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UX Data: understanding the passenger relationship with data to enrich user experience

UX Data: understanding the passenger relationship with data to enrich user experience Share on

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PostedFEB. 2, 2024

Words byKeolis

Tags
Passenger experience,
France,
Personal Data

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In today’s world, data is everywhere and only becoming more widespread. Keolis generates and uses lots of data every day to meet the needs of its industry and users. Faced with the growing complexity of data and mobility, as well as new demands in terms of user experience, Keolis has come up with a solution: UX Data.

Data at the heart of public transport user experience

Buying a ticket by smartphone, monitoring traffic in real time, optimizing a trip or exchanging information with other users… In public transport as in many other sectors, the user experience (UX) can be greatly improved (personalization, simplicity, immediacy) by using personal data. But what do passengers think about the use of their data? When are they in favor of it? To get a clearer picture, Keolis developed an approach that commits the company’s global strategy to optimizing the user experience.

Sofia Escamilla Garcia

UX Strategist and Researcher, Direction Innovation, Data et Digital, Groupe Keolis

"Leveraging data through the lens of UX is fairly new for companies. The goal is to create a relationship of trust and transparency in the use, operational performance and analysis of this data, both with respect to end users and mobility authorities."

“4 profiles for 4 approaches”:

- Data Confident = Early adopters (they want to take full advantage of available services and they are not afraid).

- Data Conforming = Followers (they go along with it because they do not fully understand but they want to take advantage of services).

- Data Secure = Wary (they are wary but they know how to protect themselves).

- Data Paranoid = Suspicious (they are suspicious and prefer to avoid services because they don’t want to take the risk).

[Benefits, Trust, Understanding]

Public transport user experience is already widely digitized, though some reticence remains about data use

As part of its methodology, Keolis sought to understand expectations and take user feedback into account by conducting a series of interviews and questionnaires with a representative sample of users. This resulted in the creation of four passenger personas or profiles describing the different approaches to the use of personal data: data conforming, data confident, data secure and data paranoid.

The main finding: the adoption of digital services that use personal data is already an integral part of user experience in public transport, just as it is in online shopping. For example, 50% of surveyed passengers use mobile geolocation, 41% use voice assistance and 21% use paperless tickets. But some mistrust still persists concerning the use of personal data: 88% of surveyed passengers do not save their bank card information on their mobile device (or only do so if they have no choice), while only 62% have confidence in the anonymity of their data and 95% are concerned about the potential sale of this data.

Logo UX Data

“Wary or even mistrustful about data use”:

a) Security, a major concern:
85% are careful about the security of their data,
88% do not save their bank card information or only do so when they have no other choice

b) Relative trust in data processing:
54% trust that their cookie preferences will be respected,
62% trust that their data is processed anonymously by sites and apps,
95% are concerned about the potential sale of their data,
72% do not know how their data is used.

Improving the user experience with data: our UX Data methodology

Keolis’ established methodology aims to better understand the behaviors and boundaries of its users regarding the use of their personal data to improve user experience all the while safeguarding user information. This approach also aims to strengthen trust between all stakeholders (including Mobility Authorities) regarding data use.

Our study was based on a series of interviews with French public transport users from different backgrounds and a questionnaire distributed among 200 people. This research allowed us to identify four typical profiles, ranging from users who are most comfortable with the use of their personal data to users who are most reticent. These personas were identified based on three main levers associated with data: control, trust and the benefits of using personal data.

The study enabled us to better understand the various uses of data, notably by:

- Identifying preconceived ideas about data and identifying the main hesitations about using data

- Understanding the acceptability thresholds of users when it comes to sharing data

- Adapting to differing levels of user maturity in terms of data and the need for information about personal data collection

“5 main benefits”:
Payment = 98%;
Cost savings = 50%;
Saving time = 45%;
Available services = 34%;
Advice = 23%

of travellers surveyed use GPS tracking on mobile phones.

use paperless tickets.

of travellers trust the anonymous processing of their data.

Learning how to alleviate concerns and improve user experience

According to the study led by Keolis, three factors can help overcome passenger concerns:

- Creating tangible user experience benefits from the use of customer data

- Allowing seamless control of personal data (notably in terms of security)

- Respecting user preferences regarding the use of their data

All mobility operators can now carry out measures to reassure digital service users, including:

- Putting in place the security padlock in each website URL

- Notifying passengers when a service has already been used

- Asking users to change their passwords regularly

“The key: building trust through reassurance”: Building trust

- Security padlock in the URL (48%);

- Notifying me when a service was already used (46%);

- Regularly asking me to change my password (41%);

- Deleting my data after browsing (35%);

- Checking I approve of the use of my data (31%).

Building a relationship of trust with passengers also requires transparent and clear communication: for example, sending short messages explaining how their data is used or providing concrete proof of a positive impact such as the personalization of a service.

Lastly, it is important to note that reasonable data use aligns with the European Data Protection Regulation: users can be asked but never required to share data. Users must remain in control of their personal information by approving use of this data or deleting it after navigation.

interviews with people of various profiles.

200

responses to our questionnaire.

typical profiles were identified, ranging from the user most comfortable with the use of their personal data to the most reluctant user.

Remote Condition Monitoring: combining tech and data to enable predictive maintenance and asset reliability in Greater Manchester

JAN. 20, 2022 by Keolis

UX Data: understanding the passenger relationship with data to enrich user experience

Data at the heart of public transport user experience

Public transport user experience is already widely digitized, though some reticence remains about data use

Improving the user experience with data: our UX Data methodology

Learning how to alleviate concerns and improve user experience

For Keolis, predictive models are a key innovation topic

Leveraging data to improve the performance of transit networks and multimodal mobility

Open data: the MobiDataLab project encourages mobility data sharing on a Europe-wide scale

Remote Condition Monitoring: combining tech and data to enable predictive maintenance and asset reliability in Greater Manchester