JCDecaux is a French industrial group specialized in urban advertising, available on various urban furniture supports.
It is a multinational primarily known for its advertising bus stop systems (Abribus), and its bike-sharing systems. JCDecaux is the largest outdoor advertising company in the world.
In 2020, JCDecaux employs 13,030 people worldwide and is present in about 75 countries. In France, JCDecaux employs around 3,500 people. Its headquarters are located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris. The largest site in France, which includes the company's workshop, is based in Plaisir in the Yvelines (Île-de-France).
“Reinventing urban mobility and creating alternative modes of transportation that are more environmentally friendly are major challenges.”
JCDecaux launched its first bike-sharing system in Vienna, Austria in 2003 and developed it in France with Vélo'v in Lyon in 2005. Since then, JCDecaux has managed, through its subsidiary Cyclocity, bike-sharing systems in 70 cities worldwide.
Cyclocity is responsible for the installation, operation, maintenance, and regulation of the service. A mobile application, a website, and a customer relationship call center accompany users. In France, Cyclocity was awarded "Customer Service of the Year 2016" in the "Individual Transport of Persons" category.
Since the service was launched in 2003, a redesign of the digital media was necessary to meet user expectations and keep up with evolving interface standards. To achieve this, the company was seeking a profile with expertise in user research processes and interface design to join the Design Department.
If my mission was punctuated by interventions on several internal products, it was the redesign of the VLS application that was the common thread of this experience. It is important in the redesign of this type of product to understand, beyond user needs, the context of its use.
The first phase of my mission was to gather information on usage conditions directly in the field (shadowing), in order to observe user interactions with the existing device. This Discovery phase allowed us to clearly identify several user profiles, with a predominantly professional use for commuting or tourism, in a stressful urban environment.
This was followed by interviews to more thoroughly understand the pain points experienced by users of the service, allowing us to highlight the pain points that needed priority improvement.
If this is a redesign, the objective is not to change everything. Users are already accustomed to the patterns of the existing application. The idea is to optimise flows while integrating new functions linked to the physical product, such as bicycles. All the while taking into account commercial objectives.
How can we design complementary mobile applications and websites to accompany the self-service bicycle service, offering functionalities such as locating available bikes and route planning?
Web site of Vélô Toulouse
The entire service is based on three media: firstly, the website, which is used by the majority of users to take out a subscription and compare the various offers.
One of the particularities is that the self-service bicycle hire service can be sold to several local authorities, each with its own identity, so each support must be able to adopt a specific graphic charter without impacting on the overall design.
The application was at the heart of the redesign, as it supports users before they use the service, with the same subscription functionality as the website, but also while they are using the service.
Numerous features have been added to optimise the user experience based on observations and interviews carried out beforehand, but also thanks to the evolution of the bikes themselves.
