand.
I used a survey-based approach to segment the market based on current mobility behaviours to understand how customers would align with the new value proposition.
Digital appetite of people in Milan to clearly identify segments who had the tendency to become early adopters.
I used the municipalities’ channels to gather 4000+ survey responses consisting of 53 close-ended questions, since quantitative data was most useful for my segmentation analysis.
Statistical analysis
My thesis was aimed to understand the market and answer three questions:
- MaaS being a new concept, who are likely to be the early adopters?
- What behaviours and perceptions does the city, and the early adopter have?
- How should ATM Milano effectively build the strategy to ignite the platform.
I used a survey-based approach to segment the market based on:
- Current mobility behaviours to understand how customers would align with the new value proposition.
- Digital appetite of people in Milan to clearly identify segments who had the tendency to become early adopters.
I used the municipalities’ channels to gather 4000+ survey responses consisting of 53 close-ended questions, since quantitative data was most useful for my segmentation analysis.
Statistical Analysis to segment 4,000 customers based on optimism and mobility behavior.
Measured on the 8 factors above, the clusters were Fast Moving Sustainable Travellers, Utilitarians, Hard core adventurous, Pocket Friendly Comfort Seekers and Conscious Explorers. Considering their behaviours and digital apetite
Conscious Explorers were concluded as the Early Adopters, since they value sustainability and adventure, the core values of MaaS, and are also Optimistic and Innovative - thereby being open to the use of novel applications.
Defined design principles based on discovery sessions with the team to understand what matters to the team.
Impact
To ignite the platform we can rely on the strategy known as ecosystem seeding which aims to firstly start the platform from a market niche. Although it narrows down the market size, it allows to streamline the MVP to truly target the customer preferences, address the right user needs and build a tailor-made solution for the users. The way forward is a three step strategy.
We established that the early adopters were the Conscious Explorers. Since we are aware of the needs and behaviour of this target segment the platform can first work on building exploratory features and promote sustainability through the platform
We established that the early adopters were the Conscious Explorers. Since we are aware of the needs and behaviour of this target segment the platform can first work on building exploratory features and promote sustainability through the platform
The next step is to partner and collaborate with service providers that have the same customer base or value the same core principles. Targeting the right mobility providers will help the platform in acquiring not just the right segment of users, but enabling them as marquee customers driving more users.
After establishing the platform with partners, the next step is to market the platform promoting the core values of the target market.
Thanks for reading through. Interested in more?
Next: Design for Travel
afira.chishty@gmail.com
Designing for Cities
User research project (Mater’s Thesis) to create understand the perception and behavior of the people of Milan towards Mobility as a Service.
Scroll to analysis
Role
User Researcher
Team
ATM Milano (Milano Transport Agency)
Milano&Partners
Board of Directors
Challenge
This project was conducted in collaboration with Milano&Partners and ATM Milano (the public transport agency) as part of my Masters Thesis. The city was in its initial stages of launching Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), an aggregator platform for all mobility services in the city as part of the city’s Sustainable Development Goals Initiates.
The goal of the application was to aggregate 19 existing mobility platforms, and simplify the user experience of booking, paying, tracking all through a single platform. The aim of the project was to minimise the use of cars and promote sustainable and smart mobility. However, since MaaS was a completely new concept in the city, ATM Milano was yet unaware of how the market would perceive it, who would use it, and how to effectively manage the onboarding strategy. Some initial attempts had been made in Europe to initiate the platform, however they frizzled out before they could even expand.
I used a survey-based approach to segment the market based on current mobility behaviours to understand how customers would align with the new value proposition.
Digital appetite of people in Milan to clearly identify segments who had the tendency to become early adopters.
I used the municipalities’ channels to gather 4000+ survey responses consisting of 53 close-ended questions, since quantitative data was most useful for my segmentation analysis.
Statistical analysis
My thesis was aimed to understand the market and answer three questions:
- MaaS being a new concept, who are likely to be the early adopters?
- What behaviours and perceptions does the city, and the early adopter have?
- How should ATM Milano effectively build the strategy to ignite the platform.
I used a survey-based approach to segment the market based on:
- Current mobility behaviours to understand how customers would align with the new value proposition.
- Digital appetite of people in Milan to clearly identify segments who had the tendency to become early adopters.
I used the municipalities’ channels to gather 4000+ survey responses consisting of 53 close-ended questions, since quantitative data was most useful for my segmentation analysis.
Statistical Analysis to segment 4,000 customers based on optimism and mobility behavior.
