In examining the use of Citi Bike, the design team of Jeff Gochman, Luke Stern, Amy Wu, and Aastha Bhargava sought to enhance the tourist experience with ideas requiring little budget or resource. In their research, they identified two main areas of user frustration, payment process and bike removal. Single-day and one-week passes can only be purchased at a Citi Bike kiosk which sometimes attract long lines and often malfunction. And once a user has purchased a pass, the instructions on how to remove and replace a bike are not clear.
The proposed solutions include an online payment system that stores a user’s information, allowing for quicker rental renewals, and less time spent at kiosks. Placing information such as terms and conditions as well as instructional videos online would additionally familiarize a customer with expectations on how to interact with the bikes in person. Once at the kiosk the user is only required to proceed through three screens (compared to the current thirty+ screens) before seeing a quick animation on how to pick up a bike. A redesigned receipt that displays a detailed illustration of how to enter the bike access code, would additionally help people at the time of need.
