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Rail Pays

UX Research & Strategy, Experience Mapping, Information Architecture, Lo-fi Prototyping

A multi-platform ERP system integrating Vending Licensees, Vendors, On-site Managers, IRCTC and the Indian Railways to streamline financial book-keeping, inventory management and day to day operations for stakeholders.

B2B Solutions for Indian Railways' Vending Ecosystem

Overview

The vending ecosystem, an integral part of the great Indian Railways experience, is still largely sustained by private contractors licensed by Railways, who run regional operations with a network of vendors, enforcer-like on site managers and disorganized labour.

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The existing system for financial filing, inventory management and license renewal is almost prehistorically tedious for all stakeholders. It also limits accountability and by extension the quality of service these vendors are able to provide.

 

What could be done about this?

Fact Finding

A detailed reserach mission was initiated across multiple railway stations in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, using 

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  • Ethnographic study,

  • Fly on the wall technique

  • Contextual Inquiry

  • Semi-structured interviews

  • Cognitive Mapping

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Discovering Challenges

The complex hierarchy of the vending ecosystem

The perspectives of all the stakeholders including the Licensees, DRM, IRCTC and actual on-platform vendors and managers were taken into account to understand the structural hierarchy of the ecosystem.

Complex Ecosystem Hierarchy

The flow of information is complex where immutability of records and the need for real-time data overlap to create an organizational chaos.

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Need for Oversight

The Railways wants to keep a check on the quality, finances and legal aspects of the vendor's businesses

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Red-tape Blockade

The licensee has to deal with extensive paperwork, and red-tape to maintain his business. He often tries to bypass the system, falsifies sales data to avoid sharing revenue and licensing fees.

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Plight of the Vendors

The on-site vendors have to deal with customers who are in a hurry, while also keeping a tab on the inventory, and often end up paying out of their pockets to settle disputes with the managers and licensees.

Joining the Dots

All the information was compiled and analyzed by the use of innovative insight generation tools like:

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  • Gamified Roleplay

  • User Behaviour Journey Maps

  • Scenario Simulations

  • Freak Link Ideation

 

​Actionable insights to guide the development of into interventions and solutions were developed. A detailed insight report was generated.

Intensive insight generation exercises

A Digital Ecosystem

Smartphone App for Licensee
POS Solution for
Vendors
Web Dashboard for Supervisory Dept.

The proposed solution was a three fold interlinked system

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1. Point of Sale solution for the vendor

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Optimized for non-lingual gesture based operation. Integrated railway schedules, stoppage timers and real-time up-link to a cloud based inventory and sales database. POS automatically registers sales figures to the database that can't be accessed without an official login from DRM. RFID input from Vendor ID Badges to log into the system

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2. Smartphone App for Licensee

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Quick view dashboards for viewing inventory status, ordering supplies and integrated messaging with on-site managers and enforcers. In-app financial filing and license renewal service. Automated record keeping, permissions only to view and not edit database. View information about vendor time on counter and breaks.

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3. Web Dashboard for DRM/IRCTC

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Real time analytics for independent stalls, zoom into stall ID to view and filter data streams and check and renew license status for compliant vendors and licensees. Records directly exportable to other departments for filing and collection.

Exploratory Journey

Multiple iterations of wire-frames for interfaces for each stakeholder, mock-ups on paper and digital lo-fidelity prototypes were built and tested through various identified scenarios and user journeys. The process involved​

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  • Identifying UX Goals

  • Building the Information Architecture

  • Exploring technologies: HCI, IoT integrated could systems

  • Heuristic study and analyses

  • Rapid prototyping

The Project and My Roles

The 2 week project was a part of the NID Open Elective 2016 - Design for B2B Solutions course, under NID's Design for Railways initiative. It was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team of 5 designers from various undergraduate and postgraduate programs like Graphic Design, Film and Video Communication, Digital Game Design, Apparel Design and Strategic Design Management (Me).

  • Project Lead

  • UX Design & Strategy

  • Behavioral Design

  • Design Research

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