Measured on the 8 factors above, the clusters were Fast Moving Sustainable Travellers, Utilitarians, Hard core adventurous, Pocket Friendly Comfort Seekers and Conscious Explorers. Considering their behaviours and digital apetite
Conscious Explorers were concluded as the Early Adopters, since they value sustainability and adventure, the core values of MaaS, and are also Optimistic and Innovative - thereby being open to the use of novel applications.
Defined design principles based on discovery sessions with the team to understand what matters to the team.
Impact
To ignite the platform we can rely on the strategy known as ecosystem seeding which aims to firstly start the platform from a market niche. Although it narrows down the market size, it allows to streamline the MVP to truly target the customer preferences, address the right user needs and build a tailor-made solution for the users. The way forward is a three step strategy.
We established that the early adopters were the Conscious Explorers. Since we are aware of the needs and behaviour of this target segment the platform can first work on building exploratory features and promote sustainability through the platform
We established that the early adopters were the Conscious Explorers. Since we are aware of the needs and behaviour of this target segment the platform can first work on building exploratory features and promote sustainability through the platform
The next step is to partner and collaborate with service providers that have the same customer base or value the same core principles. Targeting the right mobility providers will help the platform in acquiring not just the right segment of users, but enabling them as marquee customers driving more users.
After establishing the platform with partners, the next step is to market the platform promoting the core values of the target market.
Thanks for reading through. Interested in more?
Next: Design for Travel
afira.chishty@gmail.com
Designing for Cities
User research project (Mater’s Thesis) to create understand the perception and behavior of the people of Milan towards Mobility as a Service.
Scroll to analysis
Role
User Researcher
Team
ATM Milano (Milano Transport Agency)
Milano&Partners
Challenge
This project was conducted in collaboration with Milano&Partners and ATM Milano (the public transport agency) as part of my Masters Thesis. The city was in its initial stages of launching Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), an aggregator platform for all mobility services in the city as part of the city’s Sustainable Development Goals Initiates.
The goal of the application was to aggregate 19 existing mobility platforms, and simplify the user experience of booking, paying, tracking all through a single platform. The aim of the project was to minimise the use of cars and promote sustainable and smart mobility. However, since MaaS was a completely new concept in the city, ATM Milano was yet unaware of how the market would perceive it, who would use it, and how to effectively manage the onboarding strategy. Some initial attempts had been made in Europe to initiate the platform, however they frizzled out before they could even expand.
I used a survey-based approach to segment the market based on current mobility behaviors to understand how customers would align with the new value proposition; and also understand the Digital appetite of people in Milan to clearly identify segments who had the tendency to become early adopters. I used the municipalities’ channels to gather 4000+ survey responses consisting of 53 close-ended questions, since quantitative data was most useful for my segmentation analysis.
Statistical analysis
My thesis was aimed to understand the market and answer three questions:
- MaaS being a new concept, who are likely to be the early adopters?
- What behaviours and perceptions does the city, and the early adopter have?
- How should ATM Milano effectively build the strategy to ignite the platform.
I used a survey-based approach to segment the market based on:
- Current mobility behaviors to understand how customers would align with the new value proposition.
- Digital appetite of people in Milan to clearly identify segments who had the tendency to become early adopters.
I used the municipalities’ channels to gather 4000+ survey responses consisting of 53 close-ended questions, since quantitative data was most useful for my segmentation analysis.
Statistical Analysis to segment 4,000 customers based on optimism and mobility behavior.
Measured on the 8 factors above, the clusters were Fast Moving Sustainable Travelers, Utilitarians, Hard core adventurous, Pocket Friendly Comfort Seekers and Conscious Explorers. Considering their behaviors and digital appetite.
Conscious Explorers were concluded as the Early Adopters, since they value sustainability and adventure, the core values of MaaS, and are also Optimistic and Innovative - thereby being open to the use of novel applications.
Defined design principles based on discovery sessions with the team to understand what matters to the team.
Impact
To ignite the platform we can rely on the strategy known as ecosystem seeding which aims to firstly start the platform from a market niche. Although it narrows down the market size, it allows to streamline the MVP to truly target the customer preferences, address the right user needs and build a tailor-made solution for the users. The way forward is a three step strategy.
We established that the early adopters were the Conscious Explorers. Since we are aware of the needs and behaviour of this target segment the platform can first work on building exploratory features and promote sustainability through the platform
The next step is to partner and collaborate with service providers that have the same customer base or value the same core principles. Targeting the right mobility providers will help the platform in acquiring not just the right segment of users, but enabling them as marquee customers driving more users.
After establishing the platform with partners, the next step is to market the platform promoting the core values of the target market.
Thanks for reading through. Interested in more?
Next: Design for Travel
afira.chishty@gmail.com