Two elegant elegant examples of Jobs to be Done in Citymapper
What Google Maps can learn from a hip new app.
I have been using Citymapper for some months now, and I love this app. It’s a great tool find the easiest, fastest, cheapest or simplest (public) transport from A to B. Before using Citymapper, I had been using Google Maps for all my travel advice, but I have now found a better alternative in Citymapper. Why is that and what makes Citymapper better than Google Maps? One simple thing: a better understanding of the concept of ‘jobs to be done’.
‘Jobs to be done’, or user tasks to accomplish
Jobs to be done — or JTBD — are tasks that a user wants to accomplish in a given context.
This term was coined many years ago, and popularized by Clayton Christensen in “Competing Against Luck” (2016). It has been one of the most used UX frameworks, ever since. JTBD are a direct result of understanding user needs and goals during a user experience. They often result from user research and the creation of personas, providing companies a North star of what their product should be able to achieve. Rather than describing the defacto ‘dry’ task (‘I want to take a train’), it encompasses more of the intent (‘I want to visit my grandma in a comfortable and efficient way’).
Within JTBDs, we make distinction between emotional and functional needs. Emotional referring to personal preferences and feelings (‘I want to travel stress-free’), functional referring to the ‘measurable’ need (‘I want to get there within 1-hour’).
JTBD in Citymapper
Citymapper is an excellent example of how a tool translates ‘jobs to be done’ to functionalities. In fact, all the app’s bottom menu items (see screenshot below) directly relate to specific user needs.
When you enter a destination location, it gives you the following options: Classic, Step Free, Bus+, Train+, Walk Less, Mixed, Simple and Turbo. All these options are directly tied to a distinct need: I want to go fast, cheap, I don’t want to walk, don’t want to get wet, I want a hassle-free journey etc.
I especially love how it caters to less mobile people (‘Step free’), people in rainy countries (‘Walk less’) and people looking for a relaxed, hassle free trip (‘Simple’). Very relevant, very helpful, and truly focused on user needs — a great job of how JTBDs are solved for in travel.
Compare that to Google maps, that gives you more ‘fact-based‘ / functional options, like: pick another time, switch from train to bike, etc. Also important options, but less focused on intrinsic needs and more focused on typical ways of traveling. This, however, forces the user to do a lot of thinking and figure out what’s most suitable for his/her needs. It results in a less user-friendly experience due to more cognitive load (read more on that in ‘Don’t make the think, by Steve Krug ❤).
In-line travel switching
A second big advantage of this app over Google Maps is its way of laying out the actual travel schedule: rather than showing 1 travel plan per departure time, Citymapper shows multiple departure options in 1 travel plan.
This allows for more flexible traveling: you miss a metro? No worries, you can keep using the same itinerary, and don’t need to switch out the whole plan because you need to choose a new global departure time (see image for a side-by-side comparison).
In contrast, in the Google interface, you need to first select the leg of travel, select a new departure time, and then get a fully, globally updated itinerary. This requires more steps and navigation layers before you can view you the updated schedule.
Don’t make people think
The beauty of a solution like Citymapper is that it reduces cognitive load and truly caters to customer needs in the form of Jobs to be Done. It removes part of the effort to plan one’s journey.
‘Don’t make me think’ is a popular design objective that designers should should hold in high regards and aim to solve for in (digital) products. It’s a noble goal for designers to help people to have an easier, more fun and hassle-free life and design has the power to achieve this. And it’s great to see some apps do it better than others.
At least until AI takes over the world.
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Send me a message on info@frankvandeven.com if you want to chat on anything related to design, innovation and digital transformation.
